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#COVID-19 - €3 billion emergency support for national health care systems

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Parliament has adopted new measures mobilizing €3 billion of targeted support for health care systems in EU regions that have been hit the hardest by the corona crisis.

Europe’s health sectors are under extreme pressure because of the COVID-19 outbreak. The EU is mobilising an additional €3.08bn to support national healthcare systems in fighting the pandemic and providing medical services to patients in need. The measures were approved by MEPs on 17 April.

The initiative serves to coordinate resource distribution and cross-border cooperation, with a focus on the most affected regions. It will help with the construction of field hospitals and coordinate and financially support the transportation of corona patients to hospitals with free capacity.

The money will also be used to directly purchase and distribute medical supplies such as respirators, protective equipment and reusable masks. Other actions are possible, depending on the needs of EU countries. In the longer term, the funds will improve medical research and testing capacities in EU countries.

The funds come from all remaining available means in this year’s budget.

  • €2.7bn will be put into the EU's Emergency Support Instrument
  • €380 million will go to the rescEU reserve of medical equipment

Member states can also contribute financially and people or foundations can make donations. Crowd-funding is also possible.

What is the EU's Emergency Support Instrument?
  • A tool to fight severe crises with significan humanitarian impact where no other available instrument is sufficient
  • It enables immediate EU assistance
  • It has been designed so that it can be used alongside existing measures
  • It has already been activated to help to deal with influx of refugees in Greece
  • The European Commission proposes to activate it for two years to help with coronavirus emergency

An expert task force will monitor ongoing developments in close co-operation with national health authorities, international organizations and non-governmental organizations. Operations will start as soon as Parliament and Council have approved it.

What is rescEU?
  • An European reserve, set up to assist when the resources of member states are insufficient
  • initially included a fleet of firefighting planes and helicopters. Because of COVID-19, it has stockpiled medical equipment, such as ventilators and protective masks, to help countries facing shortages

Find out 10 things the EU is doing to the fight the coronavirus

Find out more

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