The Council today adopted legislative amendments making it possible for member states to redirect resources from cohesion policy funds and the Fund for European Aid for the Most Deprived (FEAD) to assist the refugees escaping the Russian military aggression against Ukraine. The total amount of assistance will be EUR 17 billion.
“The swift amendment of the legislation on EU funds is a clear statement of the EU’s continued solidarity with the refugees from Ukraine and with the member states hosting them, in particular those sharing borders with Ukraine, ” a communique of the European Council, distributed on Monday, reads.
“This is an important step in ensuring member states have sufficient resources to meet the growing needs for housing, education and healthcare, ” the press release reads.
Ukraine, under the updated memorandum with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has undertaken to complete and publish an audit of the remaining portion of the funds of the Fund to Fight against COVID-19 spent by Ukravtodor by late 2021.”Complete and publish the audit of the remaining portion of the funds spent out of the COVID-related spending program by end-December 2021,” according to the document released by the IMF on Wednesday.This condition is one of the structural benchmarks of the Stand-By Arrangement.It is clarified that all 100% of the funds allocated for the fight against COVID-19 will not be subject to audit, since the costs of a comprehensive audit in this area by far would outweigh the benefit.”We will complete the audit of the remaining portion of the funds spent out of this budget program – mostly spent by the state road fund [UAH 13.3 billion] – by end-December 2021,” the document said.”While confidentiality agreements with suppliers may not allow for public disclosure of details on some spending, we are currently exploring options to make this possible,” it said.According to the memorandum, following the audit of the COVID-related spending, law enforcement agencies are already considering 212 cases.
