The French delegation of the Renew Europe Group in the European Parliament suggests mobilising, in addition to the €7.5 billion aid under the Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative, all or part of the €4 billion margin left in the 2020 budget for emergency measures in favour of companies in difficulty.
Valérie Hayer (Renew Europe, France) wrote on 11 March to the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to welcome the initiative to mobilise €7.5 billion of unspent cohesion policy money (see EUROPE 12444/8). But she draws attention to the fact that "more than €4 billion is also available for unforeseen events and crises in this year's budget". This margin, available in the EU 2020 budget, could be used to provide financial support (liquidity) to European companies in difficulty due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
Ms Hayer suggests mobilising the aid in question by means of an amending budget for 2020 and a proposal: - either amending Regulation 2016/369 on the provision of emergency aid within the Union (to provide budgetary support to businesses and sectors heavily affected by an epidemic to avoid job losses); - or a new regulation based on Article 122 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (financial aid where a Member State is in serious difficulties as a result of natural disasters or exceptional occurrences).
The Commission is due to present on Friday 13 March its ‘Corona Response Investment Initiative' (CRII), providing €7.5 billion of unspent funds for healthcare systems, SMEs, labour markets and other vulnerable parts of our economies. Investments are expected to reach €25 billion thanks to national co-financing. The Commission will propose this year to waive its obligation to request the reimbursement of unspent pre-financing for European structural and investment funds currently held by Member States.
Member States will be invited to use these amounts to accelerate their investments under the structural funds. To this end, the Commission will propose an amendment to the regulation laying down common provisions on the structural funds.
The national operational programmes would then be adapted, if necessary, to channel funding to areas such as short-term work measures, the health sector, labour market measures and sectors particularly affected in the current circumstances.
An extraordinary plenary session of the European Parliament could take place on 25 March, according to sources, and if circumstances permit, to approve the budget proposals for coronavirus-related support (see other news).
To read Valérie Hayer's letter: http://bit.ly/2wPh5a8 (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)