Support for economic recovery after and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic
Promoting digital and green transformation
864 million EUR for 2021-2027
The Technical Support Instrument will help EU countries prepare the recovery plans needed to access funding from the Recovery and Resilience Facility.
The regulation adopted by Plenary on Tuesday, with 540 votes in favour, 75 against and 77 abstentions outlines how the Technical Support Instrument (TSI) will support economic recovery after and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic by promoting economic, social and territorial cohesion as well as digital and green transitions including biodiversity and implementation of climate targets. The reforms supported by the instrument should effectively address the challenges identified in the adopted country-specific recommendations.
Specific objectives and actions
The TSI will assist national authorities in preparing, amending, implementing and revising their national plans. The text sets out a list of key actions to be carried out, such as digitalisation of administrative structures and public services, in particular healthcare, education or the judiciary, creating policies to help people retrain for the labour market and building resilient care systems and coordinated response capabilities. A single online public repository managed by the European Commission will provide information on the actions that fall under the TSI.
TSI budget and implementation
The TSI will have a budget of €864 million over the period 2021-2027 (in current prices). In order to receive technical support, such as expertise related to policy change or to prepare strategies and reform roadmaps, a member state has to submit a request to the Commission by 31 October, outlining the policy areas it will focus on. To ensure resources are readily available and that there is an immediate response in urgent or unforeseen circumstances, up to 30% of the yearly allocation should be reserved for special measures.
Next steps
Once Council has also formally approved the regulation, it will enter into force one day after its publication in the Official Journal of the EU. There is going to be a transitional period for actions initiated before 31 December 2020, which will be governed by the Structural Reform Support Programme (2017-2020) until their completion.
The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response found critical elements to be “slow, cumbersome and indecisive” in an era when information about new disease outbreaks is being transmitted faster than countries can formally report on them.
“When there is a potential health threat, countries and the World Health Organization must further use the 21st century digital tools at their disposal to keep pace with news that spreads instantly on social media and infectious pathogens that spread rapidly through travel”, said Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand and co-chair of the panel.
“Detection and alert may have been speedy by the standards of earlier novel pathogens, but viruses move in minutes and hours, rather than in days and weeks.”
The Independent Panel was established to review lessons learned from international response to COVID-19, which first emerged in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. Nearly 94 million confirmed cases and more than two million deaths have been reported globally as of Tuesday.
The panel’s second progress report said countries were slow to respond to the new coronavirus disease, noting “there were lost opportunities to apply basic public health measures at the earliest opportunity”.
Although WHO declared on 30 January 2020 that COVID-19 was a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), the panel found many countries took minimal action to prevent spread both within and beyond their borders.
“What is clear to the Panel is that public health measures could have been applied more forcefully by local and national health authorities in China in January”, the report said.
“It is also clear to the Panel that there was evidence of cases in a number of countries by the end of January 2020. Public health containment measures should have been implemented immediately in any country with a likely case. They were not.”
The report also outlined critical shortcomings at each phase of response, including failure to prepare for a pandemic despite years of warning.
“The sheer toll of this epidemic is prima facie evidence that the world was not prepared for an infectious disease outbreak with global pandemic potential, despite the numerous warnings issued that such an event was probable”, it said.
Deepening inequalities
Pandemic response has also deepened inequalities, according to the panel, with inequitable access to COVID-19 vaccines a glaring example as rollout has favoured wealthy nations.
“A world where high-income countries receive universal coverage while low-income countries are expected to accept only 20 per cent in the foreseeable future is on the wrong footing – both for justice and for pandemic control. This failure must be remedied”, said the panel’s co chair, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former President of Liberia.
The report further highlighted the need to strengthen the UN’s health agency.
“The WHO is expected to validate reports of disease outbreaks for their pandemic potential and, deploy support and containment resources, but its powers and funding to carry out its functions are limited”, Ms. Sirleaf said. “This is a question of resources, tools, access, and authority.”
Countries are also urged to ensure testing, contact tracing and other public health measures to reduce virus spread, are being implemented, in efforts to save lives, particularly as more infectious virus variants emerge.
