Coronavirus Covid-19: Tzitzikostas (European Committee of the Regions), “Europe must support the local authorities that are busy on the epidemical front”

“I pay tribute to all those local and regional authorities that are on the frontline and above all to those who are personally paying a high price. Europe can count on us”: the president of the European Committee of the Regions, Apostolos Tzitzikostas, sends a message in support of the “field battle” fought by local and regional leaders “to contain the spread of the virus and manage its impact”. However, the EU must help: if all that the institutions have done so far is positive, then Tzitzikostas proposes “a European health emergency mechanism”, aimed at “helping cities and regions all over Europe urgently hire additional medical staff, buy more medical devices, support intensive care services, and provide hospitals and schools with medical and safety materials and equipment”. Such mechanism would be expected “to make financial resources easier and more easily available from the regional, national and European budgets for public health services”: existing national and regional resources, available European structural and investment funds redirected to the urgent requirements, and up to 10 billion euros of fresh resources from the EU’s current budget margins. Then, access to available resources should be made easier to allow the local communities to use such funds as soon as possible.
Valentina Bombelli