European Union

For EU member states: (i) 13 March 2020, EUR800 million of the EU Solidarity Fund (EUSF) will be available by including a public health crisis within its scope, with a view of mobilizing it if needed for the hardest-hit EU member states. 11 March 2021, The EC is putting forward a package of almost EUR530 million as additional financial support under the EUSF to contribute to the efforts deployed by 17 Member States and 3 accession countries to safeguard public health in fighting the coronavirus; (ii) 16 March 2020, EUR37 billion unallocated funds of cohesion policy funding 2014-2020 will be eligible for Coronavirus crisis related expenditure within the Corona Response Investment Initiative. Member States can use them to support public investment for hospitals, SMEs, labor markets, and stressed regions. The Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative Plus (CRII+), proposed on 2 April 2020, complements the CRII by further enhancing flexibility in the use of cohesion funds. This enhanced flexibility is inter alia provided through transfer possibilities across the three cohesion policy funds (the European Regional Development Fund, European Social Fund and Cohesion Fund), transfers between the different categories of regions (e.g. less vs more developed), flexibility regarding thematic concentration, the possibility for a 100% EU co-financing rate for the accounting year 2020-2021, and simplified procedural steps. 11 September 2020, the Council agreed to add EUR6.2 billion to the EU 2020 budget to address the impact of the COVID-19-crisis. Draft amending budget No 8 includes increasing payments by EUR5.1 billion for the Corona Response Investment Initiative (CRII) and the Corona Response Investment Initiative Plus (CRII+). The money will be used to cover the additional needs for cohesion funding forecast until the end of the year. The CRII redirects unspent money from the EU budget to tackling the COVID-19 crisis, whilst the CRII+ relaxes the cohesion spending rules to increase flexibility. 23 September 2020, the EC has approved the modification of nine more Cohesion policy operational programs in Spain, worth a total of EUR1.2 billion from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) to alleviate the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. This comprehensive recovery approach will reallocate funds to strengthen the response capacity of the Spanish health system with supplementary hospital beds, the purchase of pharmaceutical and laboratory material, medical and protective equipment. Moreover, support to SMEs will contribute to boost the economic sector. Finally, EU funds will be redirected to develop the ITC of the education and training sectors. 21 October 2020, EUR1 billion of EU Cohesion policy to support Portugal's recovery redirected to COVID programs; (iii) 2 April 2020, EUR100 billion to finance the short-term unemployment mechanisms through the loans provided by the EU Commission to EU member states (SURE mechanism) backed by EUR25 billion of guarantees voluntarily committed by Member States to the EU budget; (iv) 9 April 2020, EU finance ministers decided to establish Pandemic Crisis Support credit lines within the framework of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM). Access granted will be 2% of the respective country's GDP as of end-2019, as a benchmark (about EUR240 billion in total). The credit line will be available until the COVID-19 crisis is over. The only requirement to access the credit line is that euro area Member States requesting support would commit to use this credit line to finance direct and indirect healthcare, cure and prevention related costs due to the COVID-19 crisis. 15 May 2020, the Board of Governors of the ESM approved the establishment of Pandemic Crisis Support. 20 May 2020, A regulation establishing SURE entered into force. Countries will be able to use loans also in support of some health-related measures, esp. in the workplace. SURE will become available once all Member States have provided the required guarantees proportionally to gross national income, and will remain available until end-2022 (with the possibility to adjust this deadline). 24 August 2020, The EC has presented proposals to the Council for decisions to grant financial support of EUR81.4 billion to 15 Member States under the SURE instrument. Once the Council approves these proposals, the financial support will be provided in the form of loans granted on favorable terms from the EU to Member States. These loans will assist Member States in addressing sudden increases in public expenditure to preserve employment. Specifically, they will help Member States to cover the costs directly related to the financing of national short-time work schemes, and other similar measures they have put in place as a response to the coronavirus pandemic, in particular for the self-employed. 25 September 2020, EU Council approves the EUR87.4 billion in financial support for member states under SURE. 27 October 2020, The EC has disbursed a total of EUR17 billion to four Member States in the first installment of financial support under the SURE instrument. 