Cohesion policy action against coronavirus
EU cohesion policy contributes to the fight against coronavirus with numerous projects all over Europe. Project beneficiaries have quickly reacted to the sanitary and socio-economic emergency situation using cohesion policy funds to adjust their resources and/or propose solutions. This section displays news and video testimonials on cohesion policy projects related to COVID-19.
Projects
- Heart Institute upgrade boosts Romanian healthcare system
- Commission welcomes the political agreement on REACT-EU
- A mobile hospital deployed in record time at the French-Spanish-Andorra border
- Stories from the regions: Coronavirus - EU solidarity in action in Réunion, Comoros and Seychelles
- Smart Regions: rapid coronavirus tests thanks to CoNVat project
- Finland’s COVID-19 information website helps keep citizens safe
- Italy and Slovenia cooperate to combat COVID-19 crisis
- Coronavirus pandemic: EU funds ensure fast production of protective equipment in Spain and Portugal
- Coronavirus response: Support for health systems and businesses in Italy through Cohesion policy
- EU funds mitigate the impact of the pandemic in Denmark and near the Hungarian-Slovakian border
- Cohesion policy: Commission approves €47 million investment in South West Romania's emergency hospital
- Stories from the regions: the Lower Austrian Digitalization strategy “House of Digitalization”
- Stories from the regions: EU Solidarity across borders between Ukraine and Poland
- Smart Regions: I-MOVE COVID-19 to fight the virus with a multidisciplinary approach
- Producing protective masks for medical workers in Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina
- Interreg EMR programme launches COVID-19 call
- Community centre at home at time of COVID-19 thanks to cohesion policy
- EU solidarity at time of COVID-19: watch the new episode of "Smart Regions"
- Lower Austria: digitalisation support people at home and commerce during COVID-19 lockdown
- COVID-19: mobile health units support the most vulnerable people in Portugal's Centro region
- Cohesion Policy helps saving lives, jobs and businesses in the coronavirus outbreak and the Zagreb earthquake aftermath
- Cohesion Policy funding mobilised for quick and targeted response to the coronavirus emergency in Bulgaria
- MisMi: a cohesion policy project supporting those most hit by COVID-19
- CoBiUM: supporting urban mobility with cargo bikes during COVID-19 pandemic
- Slovakia: helping the most vulnerable in the fight against COVID-19 & beyond
- FISABIO: increasing research capacity for infectious disease laboratory in Spain
- “AD:VENTURE”: helping London’s hospitals coping with COVID-19
- Covid-19: EU funds help better equip emergency healthcare services in Bulgaria
- Belgian innovative lab in the frontline for prototype development against coronavirus
- 9th May - 70 years later, concrete achievements and EU solidarity - Italy, Albania, Montenegro
- Poland: preventing and fighting coronavirus thanks to cohesion policy support in the Lodzkie province
- Fighting COVID-19 isolation & increasing social inclusion: matching needs & competences in Turin’s neighbourhood
- Croatia: making sure education continues during the lockdown
- Stories from the Regions: Adaptive Innovation Powered by Interreg
- “Your health matters”: an example of solidarity against coronavirus in Romania
- RESCUE: fighting coronavirus across borders in Poland, Belarus and Ukraine
- Czechia: supporting research to test possible coronavirus vaccine and treatments
- Emergency health in Bulgaria: EU investments are helping to fight coronavirus
- TEX-MED ALLIANCES: a database to match producers of health fabrics with users
- XBIT: using 3D technology to help fighting COVID-19 at the Croatian-Serbian border
- Estonian R&D support fund targets Covid-19
- Stories from the regions - EU solidarity in the field of healthcare: Luxembourg-France
- Stories from the regions - EU solidarity in the field of healthcare: Germany-France
- Stories from the regions - EU solidarity in the field of healthcare: Spain-France
- Medical sensors boost response to Italy’s COVID-19 crisis
- The Good Support Program: an example of European solidarity from the bottom at the time of the COVID-19 crisis
COVID-19 crisis & EU solidarity Stories from the Regions
Stories from the regions: Coronavirus - EU solidarity in action in Réunion, Comoros and Seychelles
Cooperation and volunteering projects co-financed by INTERREG European funds in the outermost regions health sector have not stopped despite the difficulties linked to the COVID crisis and the lockdown. While continuing their activities remotely, operators in the field were able to support their projects, to reinforce healthcare and medical expertise, to share experiences.
