The EU Interior Ministers took stock, on Monday 28 March in Brussels,of their coordination efforts to deal with the 3.8 million Ukrainian refugees who have arrived in the EU since Russia’s invasion of the country. They agreed on a 10-point action plan to be finalised by the Commission in the next few days, including the development of an EU-wide solution for the joint national registration of refugees.
While the pace of arrivals has slowed in recent days to 40,000 a day from 200,000 a day at the height of the war, according to Commissioner Ylva Johansson, member countries may not have access to each other’s data, which could therefore lead to a duplication in the granting of immediate temporary protection and the rights associated with it.
“The registration platform will be active from today”, the commissioner confirmed after the meeting, as a solution has already been developed with the European IT systems agency, Eu-LISA.
The ministers also focused on assistance to Moldova, a small country that currently has more than 100,000 people in its care.
But no overall figure was given on Monday by French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin on behalf of the EU Council Presidency. However, several countries have made their offers known.
Germany, the Netherlands and Ireland have committed to 2,000, 500 and 500 places respectively. Switzerland also announced that it would take in another 500 people, while Austria had already announced that it would take in a few thousand people from Moldova.
Prior to the meeting, eight countries, including Norway, had committed to a total of 14,500 places.
But the European ministers did not go any further on Monday, as “no plan for the relocation of refugees” between the 27 Member States had been discussed, Gérald Darmanin confirmed, and most refugees wanted to stay as close as possible to their own country.
While German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser advocated, upon her arrival, for a fair “distribution” of refugees between Member States, the Polish government, like the Romanian and Czech governments, has not made any such request at this stage and maintains that it can still manage to deal with the more than 2.2 million refugees on its soil.
This refusal is not surprising, “given Poland’s record on relocation”, a diplomatic source commented on Monday morning.
At the height of the Syrian refugee crisis, both the Polish and Hungarian governments refused to contribute to the compulsory relocation of asylum seekers from Greece and Italy.
However, Warsaw said on Monday that Member States could bilaterally offer assistance and take refugees currently on its soil on an ad hoc basis.
But Poland needs another kind of help, financial in this case, and pleaded for it on Monday, supported by the German government.
In a joint letter to the Commission, Warsaw and Berlin say that taking care of refugees already costs “billions of euros and additional support is needed immediately”, write Nancy Faeser and Mariusz Kamiński. For Poland, the cost already incurred for the 2.2 million people present on the territory is thus close to 2.2 billion euros, according to the letter.
And among the avenues raised by the two ministers, it could be judicious to grant each person who has received immediate temporary protection a grant of 1,000 euros over the first 6 months of the decision’s application.
Asked about this, Ylva Johansson repeated that the Commission would be looking into new financial avenues, although the EU has already mobilised 17 billion euros to date.
European agencies on the ground
According to the latest discussion paper submitted to the ministers by the French Presidency, 285 Frontex officers are currently deployed at the borders with Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus, including 214 in Romania, 28 in Poland, 17 in Moldova and 26 in Slovakia. The Agency is preparing an intervention in Romania. Europol, which intervenes to prevent trafficking in human beings, arms or vehicles, had deployed, by 22 March, 8 officers in Slovakia, 2 in Poland, 2 in Moldova and 1 in Romania. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)