PURPOSE: to present the draft amending budget No 3/2022 to provide immediate financial support to EU Member States for the reception of people fleeing Ukraine.
CONTENT: Russian’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 led to a mass influx of displaced persons including many children from Ukraine to the EU which has, in turn, put significant pressure on Member States to deal with urgent migration and border management measures and face the related financial needs. Neither the Next Generation EU fund, its Recovery and Resilience Fund component, nor the flexibility under the current 2021-2027 MFF are sufficient to fully cover the financial needs generated by the war in Ukraine.
The Commission proposes that the EU budget contributes to the financing of the first reception and registration costs of people fleeing Ukraine for a total amount of EUR 400 million under the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) and the Border Management and Visa Instrument (BMVI).
With a view to providing immediate support to people arriving in the EU, the Commission proposes draft amending budget No 3/2022 to assist EU Member States. In particular, it strengthens the financing of the:
- Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) by EUR 99.8 million in commitment appropriations and EUR 76 million in payment appropriations to ensure that people fleeing Ukraine can benefit from adequate first reception, food, shelter, sanitation, clothing, medicines, family tracing, legal and translation assistance, psycho-social and other specialised services leading to their registration in one of the Member States;
- Border Management and Visa Instrument (BMVI) by EUR 100 million in payment appropriations. Following an amendment to the Work Programmes of the Thematic Facility for 2021-2022, a further amount of EUR 124 million will be made available in the form of Emergency Assistance under the BMVI. This is in particular to provide funding to the Member States bordering Ukraine to allow for the smooth application of procedures at, or near, the external borders, identification, fingerprinting, registration, security checks, medical and vulnerability screening of third country nationals, as well as for immediate reception needs throughout these procedures.
The proposed reinforcements and redeployments in this DAB 3/2022 are expected to be implemented swiftly, with prefinancing rates of emergency assistance of up to 100%.