Romania will immediately receive EUR 1 billion in aid from the European Commission to help mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. The vote on the monetary aid took place on Thursday in the European Parliament.
As a result, Romania won’t have to repay EUR 483 million – the unspent pre-financing from the EU’s cohesion funds – and will receive a further EUR 637 million from the deposits of the March-April structural funds. The latter will be transferred by the European Commission as soon as possible. In addition, Romania will also receive its share of the millions of masks and ventilators that the EU has ordered and plans to share among member states based on their needs.
“The EU didn’t shine in the first weeks of the pandemic, but it has become crystal clear by now that we need to remove the roadblocks and strongly align the shipments of food and medical equipment among member states,” said Lóránt Vincze, MEP of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania, otherwise known by its Hungarian acronym of RMDSZ.
As we previously reported, the European Commission announced the Coronavirus Investment Initiative with a budget of EUR 37 billion in an effort to support member states in the ongoing crisis. The total amount that Romania can access is EUR 3 billion, but the first billion is to be made available immediately. The aid is targeted for investments in member states’ healthcare systems, the purchase of healthcare and protective equipment, disease prevention, e-health, medical devices, and helping SMEs tackle short-term financial shocks linked to the coronavirus epidemic.
Title image: Pixabay