The Independent Panel began its review last September and will present a report to the World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of WHO, in May.
WHO is working with Romania’s Ministry of Health and health professionals in the country to make telephone consultations more widely available. The aim is to institutionalize telemedicine in Romania and make the service easily accessible to patients during and after the pandemic. WHO supported a proposal by the Ministry’s Paediatric Commission to update national health legislation to include phone triage, thereby helping to strengthen health services in the wake of COVID-19.
Many paediatric units in Romania are exploring how to replicate the project, which began in Cluj County in 2014. Alopedi is a phone triage service for children in Romania and in the diaspora that is now publicly owned and financed. Thirty-eight paediatricians work around the clock, taking calls from parents and advising on what type of medical care is needed. Patients can then access the health system at the appropriate level, increasing efficiency and avoiding delays.
WHO Representative to Romania Dr Miljana Grbic called Alopedi “a wonderful example of how we can improve health services and build back better following the COVID-19 pandemic”. She highlighted the model of successful collaboration between public and private sectors and between digital health and community projects, saying this could be shared with and implemented by other countries.
Over 65 000 calls have been made to Alopedi, which was set up by a team of senior paediatric physicians led by Dr Călin Lazăr and Dr Daniela Dreghiciu of Cluj-Napoca Clinical Emergency Hospital for Children. It has proven to be a sought-after and valuable service both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The task is to establish legal norms so that Alopedi’s medical triage service, and other similar initiatives, are integrated into the telemedicine system in Romania,” explained Dr Dreghiciu at Alopedi. “The benefits are clear,” she stressed, adding, “It is a quick, simple and comfortable solution for patients, and we are also looking to expand our service to cover chronic diseases following COVID-19.”
Representatives of the Ministry of Health, hospital representatives, patients, and professionals from the Romanian College of Physicians agreed to work to improve understanding of telemedicine in Romania. This followed a WHO policy dialogue on the proposal by the Paediatric Commission to update national health legislation to include phone triage.
A parent’s perspective
“I called Alopedi when my son suffered a finger injury and I couldn’t go to the paediatrician as it was late at night,” recounts Ms Liana Alexandru. “I didn’t want to go to the emergency room, but I wanted a professional medical opinion that I could trust.”
“I find Alopedi extremely useful. For a parent, it is a relief to have access to such a service, to be able to seek a specialist’s advice at any time when there is no clear emergency but when you do not know what to do. It is also a great mental comfort which helps us to calm down,” she adds.
“The interaction with the doctors from Alopedi was very pleasant. I used their services twice and they were very kind. The call waiting time is short and the doctors gave me all their attention. I found out about Alopedi a few years ago from a popular blogger. At first, I was reluctant to use such a service but, based on my personal experience, I would like the service to be extended nationwide. I would be happy to have something similar in Bucharest,” concludes Ms Alexandru.
MAPUTO – A combined total of €7.6 million in funding from the European Union (EU) is helping the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) address the growing food needs in Mozambique driven by climate change, insecurity, displacement and the socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, while also strengthening national capacity to respond to natural disasters.
Thanks to generous donors like the EU, WFP has been providing vital food assistance to nearly 323,000 people affected by the crisis in Cabo Delgado where escalating violence has displaced over 565,000 people.
“Despite challenging and unprecedented developments over the last few months, our partnership with WFP has ensured uninterrupted assistance to many vulnerable families in Mozambique, and especially to the increased number of persons displaced in Cabo Delgado,” said Annabelle Vasseur, EU Humanitarian Aid Technical Assistant in Mozambique.
The EU is also one of the partners of WFP’s lean season response in Sofala, Manica, Tete, Gaza, Maputo-Province, and Inhambane. Thanks to donations such as the one from the EU, WFP plans to provide food assistance to nearly 470,000 people, while also helping the National Disaster Management Institute (INGC) strengthen its capacity to prepare for and respond to disasters using unmanned aerial vehicles or drones, which efficiently gather essential data.
