The Temporary Protection Directive is a flexible, time-limited international protection mechanism that the EU activated in March 2022 to provide sanctuary to millions of people displaced by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In June 2025, the EU adopted a coordinated exit strategy for temporary protection that promotes transition to alternative legal residence pathways or voluntary return to Ukraine, yet the EU’s exit strategy has been further complicated by the political agreement reached in the Council on 15 July 2026, extending temporary protection until 4 March 2028.
This policy brief therefore aims to examine the EU’s exit strategy from temporary protection, analysing recent restrictive developments, as well as the legal pathways and administrative tools necessary to phase out collective temporary protection in the EU smoothly.
The policy brief’s author is Dr. Meltem Ineli Ciger, Associate Professor of International Law, Süleyman Demirel University, and Honorary Fellow at the School of Law and Social Justice, University of Liverpool.
Photo: Zulfugar Karimov via Unsplash.
