The European Union COVID-19 Resources
Update May 12, 2020: Members of the European Parliament will debate the post-2020 budget revision and economic recovery package plans with the Commission and Council followed by a vote on a resolution on Friday. The Parliament will also formally request that the European Commission submit a proposal for a 2021-2027 budget by June 15 2020. The UK and U.S. will continue the first round negotiations on a free-trade agreement, which kicked off on May 5 and is set to last two weeks. The UK and EU will start their third round of trade negotiations this week.
The EU is releasing 37B€ in funding to address COVID-19 across the EU and the UK. The so-called Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative, packages funds from Brussels with public funding owned by EU capitals and will be distributed in each country. Each country decides on how to spend it – e.g. on remote working systems.
- Priorities for projects to be funded:
o Healthcare: purchasing of inhalators, hospital equipment, masks etc.
o SMEs: support to provide working capital lending
o Jobs: short-term employment schemes
- All expenditure from 1 February 2020 will be eligible for funding.
- Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative
o Structural Funds: 8B€ liquidity from the EU to be made available as soon as all EU approvals are in place.
o If fully used, this will be complemented by 29B€ sitting around in capitals across the EU.
o The preliminary distribution shows 826M€ for Germany, 650M€ for France, 555M€ for the UK.
o Please see table at the end of this email for expected distribution of funds per EU country.
o Within the next month, up to 800M€ extra payments will be made available for the hardest hit EU countries, through the EU Solidarity Fund.
- Support package for SMEs
o 1B€ to be made available as a guarantee via the European Investment Fund for commercial banks to provide liquidity to SMEs and midcaps.
o =8B€ of financing for at least 100,000 European SMEs and small mid-caps.
o 500M€ to be allocated to loan guarantees for SMEs (via the COSME program) within the coming weeks.
o 100M€ to be allocated to guarantees on debt financing for innovative SMEs (via the InnovFin program) within the coming weeks.
o 400M€ via the European Fund for Strategic Investments (through EFSI programs for infrastructure & innovation, and SMEs).
o Through ce lien you can find national financial intermediaries for EU funding programs, including InnovFin and COSME.
- European Investment Bank to mobilize up to 40B€:
o Up to 20B€ as guarantee schemes to banks,
o Up to 10B€ as liquidity lines to support SMEs and mid-caps,
o Up to 10B€ as asset-backed securities purchasing programs to allow banks to transfer risk on portfolios of SME loans.
- The European Central Bank (ECB) announced the following measures:
o Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP) with an envelope of 750B€:
- This is in addition to the 120B€ they announced on 12 March. Together this amounts to 7.3% of euro area GDP,
- The programme will be in place until at least the end of 2020. After that period, the ECB can terminate purchases once it decides that the COVID-19 crisis phase is over,
- It will be available to all jurisdictions,
- Purchases under PEPP will include all asset categories eligible under the ECB’s existing asset purchase programme.
o ECB will also make available up to €3 trillion in liquidity through its refinancing operations, at interest rates as low as -0.75%.
o European banking supervisors have also freed up an estimated 120B€ of extra bank capital, which can support considerable lending capacity by euro area banks.
| Markets | Amounts in billion € to be released as liquidity | Unspent EU funding sitting in national capitals (date of availability TBC) | Total available spend per country |
| Hongrie | 855 | 4.748 | 5.603 |
| Italie | 853 | 1.465 | 2.318 |
| Slovénie | 527 | 1.948 | 2.475 |
| Roumanie | 491 | 2.588 | 3.079 |
| le Portugal | 405 | 1.407 | 1.813 |
| Grèce | 355 | 1.421 | 1.776 |
| Allemagne | 328 | 498 | 826 |
| France | 312 | 338 | 650 |
| République tchèque | 294 | 869 | 1.163 |
| United Kingdom (until end of 2020) | 244 | 311 | 555 |
| Lituanie | 222 | 1.264 | 1.487 |
| Croatie | 174 | 984 | 1.158 |
| Bulgarie | 122 | 690 | 812 |
| Lettonie | 118 | 674 | 792 |
| Slovénie | 115 | 471 | 586 |
| Estonie | 73 | 222 | 295 |
| Belgique | 37 | 29 | 66 |
| Finlande | 24 | 24 | 48 |
| Suède | 23 | 23 | 46 |
| Danemark | 18 | 20 | 38 |
| Pays-Bas | 14 | 11 | 25 |
| L'Autriche | 13 | 6 | 19 |
| Malte | 9 | 39 | 48 |
| Chypre | 7 | 39 | 45 |
| Espagne | 1.161 | 2.984 | 4.145 |
| Pologne | 1.125 | 6.31 | 7.435 |
| Irlande | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Luxemburg | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| TOTAL: | 7.922 | 29.384 | 37.306 |