Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative
On 1 April 2020, the newly appointed Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative (CRII) entered into force. It was launched by the European Commission to mobilise cohesion policy to flexibly respond to the rapidly emerging needs in the most exposed sectors, such as healthcare, SMEs and labour markets, and help the most affected territories in Member States and their citizens.
Important excerpts from this overview are:
The European Commission made a series of proposals to amend legislation that will allow Member States to benefit from more financial back-up and targeted assistance.
Member States can immediately address three key priorities: spending on healthcare, support to short time work schemes, and support to the SMEs working capital.
To make this money available, the Commission is proposing to mobilise quickly cash reserves from the EU funds. This will provide immediate liquidity to Member States' budgets and will help to frontload the yet unallocated €37 billion of cohesion policy funding within the 2014-2020 cohesion policy programmes.
The Commission is also making all Coronavirus crisis related expenditure eligible under cohesion policy rules.
The EU Solidarity Fund will provide additional assistance of up to €800 million to the worst affected countries in order to alleviate the financial burden of the immediate response measures.
Replies
ERDF and ESF
In their letters to the ministers of the Member States about the CRII, members of the European Commission point out that the ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) and the ESF (European Social Fund) are already covering different types of investments that could be relevant.
Examples of possible ESF support:
- fund necessary healthcare equipment and protective material for healthcare workers
- recruitment of additional staff in order to allow for the provision of additional and extended healthcare services
- development of new working arrangements like telework
Examples of possible ERDF support:
- help SMEs recover by supporting liquidity and continuity of operations
- finance disease prevention, small-scale infrastructure, eHealth services and ICT solutions
Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative Plus: New actions to
The European Commission proposed a new set of measures to mobilise support against COVID19 – Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative Plus (CRII+). The new package complements an earlier initiative by introducing extraordinary flexibility to allow that all non-utilised support from the European Structural and Investment Funds can be mobilised to the fullest.
Here’s the link to the full article: https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/newsroom/news/2020/04/04-02-2020-coronavirus-response-investment-initiative-plus-new-actions-to-mobilise-essential-investments-and-resources
Questions and answers on the Coronavirus Response Investment Ini
The European Commission has published a Q&A on the Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative Plus (CRII+), covering topics like the facilitation of EU-funded investments, measures to alleviate the impact on the most deprived, and the support of the seafood sector, farmers and rural areas. The CRII+ complements the first package of measures of the Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative.
Please find the full article here, on the European Commission Website.