MEPs approve €6.2 billion to tackle crisis and speed up vaccine deployment

Published by
The Malta Business Weekly
  • EU budget 2020 to be increased by €6.2 billion
  • €1.1 billion to develop and deploy a COVID-19 vaccine
  • Cohesion funds will be reinforced with €5.1 billion

The funds will allow the EU to improve its chances of having an effective and safe vaccine available as soon as possible, and to step up COVID-19-related cohesion funding.

Cohesion funds will be topped up with €5.1 billion to ensure that requests for reimbursements from member states for actions taken under the Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative Plus (CRII+) can be covered. The CRII+ was created to relax the cohesion spending rules to increase flexibility, whereas the CRII redirected unspent money from the EU budget to tackling the COVID-19 crisis.

The vaccine-related €1.1 billion will increase payments for the Emergency Support Instrument (ESI), a significant part of which is used to secure the production of vaccines in the EU and sufficient supplies for its member states. This is part of the European Commission’s COVID-19 vaccine strategy.

Parliament approved the proposal with 643 votes in favour, 29 against and 14 abstentions.

The Malta Business Weekly

In 1994, the Malta Business Weekly became the first newspaper fully dedicated to business. Today this newspaper is a leader in business and financial news. Together with the launch of the MBW newspaper, the company started organising various business breakfasts to discuss various current issues that were targeting the business community in Malta.

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