Portugal receives €64 million from EU for hosting refugees from Ukraine

The European Commission has disbursed €3.5 billion to its Member States In order to facilitate the hosting of refugees fleeing Ukraine, of which €63.7 million has been granted to Portugal.

“The Commission has paid €3.5 billion in advance payments to Member States to help them manage the arrival of people fleeing the war in Ukraine on their territory,” the EU executive said in a statement.

Under the Recovery Assistance for Cohesion and the Territories of Europe (REACT-EU) programme, Portugal received a total payment of €63.7 million.

Among the Member States that received most funds are Poland (562 million), Italy (452 million), Romania (450 million), Spain (434 million) and Hungary (299 million).

This contribution from Brussels is intended to ease the additional burden on Member States’ national budgets, as the expenditure that can be covered is eligible retroactively from the date of the war in Ukraine.

Following the invasion by Russia on February 24, the Commission has mobilised every effort to support civilians fleeing from the war, and to help Member States to host and take care of them.

Specifically, it has introduced the possibility to flexibly mobilise the available resources from cohesion policy within the 2014-2020 programmes, the possibility for 100% co-financing and has proposed to increase by €3.5 billion the pre-financing under REACT-EU.