“The needs in Mozambique have been growing every day. We are grateful to the EU for the continued support that allows us to reach those who need the most”, said Antonella D’Aprile, WFP’s Representative and Country Director for Mozambique. “The EU’s continuous investments in innovative technologies have also played a key role in national preparedness efforts enabling to save lives and conduct assessments in the immediate aftermath of sudden-onset natural disasters”.
Funding from the EU is also allowing WFP to develop life-changing innovations for longer-term climate resilience of communities in drought-prone districts of Gaza and Tete. One of these innovations is the development of an early warning system, which helps farmers prepare for prolonged dry spells. When fully operational, this system will improve farmers’ resilience to natural hazards and reduce the potential damage to the livelihoods and of smallholder farmers.
The European Union is a long-standing partner to WFP, contributing over €32.8 million towards WFP’s activities across Mozambique over the past five years.
The United Nations World Food Programme is the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. We are the world’s largest humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.
Presidents Sassoli and von der Leyen and Prime Minister Costa will hold a joint press conference on the priorities of the Portuguese Council Presidency at 13.00 CET on Wednesday.
When: Wednesday 20 January 13.00 CET
Where: EP Press room and via Interactio
After the debate in plenary, EP President David Sassoli, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Portugal’s Prime Minister António Costa will comment on the programme of the Portuguese Presidency, which focuses on the economic and social recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, achieving an inclusive climate and digital transition, and giving a new impetus to EU relations with Africa and Latin America. They are also expected to talk about COVID-19 vaccination, EU’s relations with the new US administration, and shaping the Conference on the Future of Europe.
Interpretation will be available at the press conference in English, French and Italian and Portuguese.Journalists wishing to actively participate and ask questions, please connect via Interactio by using the link.You can also follow it live from 13.00 CET via Parliament’s webstreaming and EbS+.
BRUSSELS — The European Union’s top migration official on Tuesday criticized Bosnian authorities for failing to properly care for hundreds of migrants living in sub-zero temperatures on its territory, warning the Balkans country of its obligations if it hopes to join the EU.
Bosnia has faced sharp criticism for leaving around 1,000 people without shelter after a fire gutted the makeshift Lipa refugee camp near the northwest border with EU-member Croatia just before Christmas. The authorities at first said they would move the migrants to another location, but finally set up military tents at the site instead after locals elsewhere protested.
“Bosnia-Herzegovina must show it’s capable of managing migration. It must take responsibility, address the humanitarian situation,” Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson told EU lawmakers.
“As a country with a perspective of EU accession, we expect Bosnia-Herzegovina to work on sustainable, long-term solutions, to set up facilities evenly distributed across the full territory of the country,” Johansson said. She said she would visit the area in February.
The problem is not new. Bosnia has been widely criticized in recent years for mishandling the arrival of thousands of people, many fleeing war and poverty. The politically unstable and impoverished Balkan country is still recovering from its own war in the 1990s.
Divided into two feuding entities, Bosnia lacks a unified policy on migrants. The Serb-run part of the country has refused to accept any, and the overburdened northwestern region has complained it has been abandoned despite help from international organizations.
Migrants come to Bosnia with the aim of reaching Croatia before moving on into Western Europe. Many have complained about being pushed back, which is illegal under international refugee law, and violence at the hands of Croatia’s police.
Johansson said thanks to EU help, around 900 people at the site in Bosnia now have shelter in weather-proof tents, with access to heating and food supplies.
“Thanks to our action, the situation has improved, but only from grave to serious. Stopping immediate risk to life is the beginning, not the end, of ensuring acceptable, dignified living conditions,” she said.
The Lipa camp was only ever set up as a temporary measure to cope with the impact of the coronavirus over the summer. Bosnian central authorities wanted to move some migrants to a nearby facility at Bira, but local authorities blocked the move as protests erupted.
“Winter has a long way to run and I must admit that it is frustrating to have to set up tents and temporary shelters when we have an empty, fully equipped and winterized facility just 30 kilometers (19 miles) down the road,” Johansson said.
