Considerations on COM(2020)114 - Amendment of Council Regulation (EC) No 2012/2002 in order to provide financial assistance to (candidate) Member States seriously affected by a major public health emergency - Main contents
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| dossier | COM(2020)114 - Amendment of Council Regulation (EC) No 2012/2002 in order to provide financial assistance to (candidate) Member States ... |
|---|---|
| document | COM(2020)114  |
| date | March 30, 2020 |
| (2) | In the event of major public health emergencies, the Union should show its solidarity with Member States and the population concerned by providing financial assistance to help the population affected, to contribute to a rapid return to normal living conditions in the affected regions and to contain the spreading of infectious diseases. |
| (3) | The Union should also show solidarity in the event of major public health emergencies with the countries negotiating their accession to the Union. |
| (4) | A major crisis situation may result from public health emergencies, in particular an officially declared virus pandemic. The Fund enables the Union to help in mobilising emergency services to meet people’s immediate needs and to contribute to the short-term restoration of damaged key infrastructure so that economic activity can resume in the disaster-stricken regions. That Fund is currently limited, however, to natural disasters causing physical damage and does not include major disasters due to biological hazards. Provision should be made to allow the Union to intervene in the event of major public health emergencies. |
| (5) | The objective of the action to be taken is to complement the efforts of the States concerned in such cases where the effects of a crisis situation are of such gravity that those States cannot tackle the situation by their own means alone. Since that objective cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States but can rather, by reason of the scale and effects of the action, be better achieved at Union level, the Union may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union (‘TEU’). In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve that objective. |
| (6) | In line with the principle of subsidiarity, action under this Regulation should be confined to major public health emergencies. Those emergencies should be defined depending on the basis of the public expenditure necessary to address them. |
| (7) | Union assistance should be complementary to the efforts of the States concerned and be used to cover a share of the public expenditure committed to dealing with the most essential emergency operations resulting from the emergency situation. |
| (8) | In line with the principle of subsidiarity, Union assistance should only be awarded upon application by the affected State. The Commission should ensure equitable treatment of requests presented by the States. |
| (9) | The Commission should be able to take a rapid decision to commit specific financial resources and to mobilise them as quickly as possible. The existing provisions for making advance payments should therefore be strengthened by increasing their amounts. |
| (10) | This Regulation should enter into force as a matter of urgency on the day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. |
| (11) | In view of the COVID-19 outbreak and the urgency to address the associated public health crisis, it was considered to be appropriate to provide for an exception to the eight-week period referred to in Article 4 of Protocol No 1 on the role of national Parliaments in the European Union, annexed to the TEU, to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and to the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community. |
| (12) | Regulation (EC) No 2012/2002 should therefore be amended accordingly, |