COVID 19

The governments of Hungary and Poland have threatened to block the EU’s next budget, the Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027, and the bloc’s recovery package over provisions that recipients of funds must follow rule of law principle. Should their veto persist, then the timely adoption of the budget deal before the current budget expires on the […]

A new vaccine against the coronavirus jointly developed by U.S. pharmaceuticals company Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech is reportedly achieving 90% effectiveness in trials in people that had not been exposed to the virus previously. While it is yet unknown for how long the vaccine’s immunising effect lasts, the announcement has sparked hopes that the severe […]

Member State governments have disbursed only 15% of the €3 trillion in State aid approved by the Commission to help businesses in the first wave of the outbreak. There are also large differences between Member States: Germany by far made the most money available to companies (almost half of all aid schemes approved by the […]

The EU’s top scientific adviser, Belgian microbiologist Peter Piot, has cautioned hopes that the coronavirus will be over soon. Without a vaccine, and unless the structure of the virus changes and becomes less lethal, the two options continue to be herd immunity at the expense of millions of deaths, or continued lockdowns that devastate European […]

Under the State Aid Temporary Framework, the Commission has most recently approved: a €2,3 million Czech scheme to support health SPA facilities affected by the coronavirus outbreak in the Karlovy Vary Region of Czechia; a €450 million Greek scheme to support companies active in certain sectors affected by the coronavirus outbreak, as well as an […]

As reported in the previous edition, the European Commission has confirmed the amendment of the State Aid Temporary Framework that will extend it to 30 June 2021 and broaden its scope to include State aid to help businesses cover their fixed costs up to a threshold of €3 million per undertaking. This is a major […]

The European Commission is consulting Member States on a draft proposal that would prolong the State Aid Temporary Framework adopted on 19 March to allow for relief measures in response to the COVID-19 crisis until 30 June 2021. The draft would also extend the scope of the framework by enabling Member States to contribute to […]

The European Commission has approved the repurposing of €1,2 billion in Cohesion policy funding in Spain which will be used to cushion the negative effects of the coronavirus crisis on the country’s economy. The funds will support SMEs contributing to boost the healthcare sector and develop the ITC sector. A similar modification of €550 million […]

On 22 September, EU Member States reaffirmed their commitment to maintaining a functioning Schengen zone and Internal Market. The previous week, Single Market Commissioner Thierry Breton had warned that “unilateral restrictions on the free movement of goods and services would not be acceptable and would seriously hamper our collective recovery.” Freight traffic should keep flowing […]

The Commission has begun testing a new interoperability service for national coronavirus tracking apps. Test runs were launched between the backend servers of the official apps from the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Italy and Latvia, and the newly established gateway server that is to facilitate the data exchanges. The European Parliament has requested to […]