The European Commission announced on Thursday 28 April that it had provided more than 3.5 billion euros in pre-financing under the CARE initiative to Member States who are facing an influx of refugees fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“With these advance payments, Member States can offer food, accommodation, healthcare, education, help to access jobs and more to those in need”, said Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights Nicolas Schmit. The frontline countries, notably Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic, Hungary, as well as Spain and Italy, received a substantial share of this aid.
The breakdown of this sum is as follows: - Austria, 74,232,355 euros; - Belgium, 11,027,033 euros; - Bulgaria, 148,360,870 euros; - Cyprus, 4,457,075 euros; - Czech Republic, 283,823,849 euros; - Germany, 75,465,415 euros; - Denmark, 7,111,145 euros; - Estonia, 60,435,724 euros; - Spain, 434,214,631 euros; - Finland, 5,380,465 euros; - France, 123,718,176 euros; - Greece, 68,315,294 euros; - Croatia, 22,859,946 euros; - Hungary, 299,607,541 euros; - Ireland, 3,533,398 euros; - Italy, 452,139,527 euros; - Lithuania, 93,057,779 euros; - Luxembourg, 5,593,390 euros; - Latvia, 8,399,568 euros; - Malta, 4,447,851 euros; - Netherlands, 17,633,201 euros; - Poland, 562,098,072 euros; - Portugal, 63,765,893 euros; - Romania, 450,119,357 euros; - Sweden, 11,493,869 euros; - Slovenia, 10,487,121 euros; - Slovakia, 209,431,700 euros.
By way of a reminder, the European Commission has maintained the possibility of 100% co-financing and has proposed an increase to the pre-financing under REACT-EU, the 50 billion euros initiative to help local and regional authorities cope with the socio-economic consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic under the CARE and CARE+ initiatives (see EUROPE 12928/11) by 3.5 billion euros. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)