The EU Commission presented proposals to make it easier for member states to integrate Ukrainian refugees who are under protection status.
3.5 million Ukrainian refugees have reached the EU in the past four weeks, about half of them are children and young people. All these people are granted temporary protection in the Union, which also includes unrestricted access to social benefits – the member states agreed on this at the beginning of March. Yesterday, Wednesday, the Commission presented proposals in Brussels to make it easier for EU countries to implement this directive.
Particular priority is given to unbureaucratic access to schools. As in most EU countries, Ukraine switched to digital learning during the pandemic. This system should now be accessible via the School Education Gateway – an online platform for school education – laptops and learning materials will be made available in Ukrainian. In addition, the Erasmus+ exchange program is intended to give young Ukrainians the opportunity to study in other EU countries.
Immediate help is promised to those refugees who arrive in the EU sick or weak. EU-wide there is a capacity of 10,000 hospital beds for Ukrainians. Brussels covers the cost of coordinating and transferring patients to another Member State. Another focus is on an EU-wide, low-threshold vaccination offer, since the vaccination rate in Ukraine is low at 40 percent.
The measures presented by the Commission are also intended to guarantee rapid access to the labor market: in the future, Ukrainians will be able to create a skills profile in their own language on an EU-wide platform for job-seeking third-country nationals. New guidelines for easier recognition of professional qualifications acquired in Ukraine are also to be developed. Of course, cooperation with the social partners is essential here, the Commission points out. In Austria itself, almost 200,000 people have been displaced from Ukraine so far. More than 80 percent of them have already traveled to other EU countries, 24,000 were registered in Germany. Registration is necessary in order to receive the residence card, which subsequently enables access to the labor market. This card is not necessary for entitlement to basic services, health insurance and school attendance.
On Monday, EU interior commissioner Ylva Johansson wants to talk to a special council of EU interior ministers about the distribution of the refugees. The EU Commission wants a “fair burden sharing” within the EU and has set up a solidarity platform for this purpose. For this purpose, an index was created that takes into account the number of refugees who are still in the country and the number of asylum seekers from last year and puts them in relation to the size of the country. According to these calculations, Austria is the EU country most affected by the refugees after Poland.
(aga / ag.)