Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic sent a request to the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to provide funds for the integration and accommodation of Ukrainian refugees, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said. His speech was broadcast on the European Commission website.
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“It is not clearly distributed who is doing what. Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic and a small number of other countries have received the largest number of refugees, so my colleagues and I believe that now is the time to make a decision,” Scholz said, arriving at the EU summit in Brussels .
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According to Scholz, the countries hosting the largest number of refugees need funding to provide them with the means to live, pay for language courses and vocational training. “Together with colleagues from Poland and the Czech Republic, I have written to the chairperson of the commission (Ursula von der Leyen) about this matter, and we would like to discuss this issue,” he added.
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The EU summit will open on Thursday in Brussels, where Ursula von der Leyen will be nominated for the post of head of the EC. The post of head of EU diplomacy should be given to Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, and the European Council should be headed by former Prime Minister of Portugal António Costa.
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Earlier, a number of German politicians called for the abolition of Bürgergeld (unemployment benefits for citizens in Germany) for Ukrainian refugees. The monthly Bürgergeld payment per person is up to 563 euros and is provided to Ukrainian citizens along with free medical services and social housing while completing integration and language courses. Thus, the Secretary General of the Free Democratic Party (FDP), a member of the ruling coalition in Germany, Bijan Jir-Saray, said that the transition to regular payments in the amount of 460 euros, which are due to all other refugees, would encourage Ukrainian citizens to find work. He added that such a measure would have a positive impact on the labor market due to the general labor shortage in Germany.
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However, the official representative of the country’s cabinet, Steffen Hebestreit, said earlier that there are no plans to replace guaranteed payments to Ukrainian citizens with standard benefits for refugees.
According to the German Ministry of the Interior, there are currently about 1.17 million Ukrainian citizens in the country who arrived after 2022. Of these, 185 thousand people are employed.
