To support Member States welcoming and accommodating refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine, the Commission has today proposed to increase by €3.4 billion the total pre-financing from the Recovery Assistance for Cohesion and the Territories of Europe (REACT-EU). Once adopted by co-legislators, this immediate injection of liquidity, in combination with the flexibility introduced by Cohesion's Action for Refugees in Europe (CARE), will speed-up Member States' access to funds to spend on infrastructure, housing, equipment and services in employment, education, social inclusion, healthcare and childcare.

For all Member States, the Commission proposes to increase pre-financing from 11% to 15% of the 2021 REACT-EU tranche. Moreover, for frontline Member States (Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia) and Member States that have received the highest number of arrivals from Ukraine in proportion to their national population (above 1% between 24 February 2022 and 23 March 2022 - Austria, Bulgaria, Czechia and Estonia), the Commission proposes to increase the percentage to 45%. This total increase in pre-financing equals €3.4 billion to be paid to Member States upon approval of the proposal by co-legislators.

As the number of people fleeing the war is increasing by the hour and Member States are currently in the process of registering people, the situation is very dynamic. To create a situational picture approximating the pressure with which Member States are being confronted due to the large scale of arrivals, the Commission calculated the share of arrivals relative to the population, based on information from Member States obtained through the Blueprint Network, international organisations, and other reliable open sources.

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