(STRASBOURG) – The EU Parliament gave the go-ahead to an increase in the EU budget of EUR 6.2 billion Thursday, to improve the chances of an effective and safe vaccine, and to step up COVID-19-related cohesion funding.
Cohesion funds will be topped up with 5.1 billion to ensure that requests for reimbursements from EU Member States for actions taken under the Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative Plus (CRII+) can be covered.
The CRII+ was created to relax the cohesion spending rules to increase flexibility, whereas the CRII redirected unspent money from the EU budget to tackling the COVID-19 crisis.
The vaccine-related EUR 1.1 billion will increase payments for the Emergency Support Instrument (ESI), a significant part of which is used to secure the production of vaccines in the EU and sufficient supplies for its member states. This is part of the European Commission’s COVID-19 vaccine strategy.
Further information, European Parliament
