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European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations
News article5 October 2022Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO)

The European Commission proposes to reinforce humanitarian aid in the 2022 and 2023 budgets

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© European Union, 2022 (photographer: Abdul Majeed)

Today, the European Commission has proposed to amend its Draft Budget for 2023 by way of an amending letter, as well as to update its budget for 2022 through Draft Amending Budget 5 and budgetary transfers, to respond to the geopolitical challenges and the economic situation.

A key budgetary transfer concerns the reinforcement of the humanitarian aid budget by €395 million in 2022, both to address the global food crisis triggered by the war, and to support vulnerable populations in Ukraine and in Moldova. A €100 million will support the rehabilitation of damaged Ukrainian schools, as announced by President von der Leyen in her State of the Union address.

For 2023, the Commission proposes to increase humanitarian aid, as an urgent response to the consequences of the Russian war in Ukraine, including for the resulting food crisis, by a total of €150 million. Furthermore, €100 million of reinforcement of Erasmus+ will support Ukrainian students, pupils and educational staff. This comes on top of the €19 billion for Ukraine secured by Team Europe to date.

Today, the Commission has also proposed to reinforce the EU Civil Protection Mechanism in both 2022 and 2023 to double the aerial forest fire fighting capacity ahead of the next summers, as announced by President von der Leyen in the State of the Union address. The combined effect is of €170 million, including anticipated procurement of helicopters.

The Commission is also proposing to budget the amounts foreseen for the EU Short-term Defence instrument reinforcing European defence industrial capacities through common procurement by EU Member States, as proposed in July 2022. The amounts concerned are €83 million in 2022 and €157 million in 2023.

Amendments to the EU budget both for the current year and to the proposed budget for the next year are a standard practice, in view of addressing unforeseen events and better responding to the needs of beneficiaries on the ground.