Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative: EU countries make good use of the increased flexibility to spend their cohesion policy funding

Today, the Commission is publishing a first, provisional evaluation of how EU Member States have been making use of the Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative (CRII) packages. Since the adoption of the first CRII proposal, Member States have mobilised with unprecedented speed vast amounts of cohesion policy resources to fight the coronavirus crisis. So far, 26 EU countries and the UK have made use of the flexibilities provided for under the CRII, and 18 countries have adjusted their cohesion policy programmes accordingly. Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Elisa Ferreira,said: “The results we are publishing today show that the Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative packages are a much needed help for our Member States. They have provided the legal means for countries to readapt their investment plans and quickly mobilise EU funding to areas most in need, such as health sectors as well as employment and SMEs support.” Moreover, thanks to CRII and the modification of Commission’s internal procedures to allow for a swift treatment of all requests, programme modifications could be introduced and executed at record speed. As a result, there are 88 confirmed coronavirus relevant programme amendments from 18 countries, and many more are to come in the next few weeks. More information on the results so far is available in this factsheet. The Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative website is also presenting concrete examples of results from EU countries. The Commission is expected to publish a report on CRII packages results in October 2020.