Tomac: Romania will be able use about 3.1 billion euros, European money, to fight coronavirus

Romania will be able to use approximately 3.1 billion euros to fight against COVID-19, out of the 37 billion euros that will be made available to EU member states to combat the crisis, People's Movement Party (PMP) Chairman, MEP Eugen Tomac stated.

"By setting up the Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative, 37 billion euros of European structural funds will be made available to the Member States to combat the crisis. 8 out of 37 billion come from unspent pre-financing, which will not be repaid but used in the fight against COVID-19, while the remaining 29 billion represent the European co-financing. Of these amounts, Romania can use about 3.1 billion euros to fight against COVID-19, which does not include the amounts released by the EIB or the Romanian state contributions through state aid," wrote Eugen Tomac on Facebook, after the plenary session of the European Parliament.

According to the PMP leader, the second instrument, the EU Solidarity Fund, used for major natural disasters, is now expanding its scope for public health crises, and "up to 800 million euros are available in 2020 from this fund."

At the same time, the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund has up to 179 million euros available this year to support laid-off workers and the self-employed, Tomac said.

The SMEs affected by the crisis will also benefit from EU support.

"For the support of the affected SMEs, one billion euros will be channeled from the EU budget to the European Investment Fund, so that banks can provide financing and provide liquidity to SMEs and medium-sized enterprises. According to the European Commission estimates, this tool can help at least 100,000 European SMEs with financing totaling about 8 billion euros," the MEP said.

Also, to support the aviation industry, the MEPs voted to regulate the time slot situation, an important issue for air carriers, Tomac further specified.

"From now on, they will keep their time slots without having to take off with empty aircraft [ed.n - time slots allow a company to take off and land at a certain airport within a certain time frame]. The measure applies for the period March 1 - October 24, 2020," said the PMP leader.

According to Eugen Tomac, these measures were voted in the plenary session of the European Parliament, that he remotely attended on Thursday, extremely important measures that the EU has taken to overcome the unprecedented crisis that the world is facing.