EU allocates €140 mln for EaP states, redirects use of €700 mln to ease coronavirus impact on economy
EU says that it will help Eastern Partnership states to cope with coronavirus challenges. Photo: shutterstock.
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The European Commission has allocated €140 million to purchase medical devices and medical personnel equipment in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine.
The commission will also redirect the use of existing instruments worth €700 million to help mitigate the economic and social impact of coronavirus in the Eastern Partnership countries.
These are very difficult times not only for the EU, but for our partner countries as well. We are doing all we can to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on human lives and livelihoods. We are responding both to the immediate needs of the health systems, as well as longer term needs to the most vulnerable groups in society and small and medium-sized enterprises, which are the backbone of the economies in the six countries,” Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi said.
An official statement reads that the European Commission will respond to immediate needs by supporting the supply of medical devices and personal equipment, such as ventilators, laboratory kits, masks, goggles, gowns, and safety suits in the EaP countries.
The European Commission is working with the World Health Organisation (WHO), and is deploying €30 million to ensure these necessary supplies are jointly purchased and effectively distributed to the health systems of the six countries in the coming weeks. In addition, the funds will support national health administrations to train medical and laboratory staff and carry out awareness raising measures to the wider population.
As part of our global response to #coronavirus pandemic, we are reallocating €140m for our Eastern Partner countries & redirecting existing instruments up to €700m to help mitigate economic impact. I wrote to PMs of ???????? ???????? ???????? ???????? ???????? ???????? to outline this. https://t.co/7omVkoRimC
— Oliver Varhelyi (@OliverVarhelyi) March 30, 2020
According to the statement the commission has also made available more than €11.3 million in small grants to civil society organisations. These funds are already responding to immediate needs, through the ongoing regional “Rapid Response Mechanism”, such as supporting local schools with distance learning.
By the summer, and as part of this package, the commission will launch the “Eastern Partnership Solidarity Programme” which will target the most affected parts of the populations through civil society support and notably sub-grants to smaller, local organisations.
Mitigating the socio-economic impact of the outbreak
The statement says that the Commission is working closely with International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and financing institutions from EU member states as TEAM EUROPE providing a coordinated European response for the real economy, including SMEs, in particular through:
- Launching of a new support programme of €100 million to help SMEs, including self-employed and others to easily access credit and boost their businesses after the crisis;
- Facilitating, simplifying, accelerating, and reinforcing €200 million worth of existing credit lines and grants to SMEs in local currency including through its EU4Business Initiative;
- The EU has mobilised its major de-risking instrument the European Fund for Sustainable Development (EFSD), worth a total of €1.55 billion, with €500 million being made available for the EU's neighbourhood. This will rapidly provide liquidity in the EU's neighbourhood, including through working capital, trade finance, or moratoria on debt service. This support is in addition to the ongoing macro financial assistance support to partners, including Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.
- The Commission also stands ready to provide assistance through TAIEX, its peer to peer instrument, by using EU member states expertise, experience and examples of good practices on assessing emergency preparedness response scheme and health systems.
Georgian Agriculture Ministry will spend 16 million GEL ($4.86 mln/€4.42 mln) to make sugar, oil and pasta stocks in the country due to the coronavirus outbreak.The ministry will buy 5,000 tonnes of sugar, 500 tonnes of pasta and 1.5 tonnes of sunflower oil.
Georgia has reported seven new cases of coronavirus earlier today, with the total number of confirmed cases standing at 98. 78 of the 98 are active cases, as 18 have recovered and two were foreign citizens who have already left the country.4,978 are under quarantine and 266 others in hospitals.
Georgian Defence Force servicemembers are ensuring quarantine conditions in eastern Georgia's Marneuli and Bolnisi municipalities using equipment provided by partners from the United States and Germany.
Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia has announced a nationwide curfew starting tomorrow at 8 a.m, ‘to effectively contain the spread of coronavirus in Georgia’. Speaking at a special briefing earlier today, Gakharia said that the government has made ‘fast, brave and effective’ decisions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, that is why the country has only had 100 confirmed cases of the virus since February 2020, including 18 recovered.
A 50-year-old woman, who was transferred from the Russian-occupied Abkhazia region into Tbilisi-controlled territory late on March 29, has tested positive for COVID-19.
Specialists from foreign states are consulting Georgian epidemiologists on their success in containing the coronavirus, announced the head of Tbilisi Infectious Disease Hospital Tengiz Tsertsvadze on Imedi TV’s 'Imedis Kvira'.
More than 2,200 individuals have been tested for coronavirus in Georgia since February 26, 2020 and only 110 have been positive.
The European Union Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Olivér Varhelyi has confirmed to Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia during a video conversation today that the EU “continues to stand by partners in the fight against the coronavirus outbreak”, as part of its global response to the pandemic.
The EU will allocate 183 million euros for Georgia in the fight against the coronavirus, Director for the EU's Eastern Neighbourhood Lawrence Meredith has tweeted.
Georgia will benefit from over €183 million ($198,282,717) of redirected bilateral funds from the European Union in response to the coronavirus outbreak.
The European Union delegation to Georgia has welcomed the government of Georgia's anti-crisis plan and said that a clear gender analysis will be crucial to Georgia’s ‘successful handling’ of one of the negative key side effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
Eleven municipalities in Georgia have been awarded 5 million GEL in grants for local infrastructure and business development as part of a programme to support the integrated development of Kakheti, Imereti, Guria and Racha-Lechkhumi-Kvemo Svaneti, announces the Delegation of the European Union to Georgia.
European Union Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Olivér Várhelyi and Prime Minister of Georgia, Giorgi Gakharia, have signed two agreements worth €129 million today in Brussels to assist Georgia in coping with the COVID-19 outbreak and its impact on the country's economy.
European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi has underlined ‘the need for cross-party dialogue’ during a phone talk with Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia earlier today.
Foreign Ministers of 13 member states of the European Union have called on the European Commission ‘to set up a support mechanism’ to allow the Eastern Partnership countries - Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine - ‘secure early access to COVID-19 vaccine’. The letter initiated by Lithuania was signed by the FMs of Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Sweden.
Earlier today Georgian, Ukrainian and Moldovan Foreign Ministers David Zalkaliani, Dmytro Kuleba and Aureliu Ciocoi have pledged to strengthen cooperation on the path to EU integration at a virtual meeting ahead of the Eastern Partnership (EaP) summit.
Infrastructure projects are being conducted in six Georgian municipalities in the Imereti and Guria regions with a value of 2.5 million GEL, which are part of the first phase of the Georgian government’s 220 million GEL Pilot Integrated Regional Development Grant Programme (PiRDP), of which 186 million GEL comes from EU funding.
Georgian Foreign minister David Zalkaliani will pay a two-day official visit to Kiev, Ukraine on May 16-17. During the visit he will also participate in a foreign ministerial meeting with his Ukrainian and Moldovan counterparts.
The European Union will allocate funds for Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova and the Republic of Mali to strengthen their military and defence capabilities. Georgia will receive 12.75 million euros over a period of 36 months to strengthen the capacities of its defence forces, including their ability to provide services to civilians in crises or emergency situations.