Move to boost EU budget by 6.2BN euro to address Covid-19 impact
The Council of the European Union agreed on September 11 to add 6.2 billion euro to the EU 2020 budget to address the impact of the Covid-19-crisis and to fund, inter alia, the vaccine strategy, the Council of the EU said in a media statement.
The revised budget increases payments for the Emergency Support Instrument (ESI) by 1.09 billion euro to ensure the development and deployment of a Covid-19 vaccine, the statement said.
The European Commission will use this money as a down-payment for pre-ordering vaccine doses.
The draft amendments also increase payments by 5.1 billion euro for the Corona Response Investment Initiative (CRII) and the Corona Response Investment Initiative Plus (CRII+).
The money will be used to cover the additional needs for cohesion funding forecast until the end of the year.
The CRII redirects unspent money from the EU budget to tackling the Covid-19 crisis, while the CRII+ relaxes the cohesion spending rules to increase flexibility.
At its September 14-17 2020 plenary, the European Parliament is expected to agree on its position on the draft amending budget proposal, the statement said.
Once there is an agreement, the draft amending budget will enter into force.
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