Apart from having left most of their possessions behind, the approximately 3.8 million Ukrainians who entered the European Union were faced with the impossibility of exchanging the few cash savings they had could take away.
This is due to the fact that the Ukrainian authorities have suspended trade and adopted a moratorium on foreign currency payments, in order to protect its limited foreign exchange reserves, intended for the war effort.
As a result, the banks of the host countries did not accept banknotes presented by the refugees.
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The European Central Bank has been working for several weeks to develop a pan-European solution.
But the Brussels Commission favored a less ambitious and more complex approach.
It proposes a coordinated approach to the Member States of the Union which will have to put it in place, each on its own.
Each country where refugees transit or settle will therefore have to offer a national system under the aegis of its own central bank, with a guarantee from the State concerned.
National central banks will then send the hryvnia banknotes back to the Ukrainian central bank at the same exchange rate.
Poland, which has hosted more than 2 million refugees, has already set up such a system.
Exchanges will be limited to approximately 300 euros per person.
This system must be discussed by the twenty-seven finance ministers on Tuesday.
