Temporary Protection Directive

The Temporary Protection Directive (TPD; Council Directive 2001/55/EC) is a 2001 European Union directive providing for immediate, temporary protection for displaced people from outside the external border of the Union, intended to be used in exceptional circumstances when the regular EU asylum system has trouble handling a "mass influx" of refugees. It was introduced in the aftermath of the Yugoslav Wars, but was not used before 2022. When invoked, it requires EU member states to accept refugees as allocated based on their capacity to host them, following a principle of solidarity and a "balance of efforts" among member states. On 3 March 2022, in response to the refugee crisis caused by the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, EU ministers unanimously agreed to invoke the Temporary Protection Directive for the first time in its history.