Luxembourg, 28. Novembr 2024
The EU Court of Auditors (ECA) will publish an audit report in early 2025 assessing the use of EU CARE and cohesion policy funds to address the specific needs of refugees from Ukraine. This report intends to contribute to the discussion on the effectiveness of the support and integration of migrants in the EU.
On 24 February 2022, Russia launched its military aggression against Ukraine. Over 12 million people were forced to leave the country to find refuge mostly in neighbouring EU member states. In response to this mass influx of refugees, on 4 March 2022, the Council activated the Temporary Protection Directive for the first time.
By the end of August 2024, almost 4.2 million people who had fled Ukraine were living under temporary protection in the EU, mainly in Germany and Poland (each having granted temporary protection to around 1 million people), as well as Czechia (over 375 000 people). An upcoming ECA report will determine whether member states made effective use of Cohesion’s Action for Refugees in Europe (CARE) and available cohesion policy funding to respond to the needs of Ukrainians fleeing the war.
Unlike people seeking asylum, beneficiaries of temporary protection have, among other things, the immediate right to reside in an EU member state and access housing, social welfare, medical care, education, and employment. This therefore creates considerable challenges for the countries and regions hosting them: in a short span of time, basic infrastructure and services such as healthcare, transport or schools must cater for significantly more people. Numerous private initiatives have been undertaken by NGOs, charity and civil society organisations, private companies, and citizens. Local, regional, and national public administrations have also launched initiatives.
And the EU has also stepped up. To help address these migratory challenges, it gradually adapted the rules on EU cohesion policy funds by adopting three regulations on Cohesion’s Action for Refugees in Europe, known as CARE, CARE Plus and FAST-CARE (collectively referred to as “CARE”). CARE did not allocate new funding to member states but instead introduced increased flexibility, liquidity and simplification. It gave member states the discretion to direct funding remaining from 2014-2020 programmes (including REACT-EU resources) and funding available under 2021-2027 programmes to operations addressing the migratory challenges. In other words, CARE was established as a flexibility mechanism to use EU funds to alleviate the burden on public budgets, rather than to finance assistance for refugees.
Source – ECA