I voted in favour of this report as it contains proposals that must be immediately deployed to create minimum conditions for mobilising cash reserves in the European Structural and Investment Funds to tackle the crisis. The quasi-unanimous support that the report gathered shows how the European Parliament can act united in the interests of the European citizens when it comes to alleviate the effects of this unprecedented crisis. The report contains provisions to modify three legal acts aiming at allowing Member States to make use of those regional funds (ERDF - European Regional Development Fund, ESF - European Social Fund, CF - Cohesion Fund and EMFF European Maritime and Fisheries Fund) that are still unspent to accelerate investments related to the COVID-19 outbreak.
In agreement with the Council these measures will take immediate effect in all Member States, but these are only a small part of what should be done to reinforce the response mechanism. It is of utmost importance that the European institutions take urgently decisions to temporarily modify the existing framework in support of the real economy, with particular attention to SMEs and microenterprises’ working capital and addressing also investments in research and innovation in public health-related services. I am spending much of my political influence to propose further measures especially to commissioners Gabriel and Breton, because there is the need to take stronger action to help the economic sectors that are hardly hit by the measures taken in most of Member States to contain and suppress the virus.