European Commission has approved EUR 209 million support to Latvia to mitigate consequences from Covid-19 crisis

RIGA - The European Commission has approved EUR 209 million support to Latvia  to mitigate consequences from Covid-19 crisis, LETA learned from the Finance Ministry.

The government in June adopted amendments to the EU funds program Growth and Employment that will allow use of the so-called REACT-EU funding offered by the European Commission to mitigate consequences from the pandemic crisis.

The guaranteed allocation for Latvia in 2021 is EUR 209,989,210, while in 2022 the estimated allocation could reach EUR 62,010,790.

"REACT-EU funding will be targeted on those sectors that are significant to ensure stable economic recovery. For example, investments in preservation of jobs, support for creating new jobs, for small and medium companies, for strengthening the health care sector. This support will be available in different economic sectors, also in tourism and culture," the ministry said earlier.

The support will also be used for investments in European green course and digital transformation. A certain part of the funding should go to events in climate change.

REACT-EU (Recovery Assistance for Cohesion and the Territories of Europe) will be one of the largest programs under new instrument Next Generation EU amounting to EUR 50.6 billion.

It continues and extends the crisis response and crisis repair measures delivered through the Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative and the Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative Plus and constitutes a bridge to the long-term recovery plan. Therefore, these additional resources should be used for projects that foster crisis repair capacities in the context of the coronavirus crisis, as well as investments in operations contributing to preparing a green, digital and resilient recovery of the economy.