Poland agrees to exclude Ukrainians of military age and those who illegally left Ukraine from the EU temporary protection program, Maciej Dushchik, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration of the Republic said.
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Extending this protection for refugees from Ukraine is one of the topics on the agenda of the EU ministerial meeting in Luxembourg on Thursday. One of the options being considered is the European Commission’s proposal, which would limit the possibility of providing temporary protection to persons who have illegally left the country and Ukrainians of military age.
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“We agree with this decision,” Dushchik told reporters before a meeting of EU interior ministers.
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The temporary protection mechanism was activated for Ukrainians in 2022 and guarantees military refugees from this country the right to legal residence, work and study in all EU countries. The regulations are periodically extended.
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The current regulations expire in March 2027, but the European Commission is already working on extending them for another year and assessing the mood among member states, especially given that some of them support the introduction of certain restrictions.
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For example, earlier there was a proposal to introduce a geographical restriction when granting asylum. The idea was to allow the authorities to deny protection to individuals from regions of Ukraine considered safe, such as the Lviv region. The idea was abandoned because Ukraine was excluded from the list of safe countries and recognized as a state fully affected by the conflict.
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Poland is one of the countries that has already made changes to the protection system for Ukrainians.