Thanks to the solidarity and the support from the EU, cooperation between the islands adapts to the context, is strengthened and proves to be very useful in meeting the needs of distant territories.
Important note: This episode was made during the first wave of the pandemic and the first lockdown, in the spring of 2020.
Smart Regions: Rapid coronavirus tests thanks to CoNVat project (Spain)
CoNVat is an EU project that is about direct, fast and specific identification of coronavirus to improve its early diagnosis and the clinical management of patients. The approach employs an already developed technology based on nanophotonic bimodal waveguide (BiMW) interferometers capable of providing real time, highly sensitive detections assays in short sample turnaround times. Final prototype validation will demonstrate the potential of this approach for the management of future infectious outbreaks.
Smart Regions: I-Move against COVID-19
Strengthening the epidemiological and virological surveillance of COVID-19 will be key to defeating the disease.In addition to bringing together case data from hospitals and other primary care clinics, the project will also study the effectiveness of any future vaccines or treatments for the virus. The goal is to obtain as much information as possible about COVID-19, and to make sure the same methodology is practised among the partners and participating countries. The first step takes place in clinics or doctors surgeries where a case might be diagnosed.
Smart Regions: "The Good Support Program" to fight COVID-19 in Poland & beyond
“The Good Support Program” is a EU cohesion policy project in Poland which develops remote management of care services. At time of COVID-19, this project beneficiary has decided to provide their innovative IT tool for free for the duration of the crisis, to help other European communities fighting the coronavirus emergency. The value of this project was already awarded by the European Commission with the title of RegioStars 2019 for the most innovative IT tool in social services.
This project is even more valuable in the current context of COVID-19 spread as citizens can benefit from tele-medicine and two nurses who are helping on the ground in hospitals and patients’ home.
Stories from the regions - Health aid in remote mountain areas between Italy and France
The MISMI project financed by EU cohesion policy supports people living in mountain, rural and dispersedly populated areas between Valle d’Aosta region in Italy and Tarentaise in France. The project is about linking people in need with caregivers and the community using technology, thus contributing to fight people’s isolation and social and health inequalities.
This project is even more valuable in the current context of COVID-19 spread as citizens can benefit from tele-medicine and two nurses who are helping on the ground in hospitals and patients’ home.
Stories from the regions - Fab labs innovation to tackle COVID-19
The TRAKK Fab lab in the city of Namur, Belgium, turned very quickly all its efforts towards the fight against the epidemic. Today, thanks to the participation of European regional funds, they manage to produce and distribute 30,000 protective visors. In partnership with other companies in the region, they are currently designing a prototype syringe pump that would be freely accessible to everyone.
Stories from the regions - EU solidarity in the field of healthcare: Spain-France
The Cerdanya hospital– funded by Interreg – and located at the border between Spain and France is getting prepared to treat patients with COVID-19 from both sides of the border. They even have an agreement similar to the “green lanes” with the frontier police to let the patients freely cross the border.
Stories from the regions - EU solidarity in the field of healthcare: Germany-France
SHG-Kliniken Voelklingen is a hospital based in Germany, in the cross-border area of the Greater region close to Belgium, France, and Luxembourg. The hospital is admitting COVID-19 patients from France who need critical support. The hospital is a beneficiary of several EU supported Interreg cross-border cooperation projects, like SANTRANSFOR and COSAN.
Stories from the regions - EU solidarity in the field of healthcare: Luxembourg-France
The Luxembourg Hospital Federation (FHL) currently counts 10 members, Luxembourg-based hospitals and specialised clinics. In the face of COVID-19 crisis, the FHL mobilised its members to receive patients from France and the Greater Region.
Stories from the Regions: Adaptive Innovation Powered by Interreg
The FILA project (IPA-CBC Italy-Albania-Montenegro) aims to enhance SMEs competitiveness and cross border cooperation through the creation of ‘Fertilization and Innovation Labs in Agro-food’ (FILA Labs). In the face of the pandemic, one of the partners in the project – the Innovation and entrepreneurship center TECHNOPOLIS - quickly adapted and started using its 3D printer to produce protective equipment – visors – for essential medical and economic staff.
Project web site