Jovana Gec in Belgrade contributed to this report.
PanARMENIAN.Net – The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) plans to clear the Boeing 737 MAX to fly again next week, 22 months after the plane was grounded following two fatal crashes, AFP reports.
“For us, the MAX will be able to fly again starting next week,” after publication of a directive, EASA director Patrick Ky said in a video conference.
“We have reached the point where our four main demands have been fulfilled,” Ky said during the conference, organised by the German association of aviation journalists.
The MAX was grounded in March 2019 after two crashes that together killed 346 people — the 2018 Lion Air disaster in Indonesia and an Ethiopian Airlines crash the following year.
Investigators said a main cause of both crashes was a faulty flight handling system known as the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS. Meant to keep the plane from stalling as it ascends, the automated system instead forced the nose of the plane downward. The findings plunged Boeing into crisis, with more than 650 orders for the 737 MAX cancelled since last year.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered Boeing to revamp the jet and implement new pilot training protocols, before finally approving the plane for a return to service in November.
Ky had already indicated in October that EU approval was likely after Boeing promised a new sensor would be added to prevent the type of problems that caused the crashes.
The European Union will unveil plans on Tuesday to bolster the euro internationally in a bid to deal with the dominance of the US dollar and insure the bloc doesn’t face severe financial risks, such as American sanctions, but demonstrates financial resilience, Bloombergreported.
A draft plan to this end outlines the said goals and proposes means to achieve them, including through the development of new markets like green finance, for example.
The European bloc believes its landmark recovery fund, designed to effectively help countries recover from the pandemic-induced crisis, could help boost the euro.
The stimulus package will provide 750 billion euros ($905 billion) in grants and loans, raised by jointly backed debt, while a third of these funds will have to be spent on green projects.
“Promoting sustainable finance is an opportunity to develop EU financial markets into a global ‘green finance’ hub, bolstering the euro as the default currency for the denomination of sustainable financial products”, the draft plan said, dwelling on the idea of sustainability.
Another perceived breakthrough that could also prove to be a game changer in that area is the ECB’s push for the introduction and enhancement of a digital euro, the paper has it.
“Further development of the European digital finance sector will reinforce the EU’s open strategic autonomy in financial services and the capacity to protect the EU’s financial stability and values”, it reads.
Another circumstance that has created a new reality for the EU is Brexit, and the latter is essentially driving the bloc to update its financial infrastructure accordingly, and pressuring separate companies to move parts of their derivatives-clearing business from London to the EU.
“We need a clear step-by-step masterplan that helps key financial sector businesses move from the United Kingdom to the European Union”, said Markus Ferber, a lawmaker in the European Parliament. “A mere ‘wait and see’ approach will not do to bolster European financial markets”, he noted.
Washington’s JCPOA Exit is to Blame
Calls to boost the European currency have gained steam of late due to the fallout from Washington’s reimposed sanctions on Iran (after President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled the US out of the landmark JCPOA deal with Iran in May 2018) that also aimed to punish European financial institutions, companies, and individuals who went on doing business with the Islamic Republic.
Washington’s powers to enforce international sanctions because of the dollar’s hitherto unique status as an international trend-setting currency “has seriously affected the EU’s and its member states’ ability to advance foreign policy objectives”, the draft document says, stressing that America’s policies have, at times, “compromised [the] legitimate trade and investment of EU businesses”.
Donald Trump’s presidency has baffled the majority of Americans for four years. What should we make of decisive Christian support for an American politician whose life and priorities are fundamentally anti-Christian? Why would elected members of any party support legal maneuvers that would undermine American democracy? How could insurrection against the people’s government be configured as patriotism?
As Trump’s reign implodes, these anomalies betray the last gasps of a long-standing American religion that is now passing away — the religion of Christian America sustained by a corrupted version of Christianity.
For the record:
11:26 AM, Jan. 19, 2021An earlier version of this essay mistated Richard Hughes’ middle initial. It is “T” not “L.”
