The Corona crisis is causing unprecedented shocks to our economies and way of life across Europe and the World. Local and Regional authorities are fighting in the frontline of the crisis, adapting their services to better support citizens and businesses, but the crisis has affected European territories differently.
The different impacts across European regions have shown the diverse levels of resilience of local economies. Despite at local level is where policies take place, the regional dimension and territorial impacts are not enough taken into account when shaping EU-level policies. We believe that territorial diversity and the development of resilient local economies should be prioritized in European recovery measures. The Recovery Plan for Europe should promote more effective multi-level governance that engages cities and regions across Europe, the policy levels closest to EU citizens that best know what society needs.
As National governments and European Institutions are working on the way out of the crisis, we ask them to think of the Corona crisis as a wakeup call that brings us unique opportunities to make our way of life and our economy more resilient. Measures to relaunch the EU Economy should be based on a long term vision built on solidarity, sustainability and social justice, in line with the green and digital transitions. The EU Green Deal and industrial strategy should drive investments to those economic activities that have a place in a climate-neutral world and reduce social ad territorial inequalities across Europe.
What are our Regions doing
Other resources
Regional Initiatives
- Eurocities has created a live update COVID-19 page that presents local initiatives from its members to support their citizens during the crisis
- The Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) listed the pages of the national associations of local authorities that offer information on COVID-19 for their countries.
- The Association of Cities and Regions for sustainable Resource management (ACR+) is collecting and publishing data on the different systems and solutions implemented across Europe to manage municipal waste during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- The Polis Network created a dedicated webpage to share examples of how local authorities deal with public transport and urban mobility to support their citizens during the Covid-19 crisis. The network created also a page with useful resources on Covid-19 and mobility
- The Assembly of European Regions (AER) is monitoring the COVID-19 crisis providing links to resources that may be useful to the European regions.
Funding Opportunities :
- The European Research Area corona platform provides information about funding opportunities in relation to Corona virus at European Union and national level. Among the information available Horizon 2020 call deadline extensions, specific or related to Coronavirus funded and ongoing projects.
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Coronavirus Research – research projects and initiatives to tackle the spread of coronavirus and preparedness for other outbreaks.
- The results of the EUvsVirus Hackathon are now public. The contest identified the best solutions to support European and global in the fight against the coronavirus outbreak
EU Institutions:
- The European Commission launched two packages of measures in response to Covid outbreak: the Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative (CRII) and the Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative Plus (CRII+). These measures mobilise cohesion policy to flexibly respond to the rapidly emerging needs in the most exposed sectors, such as healthcare, SMEs and labour markets, and help the most affected territories in Member States and their citizens. More on the EU Commission response to Covid-19
- The Committee of the Regions endorsed an action plan and launched an exchange platform on COVID-19 that will help local and regional authorities to share needs and solutions and enhance mutual support.
- The European Investment Bank (EIB Group) established a EUR 25 billion guarantee fund to deploy new investments in response to COVID-19 crisis
- The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) developed a 1 billion coronavirus solidarity package to support economies under huge pressure from the coronavirus pandemic.
- The European Network for Rural Development (ENRD) presents rural responses to the COVID-19 crisis and resources from the EU actions and initiatives
- DG Environment published a set of guidelines to ensure proper waste management during the Corona crisis: EU Guidelines on waste management in the context of the coronavirus crisis
- The European Commission’s Intelligent Cities offers case studies of technology-based actions cities are implementing to support their citizens and ecosystem in relation to the current COVID-19 pandemic.
