Coronavirus response: almost €110.7 million to support Italy fighting the pandemic

The European Commission has approved the modification of the last two EU cohesion policy operational programmes in Italy to address the effects of the pandemic on the health and socio-economic systems. These modifications will redirect almost €110.7 million, bringing a total of almost €5.3 billion of cohesion funds mobilised for the country since the beginning of the pandemic. In particular, the amendment of the national operational programme “Metropolitan Cities” concerns a request for a temporary increase of the EU co-financing rate to 100% for eligible actions, thus helping beneficiaries overcome liquidity scarcity in the implementation of their projects. The modification of the “Research and Innovation” national operational programme will redirect funds to support the health and the education sectors, especially tertiary education, with a prorogation by 2 months of scholarships for PhD students and vulnerable students. Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Elisa Ferreira, said: “I congratulate Italy for taking full advantage of the flexibility measures under the Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative to address the effects of the coronavirus outbreak. Now that all cohesion policy programmes have been amended, Italian health workers and patients, citizens, students and businesses from all around the country will be more able to recover from the coronavirus effects.” Modifying cohesion policy programmes is possible thanks to the exceptional flexibility provided under the Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative (CRII) and Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative Plus (CRII+) which allows Member States to use Cohesion policy funding to support the most exposed sectors to the pandemic. Further details are available here.