The President of the Committee of the Regions, Apostolos Tzitzikostas, in a statement issued on Friday 20 March, called for the establishment of a €10 billion European health mechanism to help cities and regions.
For Mr Tzitzikostas, the measures announced by the European Commission are certainly "a step in the right direction", welcoming the news of the relaxation of the Stability and Growth Pact and European state aid rules (see EUROPE 12446/2). However, according to him, "the Union must go further" and propose an aid mechanism to help cities and regions recruit additional medical staff and acquire more medical devices, in addition to providing schools and hospitals with sanitation tools and equipment.
To achieve this, he calls, in addition to the reorientation of the structural and investment funds, for an additional financial effort of €10 billion, "to be made available from the margin of the current EU budget".
For him, the recent decisions of the European Commission show in all events how cohesion policy remains "a vital lifeline" and the "most powerful instrument".
In the same vein, the Secretary General of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions called for the strengthening of cohesion policy in the next multiannual financial framework 2021-2027 (see EUROPE 12450/17). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)