EU is ready to extend protection for Ukrainian refugees in 2025

Nicole de Moor, Belgian Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration, announced this after an informal meeting of EU justice and home affairs ministers in Brussels.

She stated, “The EU needs to consider different scenarios” until March 2025. The official noted that the EU deems it possible to extend the status of temporary protection despite having already extended it twice.

Nicole de Moor added that European ministers at an informal meeting of the Council of Ministers of the EU for Justice and Home Affairs reaffirmed solidarity and their commitments to Ukraine. They agreed that “legislation needs to be harmonized” in this area, as having 27 different legal approaches to Ukrainian refugees would be “counterproductive.”

The representative of Belgium added that the European Commission and member states will continue these discussions involving the Ukrainian authorities to adopt a joint decision in the near future. The European Commission will not present proposals until they are agreed upon by Ukraine and all EU member states.

• EU countries have approved the extension of temporary protection for refugees from Ukraine until March 2025.
• According to Eurostat, as of the end of November 2023, 4.27 million Ukrainian citizens were granted temporary protection in the EU. Germany (1,235,960 people; 28.9% of the EU total), Poland (955,110; 22.3%) and the Czech Republic (369,330; 8.6%) received the largest number of Ukrainian refugees.
• On January 25, Finnish Interior Minister Mari Rantanen commented on the information that Kyiv had begun talking to its partners about encouraging Ukrainians to return home."If I were a Ukrainian official, of course, I would urge people to return. When the war is over. But until then, Europe, and Finland in particular, should help Ukrainians as much as they need," she said.