1 December 2020, The EU has disbursed EUR8.5 billion in the third instalment of financial support to five Member States under the SURE instrument. 2 February 2021, The EC has disbursed EUR14 billion to nine Member States in the fourth installment of financial support to Member States under the SURE instrument. 16 March 2021, The EC has disbursed EUR9 billion to 7 EU Member States in the fifth installment of financial support to Member States under the SURE instrument. 30 March 2021, The EC has disbursed EUR13 billion to six EU Member States in the sixth instalment of financial support under the SURE instrument. 25 May 2021, The EC has disbursed EUR14.137 billion to 12 EU Member States in the seventh instalment of financial support under the SURE instrument; (v) European Green Deal investments will remain a priority as part of the EU's efforts to kickstart its economy post-crisis. One of its three sources of funding is a grant, the A Just Transition Fund, which will receive EUR7.5 billion of fresh EU funds. In order to tap into their share of the Fund, Member States will, in dialogue with the Commission, have to identify the eligible territories through dedicated territorial just transition plans. They will also have to commit to match each euro from the Just Transition Fund with money from the European Regional Development Fund and the European Social Fund Plus and provide additional national resources. Taken together, this will provide between EUR30 and EUR50 billion of funding. It will, for example, support workers to develop skills and competencies for the job market of the future and help SMEs, start-ups and incubators to create new economic opportunities in these regions. It will also support investments in the clean energy transition, for example in energy efficiency. Another source of funds for this initiative is a public sector loan facility with the European Investment Bank backed by the EU budget to mobilize between EUR25 and EUR30 billion of investments. It will be used for loans to the public sector, for instance for investments in district heating networks and renovation of buildings; (vi) 9 September 2020, EIB made available EUR650 million to the Polish Ministry of Finance to support the country’s efforts in combating the pandemic; (vii) 21 September 2020, EIB expects to provide more than EUR1 billion to support new COVID-19 and Brexit business financing programs, climate action and education investment in Ireland in 2020 and work closely with Irish authorities to implement the National Recovery Plan; (viii) 30 September 2020, EIB and Fund FLAG have signed a EUR25 million loan to promote urban regeneration and rehabilitation in cities across Bulgaria. Fund FLAG will match the loan amount with EUR25 million of its own resources and channel the total EUR50 million to municipalities, municipal enterprises and other institutions responsible for providing public services; (ix) 20 November 2020, EIB and Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development (HBOR) create a new EUR142.5 million credit line to support faster recovery of Croatian SMEs from COVID-19; (x) As of 23 December 2020, France gets EUR866.8 million, Germany gets EUR709.6 million from European agricultural fund for rural development (EAFRD) of NextGenerationEU; (xi) As of 23 December 2020, France gets EUR3.105 million, Germany gets EUR1.894 million from REACT-EU of NextGenerationEU; (xii) 20 April 2021, The EIB agrees to a EUR250 million loan for the construction of a new regional hospital in Iasi and confirms future support for healthcare investment across Romania; (xiii) 27 May 2021, The EIB and Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego (BGK) have jointly launched a credit line which will allow local governments of medium-sized cities in Poland to borrow from a loan facility worth EUR157 million; (xiv) 23 June 2021, The EIB has formally agreed EUR400 million support to enable the Hellenic Development Bank to create new financing tools that will make it easier for more SMEs and larger enterprises in Greece to access funding that will drive their growth; (xv) As of 23 July 2021, The EC has endorsed the recovery and resilience plans of a number of countries. A total of EUR353.7172 billion in loans and grants from the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) of the NextGenerationEU will be received by the following ADB member countries: Germany (EUR25.6B), France (EUR39.4B), Denmark (EUR1.55B), Portugal (EUR16.6B), Austria (EUR3.5B), Belgium (EUR5.9B), Italy (EUR191.5B), and Spain (EUR69.5B); For Non-EU Member States: (i) 31 March 2020, Added a new package of almost EUR240 million to the EU Regional Trust Fund in Response to the Syrian Crisis; (ii) 11 April 2020, A EUR20 billion Team Europe package to support partner countries to combat the coronavirus pandemic and its consequences. The Team Europe package has the aim of supporting the most vulnerable countries and people most at risk, in the EU’s neighborhood, with special emphasis on Africa, and also in the Pacific, in Latin America and the Caribbean. 