The European Union (EU) on Monday adopted the regulation on a new fund designed to support member states' efforts in helping the most deprived people in Europe.

More than 3.8 billion euros (5.27 billion U.S. dollars) will be allocated to the fund over the 2014-2020 period, which will be used to cover 85 percent of the costs that each member state need to pay for its national program of aiding the deprived.

The member states can choose whether to distribute food or other material assistance to the most deprived people, or to address them by other means such as social inclusion activities.

Created to support member states' actions to provide a broader range of material assistance combined with social reintegration measures, the new fund replaces a previous EU food aid program which ran from 1987 to 2013, the EU said in a statement.

The allocation of resources between member states is based on population data and statistics on poverty provided by the statistical office of the EU.

The fund will contribute to meeting the target of reducing the number of people in or at risk of poverty by at least 20 million in the EU. Endi