The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) sent a letter to the European Commission, on Monday 25 April, proposing the creation of an EU Ukraine Refugees Local Facility to help local and regional authorities receive Ukrainian refugees.
On Twitter, CoR President Apostolos Tzitzikostas insisted that the future facility should be operational immediately, while cutting red tape to speed up the deployment of EU funds on the ground.
The signatories, namely the CoR President, the Chair of the CoR’s Commission for Territorial Cohesion Policy and EU Budget (COTER), Nathalie Sarrabezolles, and Aleksandra Dulkiewicz, Chair of the CoR-Ukraine Working Group, note that the EU funds made available (see EUROPE 12928/11) have only a “limited impact” in helping local and regional authorities to welcome refugees. Their use is far “too complex and bureaucratic” for managing authorities, they say.
Therefore, they want to mobilise the funds of the five programmes in a single set of simplified regulations backed by an ad hoc Ukraine crisis task force. The aim is to provide a one-stop shop to potential regional and local beneficiaries.
The European Committee of the Regions will hold a debate on this topic in the afternoon of 27 April in its plenary session with several local and regional representatives from Ukraine (see EUROPE 12938/26).
To view the letter: https://aeur.eu/f/1d4 (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)