EU Cohesion Policy: €662 million of additional resources for the recovery in Germany and Poland

The Commission has approved the modification of six Operational Programmes (OP) for the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and European Social Fund in Germany and Poland under REACT-EU for a total of €662 million. In Germany, the Land of Rheinland-Pfalz will receive €35 million for measures to strengthen the innovation and competitiveness of small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs), support to information and knowledge transfers between universities and SMEs, support to accessible tourism for persons with disabilities and energy efficiency measures to reduce Co2 emissions. The OP for Bremen will receive an additional amount of more than €19 million for investments in Research and Development, digitalization measures to support SMEs and the purchase of e-buses for the local transport sector. The Operational Programme for Bavaria will be increased with € 141 million. These resources will be used to strengthen Bavaria’s innovation base with investments in research on digital, green and health-oriented topics. Finally, the ESF OP Bund, covering whole of Germany, will receive an additional €223 million to make businesses future-proof by supporting their digitalisation, improving working capital, supporting their recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and improving their resilience for future crisis. In Poland, the ‘Digital Poland 2014-2020 OP’ will be increased by €219.7 million. The new resources will be allocated to support projects to improve the availability of the IT infrastructure and tools; the migration of e-services and local resources to the cloud; improve cybersecurity; offer digital trainings for administrative staff and general digital connectivity. The Mazowieckie region will receive additional resources of €25 million for investments in increasing the energy efficiency of buildings and in support to e-services provided to citizens in the field of culture and health. REACT-EU is part of NextGenerationEU and provides €50.6 billion additional funding (in current prices) over the course of 2021 and 2022 to Cohesion policy programmes.