The European Commission wants to help Member States, NGOs and local authorities gain faster access to European funds to directly help the millions of Ukrainian refugees who have arrived in the EU and to support them in particular in their integration into the labour markets of Member States.
This is the meaning of its ‘FAST-CARE’ or ‘Flexible Assistance to Territories’ initiative, presented on Wednesday 29 June by the Commissioners responsible for Cohesion and Social Affairs, Elisa Ferreira and Nicolas Schmit, and which asks the Council of the EU and the European Parliament to validate a new pre-financing of €3.5 billion to be paid in 2022 and 2023 for programmes receiving support from the ERDF, the European Social Fund (ESF+) and the Cohesion Fund.
The initiative builds on the CARE (Cohesion’s Action for Refugees in Europe) instrument, which has mobilised investments in housing, healthcare, translation services and training for displaced people as well as for the countries that host them, explains the European Commission. The FAST-CARE programme must offer additional flexibility.
More specifically, three amendments to the cohesion policy legislation for the periods 2014-2020 and 2021-2027 were presented.
100% co-financing
Apart from an additional pre-financing of €3.5 billion to be paid in 2022 and 2023, they suggest a co-financing rate of up to 100% for priorities promoting the socio-economic integration of third-country nationals during the 2014-2020 period, and not just Ukrainian refugees.
This possibility is also extended to programmes for the period 2021-2027 with a review in mid-2024.
“Given the essential role of local authorities and civil society organisations operating in local communities in welcoming and supporting people fleeing the Russian aggression of Ukraine, Member States should ensure that at least 30% of support under the relevant priorities is granted to such authorities and organisations”, the Commission also suggests.
For projects dealing with migration challenges, Member States will be able to declare expenditure for reimbursement, even for operations that are already completed or fully implemented at the time of selection.
Under CARE, the Commission has also introduced a new unit cost as a simplified way for Member States and beneficiaries to calculate eligible project costs.
In view of “the extended impact of the Russian aggression”, it is proposed to increase this unit cost to €100 per week for 26 weeks in order to cover basic needs and assistance to persons benefiting from temporary protection from their arrival in the Union (compared to €40 currently). Member States will be able to claim these costs for a period of up to 26 weeks, compared to 13 weeks today.
The possibility of cross-financing already granted between the ERDF and the ESF will also be possible to extend to the Cohesion Fund. Greater flexibility is also proposed so that refugee-related support is possible for operations outside the area covered by the programme providing the funding, but still within the Member State.
It will also be possible to make transfers within the programmes, without requiring Commission decisions.
Lastly, to solve the problem of delays in the implementation of projects, the Commission has proposed that projects of over €1 million (for example in the construction sector), supported under 2014-2020 programmes, but which could not be completed on time due to price increases and shortages of raw materials and labour, may continue to receive support under 2021-2027 programmes.
It will also later make non-legislative proposals to reduce the administrative burden of programmes supporting the socio-economic integration of third-country nationals.
Link to the communication and proposals: https://aeur.eu/f/2ep (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)