EU to Offer Rights to Ukrainians to Avoid Humanitarian Disaster

(Bloomberg) -- Ukrainians fleeing to the European Union will be granted full access to the bloc and receive residence permits as well as access to education and jobs as part of a plan expected to be implemented on Thursday.

European member states will consider activating the so-called temporary protection directive that will allow Ukrainians to stay in the EU beyond 90 days, a move expected to be overwhelmingly adopted, according to a senior official at the European Commission.

The 2001 mechanism, which has never been activated before, would allow Ukrainians to enter the bloc for a year, with the possibility of two additional year-long extensions. Non long-term residents in Ukraine can also enter and will be later repatriated to their own countries.

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said now is the right time to use the mechanism due to what she called the “great humanitarian catastrophe” caused by Russia's “terrible attack on Ukraine.”

“War in the middle of Europe has changed the situation,” Faeser said Thursday in an interview with Germany's Deutschlandfunk radio. She said relatively few refugees had arrived in Germany so far, putting the number at around 5,500 out of a total of some 700,000 who had sought refuge in neighboring countries.

“But of course we know that it will be more,” she said.

Poland registered 453,000 arrivals of people fleeing Ukraine, while Hungary and Slovakia tallied 114,565 and 67,000, respectively, since Thursday. Romania reported 113,000 arrivals, though limited the count to Ukrainian citizens. United Nations agencies have projected as many as 4 million refugees if the fighting continues.

“We will grant residency rights, labor market access and housing to people in need,” the EU's commissioner for home affairs, Ylva Johansson, said in a statement on Wednesday. “We will make sure those fleeing the war in Ukraine can get to the EU quickly, without going through lengthy formalities at the borders.”