Poland calls for new EU funds for support of refugees from Ukraine

Poland is proposing to use more EU cohesion funds to assist those fleeing Russia's military aggression in Ukraine, the Ministry of Funds and Regional Policy has said.

Grzegorz Puda, Poland's minister of funds and regional policy, on Monday, met with the ministers for cohesion policy and regional development of the Visegrad Group countries (Poland, The Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary) to discuss support for Ukraine, including humanitarian aid to Ukrainian refugees.

During the talks, Puda pointed out that his country had so far accepted over 2 million refugees from Ukraine.

"This situation requires immediate action and we are doing whatever we can to help people suffering from Russian terror. But, of course, this affects our public finances and the issue of public services provided by local governments, especially in the border regions, but also in large cities," he said, as cited in the Ministry of Funds and Regional Policy's press release on Monday.

"Poland is proposing to mobilise new funds from the EU budget in order to allow the Central and Eastern European region to meet the challenges related to the mass influx of Ukrainian refugees," Puda said, noting that there were no more funds under the 2014-2020 perspective that could be used for this purpose.

He added greater flexibility and the reallocation of funds from the cohesion policy was justified for the implementation of humanitarian assistance to refugees.

"This will allow more funds to be allocated to refugees and bring relief to national economies," he explained.