Because the European Union is facing an exceptional health crisis, on Thursday, 2 April, the European Commission proposed mobilising all of the funds and flexibility tools available in the EU 2020 budget, i.e. an additional €3 billion, to meet the needs of European health systems in the fight against the coronavirus.
Gert Jan Koopman, the Director-General of budget services at the European Commission, stated that the Commission intends to provide direct support to EU Member States in their fight against the coronavirus pandemic by funding measures in areas where the EU “can add value”.
The Commission therefore proposes to mobilise a total of €3 billion from the 2020 EU budget: - €2.7 billion will be channelled through the re-activated ‘Emergency Support Instrument’; - €300 million will go to the RescEU medical equipment reserve.
Additional contributions may be made by Member States and by individuals, foundations and through crowdfunding.
This will enable the Commission to : - purchase or obtain emergency support directly on behalf of Member States, and distribute medical equipment such as masks and respirators; - provide financial support and coordination for urgent needs such as transportation of medical equipment and patients in cross-border regions; - support the construction of mobile field hospitals.
In order to generate economies of scale, where it is able to, the Commission will procure directly on behalf of Member States and will focus aid where it is needed.
In the medium and long term, the EU will be able to support medical research and Member States’ screening capacities.
In this way, the Commission will provide a European response throughout the whole of the health crisis, right up to its end.
To implement this initiative, the Commission will work with Member States’ national health authorities, international organisations and the non-governmental sector.
The Commission will be relying solely on the EU budget for the period 2014-2020 and will mobilise all available resources within the spending limits for 2020. This will require it to mobilise special instruments, as there are no margins available and no scope for redeployment under heading 3 of the EU's Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2014-2020.
“We are going to empty our pockets and spend all our remaining funds for 2020. Then our pockets will be empty for 2020”, said Koopman.
The Flexibility Instrument will be mobilised to the tune of €243 million, the ‘global margin for commitments’ to the tune of €2.04 billion and the ‘contingency margin’ €716.6 million. The MFF regulations are being amended to enable this to happen, and the funds could be released within a fortnight.
To read the proposal, go to: https://bit.ly/39Dipur (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)