​ The leaders of the six political groups in the European Committee of the Regions – together with some members of the Working Group on Ukraine – will on 6 April 2022 meet in extraordinary session in Rzeszów, Poland to discuss the impact of the Ukrainian war on EU's regional and local authorities, aid available to refugees from the EU budget, and support offered by regions and cities in the EU.

The meeting, which will be attended by Elisa Ferreira, European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, comes two days after the EU's member states made it possible to release almost €17 billion in EU funding to help refugees.

Other speakers at the meeting, which will be held from 8:30 to 10:30, include MEP Younous Omarjee, chairman of the European Parliament's Committee on Regional Development (REGI), Tetiana Yehorova-Lutsenko,Head of Kharkiv Regional Council , and Małgorzata Jarosińska Jedynak, Secretary of State in the Ministry of Development Funds and Regional Policy.

The agenda is available here. All meeting documents are available in the CoR Members' Portal.

The hosts – Władysław Ortyl, President of the Podkarpackie Region, and Konrad Fijołek, Mayor of the city of Rzeszów – will then show the delegation refugee facilities in Rzeszów.

Cities and regions wishing to share their local/regional government's needs and offers are invited to visit the 'Help Ukraine refugees' page and fill out a brief form or to write to SupportUkraine@cor.europa.eu. Further ways to #StandWithUkraine can be found on the CoR Info-Support Hub.