The European Commission has announced a new emergency shelter programme and an additional funding of € 175 million in humanitarian assistance for Ukraine and Moldova
The European Commission has announced a new emergency shelter programme having winter facilities and an additional funding of € 175 million in humanitarian assistance for those most in need in Ukraine and Moldova.
The temporary shelter capacity will be immediately deployed to 3 different regions of Rivne, Bucha and Kharkiv. The funding of € 175 million will be used to provide education, food, access to water and protection from the cold winter to the most vulnerable. Of these € 175 million, € 150 million will be allocated to Ukraine and € 25 million to Moldova. This new funding will bring the total of European Union (E.U.) humanitarian aid in response to Russia’s war in Ukraine to over € 500 million.
The announcement came after the European Commissioner for Crisis Management – Janez Lenarčič met the President of Ukraine – Volodymyr Zelenskyy during his visit to Ukraine. He also met the Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration – Olga Stefanishyna, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine – Dmytro Kuleba, the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine – Denys Monastyrsky and the Minister for Communities and Territories of Ukraine – Oleksiy Chernyshov.
Taking it to twitter, Janez tweeted,
While Russia is further escalating its brutal attacks against Ukraine, specifically targeting civilian infrastructure and residential buildings, I stand here in Kyiv today with the Ukrainian PR @ZelenskyyUa reiterating that the 🇪🇺 is as dedicated as ever in its support to 🇺🇦. pic.twitter.com/eWX2T8xHbs
— Janez Lenarčič (@JanezLenarcic) October 19, 2022
Zelenskyy also honoured Janez with the National Order of Merit for supporting and standing with Ukraine during the ongoing Russian invasion.
Thanking Zelenskyy, Janez tweeted,
.@ZelenskyyUa, thank you for awarding me with this national order of merit.
— Janez Lenarčič (@JanezLenarcic) October 20, 2022
I am very much honoured.
It is also an acknowledgement of efforts by my dedicated @eu_echo team in assisting Ukraine and its people in need.#StandWithUkraine pic.twitter.com/MT7AymEhzE
The European Commission will use the rescEU strategic reserve deploy emergency stockpiles of shelter units and other items to Ukraine with a total value of € 62.3 million. Overall, together with a second shelter reserve hosted by Romania, the European Union (E.U.) has acquired the capacity to provide temporary emergency shelter for up to 46,000 people.
As a first pilot, the E.U. is in the process of deploying 500 temporary shelter units to the Rivne region, 550 to the Bucha region and 600 to the Kharkiv region in Ukraine. Each unit can host up to 5 people and is fully equipped with beds and heaters. This emergency shelter reserve includes temporary housing units that will be equipped with showers, toilets, basic toiletry kits, and communal spaces for gathering or eating. The European Commission has also procured thousands of beds that can be used in temporary accommodation centres to welcome refugees or internally displaced persons.
The European Commission and Ukraine have also started to work together to prepare Ukraine to join the E.U. Civil Protection Mechanism in the future. The Mechanism has already been mobilised in its full force to support Ukraine with more than 70,000 tonnes of life-saving items delivered to Ukraine from 31 different European countries.