If faith can inspire extremism, a dying belief system can inspire unthinkable deeds, even unthinkable acts of violence, as its adherents attempt to preserve its power — in this case, in the American public square.
To be clear, this dying American religion has little or nothing to do with Jesus, who consistently lifted up oppressed and marginalized people — women, the poor and ethnic minorities, for example — but everything to do with white, patriarchal dominance. And as it dies, it opens up space for new voices that have been marginalized for many years, and there we find fresh hope.
Advertisement
In order to grasp the effect of Christian America on our current crisis, we must look back 500 years to a young Protestant pastor who erected a theological foundation that, in due time, would help sustain a nation the pastor could never have imagined — the United States.
The pastor focused his work on a single city and sought to transform it into a model kingdom of God, a city where God would rule over the church but also over politics, art, music and every other aspect of human life.
The pastor was John Calvin, his city was Geneva, Switzerland, and his work inspired the Puritans who settled New England, the Presbyterians who dominated the Middle Colonies, and the Baptists who would dominate the American South.
By 1776, when the American nation was born, Calvin’s vision of a social order ruled by his concept of the Christian God informed the majority of the faithful throughout most of the 13 colonies.
Advertisement
The Founders, though some were Christian, had a radically different vision for the nation — a vision of liberty and human equality grounded not in the Christian religion or fealty to biblical text but rather in “Nature and Nature’s God,” as Thomas Jefferson put it in the Declaration of Independence. The Constitution’s 1st Amendment went even further, stripping the Christian religion — or any religion, for that matter — from exercising a favored status under the law.
Calvin’s and the Founders’ ideals were clearly at odds , though they have coexisted, often with considerable unease, for most of the nation’s history.
Calvinism, as it has played out in the U.S., explicitly stands for Christian dominance but also implicitly promotes two other forms of cultural and political power — whiteness and patriarchy. Virtually every other form of Christianity that emerged from Western Europe and took root in the United States did the same, and by the 1950s, most Americans understood that the ideal of Christian America meant Protestant dominance, white dominance, male dominance and heterosexual dominance. There was little quarter given anyone who seriously questioned these boundaries.
Then came the 1960s, when the Founders’ promise of liberty and equality for all began to bear new and — if measured in Calvin’s terms — altogether radical fruit. People of color, women, gays, lesbians and nonconforming people of every sort found in the revolution of the 1960s a legitimacy they had not known before. Emboldened, they began to claim their rightful place in America’s public square.
Advertisement
By the late 1970s, Christians chiefly committed to white and patriarchal power launched a counterrevolution that played itself out in U.S. churches and communities, winning over fundamentalists and evangelicals in particular. Intent on controlling the nation’s halls of power, their efforts sailed under the banner of saving Christian America.
A little more than a generation later, when voters chose the nation’s first Black president, it was clear that the counterrevolution was failing. “All men are created equal” had pushed Calvin’s legacy to the wings of the American stage.
Philosopher-theologian Paul Tillich once defined religion as one’s ultimate concern precisely because it deals with questions of meaning, life and death. That definition is helpful as we seek to understand the role of Christian America in the crises of our time.
The ultimate concern of millions who consciously or unconsciously follow the lead of Christian America focuses squarely on preserving the privilege and power that their earlier dominance had afforded them. They are determined to block women, people of color, immigrants, gays, transgender people and others marginalized for most of American history from attaining the status they think is reserved for them.
Advertisement
Because their privilege and power define for them the meaning of life, and because they regard the loss of power and privilege as a living death, their devotion to status is not merely political. It is also deeply religious. And that is why Christian America advocates have so often claimed that God Almighty anointed Donald Trump as president of the United States.
We will, therefore, see more assaults — perhaps even more violent assaults — on the Constitution and the government established by America’s Founders. And those who launch those assaults will inevitably ground them in the venerable tradition of Christian America that is dying before our eyes.
Richard T. Hughes is a professor emeritus of religion at Pepperdine University and the author of “Christian America and the Kingdom of God” and “Myths America Lives By: White Supremacy and the Stories That Give Us Meaning.”
