ENSIE Statements on EU Projects during COVID-19

From our partners in ENSIE

In these difficult times, when lot of political speeches are often made in vague terms about the future, ENSIE can only agree with Ursula von der Leyen’s speech where she puts solidarity at the heart of the political answers to the crisis. We do not hear such words so frequently at EU level. ENSIE and its European partners now need to ensure that they will be translated into concrete actions.

“In this Coronavirus Crisis, only the strongest of responses will do. We must use every means at our disposal. Every available euro in the EU budget will be redirected to address it, every rule will be eased to enable the funding to flow rapidly and effectively. With a new solidarity instrument, we will mobilise €100 billion to keep people in jobs and businesses running. With this, we are joining forces with Member States to save lives and protect livelihoods. This is European solidarity.” Ursula von der Leyen 

ENSIE would like to underline the measures taken by the European Commission in the last few days and weeks to propose solutions and to attenuate the Coronavirus Crisis in Europe.

The Commission has adopted the Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative, which gives Member States access to €37 billion of cohesion money and the State Aid Temporary Framework. The Commission also created the SURE (Support to mitigate Unemployment Risks in an Emergency) initiative doted of €100 billion. Overall, all the EU institutions are mobilised. The ECB created a Pandemic Purchase Programme, the EIB developed a guarantee access to finance for all SMEs and mid-caps doted of €20 billion and the Council activated of the General Escape Clause of the Stability and Growth Pact. 

Regarding the Coronavirus Crisis, ENSIE also had a look at what initiatives the European Commission is taking in favour of the social economy with seminars and open source collection of good practices.

The Coronavirus Crisis will affect the EU and its citizens, their economy and their societies in the long term. Therefore, economic solutions should rely on these aspects and in this regards, the European Commission proposed to use the MFF to act on the economic and social consequences of the current crisis in the long term.