On 23 March 2022, Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, visited the Royal Athenaeum Leonardo da Vinci, a primary school that welcomes Ukrainian children, in Brussels, with Stefaan De Rynck, Head of the Representation of the European Commission in Belgium, Frédéric Daerden, Vice-President and Minister for Budget, Public Service, Equal Opportunities and supervisor over Wallonia-Brussels Education (WBE) of the Federation Wallonia-Brussels, Caroline Désir, Minister of the Government of the Federation Wallonia-Brussels in charge of Education, Julien Nicaise, General Administrator of the Wallonia-Brussels Education (WBE) network, and Stéphane Nelissen, Director of the Royal Athenaeum Leonardo da Vinci.
The visit was related to the measures proposed by the European Commission to give support to Ukrainian pupils and educational staff fleeing Ukraine such as the access to education systems and schools in Member States and assistance for Ukrainian children and teachers through European platforms. These initiatives are in consonance with the Cohesion's Action for Refugees in Europe (CARE) proposal adopted by the European Commission on 8 March 2022, which introduced the necessary flexibility in the 2014-2020 Cohesion policy rules to allow a swift reallocation of available funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the European Social Fund (ESF) and the Fund for the European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD) to finance a wide range of measures supporting people fleeing Ukraine.