8 June 2020, The overall figure of the “Team Europe” package reaches almost EUR36 billion (details: https://bit.ly/2Qlm38b). 24 November 2020, The overall figure of the “Team Europe” package reaches almost EUR38.5 billion (details: https://bit.ly/3ftSDiL). 8 April 2021, Team Europe package now stands at over EUR40 billion (as of 1 January 2021, actual amount is EUR40.468 billion, see: https://bit.ly/3fYwrh4), out of which more than EUR26 billion have been actually disbursed. 16 September 2021, Team Europe package has increased to EUR46 billion (as of 8 April 2021, actual amount is EUR45.998 billion), of which EUR34 billion has so far been disbursed; (iii) June 2020, EUR1 billion for the European Fund for Sustainable Development (EFSD) which is one of the EU financial instruments that promote a pro-active development aid policy. It is part of the complex European external investment plan to support investments primarily in the EU neighborhood and Africa; (iv) July 2020, The EU will secure financial support to partner countries amounting to more than EUR15.9 billion (increased from EUR15.6) from existing external action resources; (v) 16 July 2020, EUR15 million humanitarian funding for Haiti; (vi) 20 July 2020, The European Commission (EC) is providing EUR64.7 million in humanitarian aid for countries in the southern Africa region to help support people in need dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, extreme weather conditions such as persistent drought in the region and other crises; (vii) 3 August 2020, the EIB will lend EUR10 million in synthetic local currency to Credo Bank, the leading actor on microfinance market in Georgia predominantly servicing enterprises in rural areas and agricultural sector. This is the second loan under the EIB's Georgia Outreach Initiative launched to improve access to finance for the country's MSMEs. Loans will be available under flexible terms to help maintain liquidity of MSMEs to continue operating and preserve jobs. The loan comes as a part of the immediate response to Covid-19 pandemic launched by the EU and its Team Europe and is facilitated by an EU grant; (viii) 11 August 2020, EUR3 billion macro-financial assistance (MFA) programs for ten enlargement and neighborhood partners (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Jordan, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Tunisia and Ukraine), aimed to help them limit the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. The MFA funds will be made available for 12 months in the form of loans on highly favorable terms to help these countries cover their immediate, urgent financing needs; (ix) 31 August 2020, EU provides Solomon Islands EUR8 million to heighten service delivery of Provincial Governments; (x) 31 August 2020, The EC has confirmed its interest to participate in the COVAX Facility for equitable access to affordable COVID-19 vaccines everywhere, for everyone who needs them. EU’s contribution to the COVAX is funded from Team Europe (See: https://bit.ly/3pUwknP). 18 September 2020, The European Commission confirmed its participation in the COVAX Facility for equitable access to affordable COVID-19 vaccines. 12 November 2020, The European Union has announced that it will contribute an additional EUR100 million in grant funding to support the COVAX Facility to secure access to the future COVID-19 vaccine in low and middle-income countries. 15 December 2020, Team Europe contributes EUR500 million to COVAX initiative to provide one billion COVID-19 vaccine doses for low- and middle-income countries. 19 February 2021, (a) The EU allocates an additional EUR500 million for the COVAX Facility, doubling its contribution to date for the global initiative that is leading efforts to secure fair and equitable access to safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines in low and middle-income countries; (b) The EC allocates EUR100 million in humanitarian assistance to support the rollout of vaccination campaigns in Africa; (c) The EC commits EUR300 million to the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC), the financing instrument that supports the participation of 92 low- and middle-income economies in the COVAX Facility – enabling access to donor-funded doses of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines. The AMC, combined with additional support for country readiness and delivery, will make sure the most vulnerable in all countries can be protected in the short term, regardless of income level. 