The European Commission announced, on Monday 30 March, more than €840 million in financial support for the Eastern Partnership countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine) to respond to the COVID-19 crisis.
€140 million will be reallocated to meet the most immediate needs: provision of medical devices and equipment, support for training of medical and laboratory staff and awareness-raising activities among the population. €11.3 million of these funds were made available to civil society organisations. The Commission will also work with the World Health Organisation and deploy €30 million to ensure that the necessary supplies are jointly procured and effectively distributed to the health systems of the Eastern Partnership countries in the coming weeks.
€700 million from existing instruments will be redirected to help mitigate the socio-economic impact of the coronavirus crisis.
The Commission was not in a position to communicate to EUROPE the breakdown by country, but Carl Hartzell, the EU ambassador to Georgia, announced €20 million in emergency allocations and €70 million in funds redirected to training and medical equipment, support for vulnerable groups and business recovery assistance. His counterpart in Ukraine, Matti Maasikas, has announced €80 million euros for the country.
Reallocation of aid to Tunisia and Morocco
In addition, over the weekend, the Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy, Olivér Várhelyi, announced that the EU will accelerate its support to Tunisia by €250 million for 2020 to address the immediate needs and socio-economic impact of the pandemic.
Concerning Morocco, €150 million will be reallocated immediately and the Commission will use "all possible flexibility" to redirect €300 million of the funds allocated to the country towards fighting the pandemic by accelerating their mobilisation to meet exceptional budgetary needs. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)