EU agrees to extend temporary protection for Ukrainian refugees until 2025

On 28 September, the Council of the European Union agreed to extend the temporary protection for people fleeing from Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine from 4 March 2024 to 4 March 2025.

The decision aims to provide certainty for more than four million Ukrainian refugees currently living in the EU.

The temporary protection mechanism was activated on 4 March 2022 – a few days after Russian armed forces launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine – and it was automatically extended by one year.

The system provides immediate and collective (without the need for the examination of individual applications) protection to displaced persons who are not in a position to return to their country of origin.

Thanks to this measure, displaced persons for Ukraine have access to the labour market and housing, residence, medical assistance, social welfare assistance, and education for children across the EU.

Following the political agreement on 29 September, the Council will have to formally adopt the decision to extend the temporary protection. This will happen once the legal scrubbing and translation into all EU languages has taken place.

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Press release