12 May 2021, EIB will provide an additional EUR200 million to Team Europe support for COVAX and scale up access to COVID-19 vaccines; (xi) 6 September 2020, EIB and Egypt’s National Bank of Egypt have signed an agreement, worth EUR800 million, to meet the financial needs of small- and medium-sized enterprises and build their resilience to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The agreement between the two banks comes as part of a larger agreement approved by the EIB worth EUR1.9 billion, where EUR1.1 billion will be provided for the transport sector and EUR800 million for SMEs; (xii) 16 September 2020, EIB and Morocco’s Crédit Agricole du Maroc sign a EUR200 million financing agreement to support agricultural ecosystems; (xiii) 13 October 2020, EIB approved EUR1.3 billion loans to transform access to clean energy and water in Europe and Africa; EUR381 million to improve sustainable transport in Poland and Ukraine; and EUR764 million for education, health, social housing and urban Development; (xiv) 30 October 2020, EU's EUR8.1 million in humanitarian aid for the Philippines, Nepal, and countries in the South-East Asian region to support those affected by the coronavirus pandemic, natural disasters, and the consequences of man-made conflicts. Funding from this aid package will go for humanitarian and disaster preparedness projects in the Philippines (EUR2.51 million), Nepal (EUR2 million), and regional South-East Asia (EUR3.5 million); (xv) 6 November 2020, The EU has approved an additional EUR17.2 million through the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF) to support coronavirus preparedness in Somalia, Sudan and South Sudan; (xvi) 10 November 2020, The EC welcomed the commitment by the Western Balkan leaders to further strengthen regional cooperation as a way to advance on their European path. The initiatives will be supported by the Economic and Investment Plan for the Western Balkans adopted by the EC on 6 October 2020 which aims to mobilize up to EUR9 billion of EU grants to speed up the region's socio-economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and to accelerate its economic convergence with the EU; (xvii) 11 November 2020, EU program amounting to EUR93 million designed to mitigate the drastic economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on employees in the textile sector, an important industry in Bangladesh. Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), KfW contributed EUR20 million to this program; (xviii) 7 December 2020, The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) launched a four-year project ‘EU for health security in Africa: ECDC for Africa CDC to strengthen the capacity of Africa CDC to prepare for and respond to public health threats in Africa. Funded under the European Development Fund, the project includes a contribution agreement with ECDC of EUR9 million and a complementary grant to Africa CDC of EUR1 million to cover staffing costs. This agreement will come into effect on 1 January 2021; (xix) 18 December 2020, Following a request for assistance from Serbia, the EU sent 500,000 FFP2 and FFP3 protective facemasks, 540,000 medical gloves, 49,200 protective overalls, 49,200 cover shoes for overalls, and 5,500 goggles from the rescEU medical equipment reserve hosted in Greece. The EC finances 100% of the assets, including storage and transport; (xx) 23 December 2020, the European Union has disbursed EUR169 million of the COVID-19 support package for Morocco to help the authorities beef up the medical response to the coronavirus pandemic and put in place measures to mitigate its socio-economic impact; (xxi) 28 December 2020, The EC adopted a package of EUR70 million under the Instrument for Pre-Accession (IPA II) to help fund the access of Western Balkans partners to COVID-19 vaccines procured by EU Member States; (xxii) 18 January 2021, The EU and World Vision launched the project "Working Together" worth EUR1 million to contribute to limiting the spread of COVID-19 and reduce its negative impact on the vulnerable population in Mongolia (i.e. Sukhbaatar, Bayanzurkh and Songinokhairkhan districts, and Uvurkhangai, Bayan-Ulgii provinces), particularly mothers, children, and people under medical observation; (xxiii) 11 February 2021, The EU and WHO launched a new program worth EUR40 million to provide critical assistance to ensure local readiness and preparedness for safe and effective vaccination of the population in each of the six Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries. 10 August 2021, As part of the EU's efforts to support vaccination in partner countries, the EC increased from its assistance package to EUR75 million to deploy safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines and speed up the vaccination campaigns in the six EaP countries; (xxiv) 19 February 2021, The EBRD is providing USD100 million in new funds to Denizbank A.S. to finance companies’ investments in green technologies and support women-led businesses as the COIVD-19 pandemic continues; (xxv) 19 February 2021, The EU in partnership with the WHO has launched a new regional project worth over EUR7 million to support safe and effective vaccination of the populations across the Western Balkans; (xxvi) 19 February 2021, The EIB is is providing a further EUR200 million in loan guarantees for the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator partnership to frontload future payments to speed up the response. Germany