A government minister said “the financial assistance is modest, but recognises Poland’s key role in supporting Ukraine.”
The arrival of the new EU funding was confirmed by Poland’s Interior Minister Mariusz Kamiński in an interview with the Polish state news agency PAP.
Poland has so far received the first tranche of financial support from Brussels, and has also applied for a further PLN 200 million (EUR 42 million), officials said.
EU 'has responsibility to provide such help'
Kamiński told the PAP news agency: “The financial assistance from the EU, though modest, as it covers merely a part of the costs our country has incurred, shows that Europe nevertheless appreciates Poland’s key role in supporting Ukraine.”
He stressed that Poland had "assumed the bulk of the burden” of supporting Ukraine and its citizens.
He said: “We are sending humanitarian aid and the agencies affiliated with our ministry have donated specialised equipment to their Ukrainian colleagues. We have welcomed hundreds of thousands of refugees from Ukraine into our homes and we are pushing for the imposition of new sanctions on Russia for its aggression” in Ukraine.
"The European Union has a responsibility to provide such help, just as we do,” Kamiński added.
Cash from Brussels
The EU has released the new funding for refugee support as part of its emergency assistance programme, the PAP news agency reported.
Poland has received PLN 329 million (EUR 68.4 million) from the EU’s Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund and will spend it on supporting refugees, officials told reporters.
Meanwhile, the government in Warsaw also received PLN 366 million (EUR 76.2 million) from the bloc’s Integrated Border Management Fund and will allocate these funds to “strengthen border infrastructure on the EU’s external frontier,” according to officials.
In all, Brussels plans to spend EUR 400 million to help member countries support refugees from Ukraine, an amount the Polish government has described as “insufficient,” calling on the bloc to establish a special fund for the purpose, the PAP news agency reported.
Wednesday is day 238 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, bankier.pl, ec.europa.eu