committed EUR1.5 billion in grants. The ACT Accelerator is a global collaboration to accelerate development, production, and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines (For details: https://bit.ly/2PJbsnE); (xxvii) 3 March 2021, Team Europe (European Union and the EIB) is providing EUR120 million of new support for Equity Bank to support access to finance of Kenyan SMEs (including the agricultural sector) at appropriate conditions. Of the total, EUR100 million are loans from the EIB and EUR20 million are grants from the EU; (xxviii) 19 March 2021, EUR4.5 million (USD5 million) contribution from the European Union has enabled the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) to provide vital support to the global pandemic response by transporting humanitarian staff and cargo needed to fight COVID-19 to destinations all around the world; (xxix) 31 March 2021, The EC proposes EUR4.5 million to support over 5,000 dismissed tourism workers or self-employed in Estonia who lost their jobs or whose activities have ceased as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic; (xxx) 5 April 2021, The International Monetary Fund (IMF) received the European Union (EU)'s contribution of SDR141 million (equivalent to EUR170 million or USD199 million) to the Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCRT), which provides grants for debt service relief to countries hit by catastrophic events, including public health disasters such as COVID-19; (xxxi) No amount/estimate: 20 April 2021, 651,000 BioNTech/Pfizer doses funded by the EC will be delivered to West Balkan countries; (xxxii) 6 May 2021, The EIB has decided to make an immediate donation of EUR250,000 to three NGOs operating in India to help tackle the COVID-19 crisis. The donation will go to Unicef Luxembourg, Red Cross International and Malteser International; (xxxiii) 12 May 2021, The EU has mobilized EUR2 million in humanitarian funding to help contain the explosion in COVID-19 cases in Nepal; (xxxiv) 26 May 2021, The Development Bank of Austria (OeEB) and EIB launch a EUR100 million private sector financing initiative for entrepreneurs and businesses in sub-Saharan Africa most impacted by economic, health and social challenges triggered by COVID-19; (xxxv) 12 July 2021, EUR22 million humanitarian aid to assist those most affected by man-made crises, the COVID-19 pandemic, climate induced and other natural disasters in Iran and Pakistan; (xxxvi) 13 July 2021, The EIB will provide EUR191 million to the Czech-Moravian Guarantee and Development Bank (ČMZRB), to support financing of municipal and regional infrastructure development projects across the Czech Republic; (xxxvii) 21 July 2021, The EIB and the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) have partnered to provide EUR30 million in financing to Caribbean countries to purchase COVID-19 vaccines and make new healthcare investments; (xxxviii) 16 August 2021, Close to 1.3 million vaccine doses, and almost 8 million face masks, along with antigen tests, ventilators, oxygen concentrators, nursing beds and other vital medical equipment have been already delivered to Tunisia by the EU and its member states via the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. A medical team from Romania arrived on 9 August 2021 in Tunis to provide additional support. The EU has also released EUR0.7 million from its Epidemics Tool; (xxxix) 20 August 2021, The EU will provide EUR41 million to help low and middle-income countries facing an unprecedented health, humanitarian and socio-economic crisis as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to persist, combined with the imbalance in the delivery of vaccines; (xl) 2 September 2021, The EIB, via the EIB Institute, has granted an exceptional donation of EUR0.25 million to help Tunisia cope with the health crisis and to bolster its strategy against COVID-19. The funds will be directed towards the purchase of oxygen concentrators and the recruitment of medical teams for a 6-month mission to assist people living in rural areas and unable to travel to hospitals for the care they need; (xli) 8 October 2021, EUR35 million grant from the EU have helped deliver nearly 12 million units of personal protective equipment, such as medical masks, goggles and isolation gowns, and 4000 units of biomedical equipment, including oxygen concentrators and ventilators, to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine; (xlii) No amount/estimate: 22 October 2021, Launch of the East Africa Rapid Response Facility, a credit facility that supports on-lending by financial intermediaries to private sector (in particular SMEs) projects in the East Africa region [update]; (xliii) 29 October 2021, EU has announced a further EUR2 million in funding to help Sri Lanka in its efforts to manage the pandemic [update].

Most European countries have taken several containment measures ranging from lockdowns and travel restrictions to school closures and bans on large gatherings. Measures that favor teleworking were also widely implemented.