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neighbourhood partners to help them cope with the economic fallout of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The European Commission proposed the €3bn MFA package on April 22. Financial assistance will be provided as loans on highly favourable terms, the Council said.
Among Western Balkans countries, Albania will receive €180mn, Bosnia & Herzegovina - €250mn, North Macedonia - €160mn, Kosovo - €100mn and Montenegro - €60mn. Serbia was not included in the financial package. Ukraine will receive the biggest chunk of the assistance package, €1.2bn. The EU also allocated money for Georgia (€150mn), Jordan (€200mn), Moldova (€100mn) and Tunisia (€600mn).
The EU assistance will help the countries to cover their immediate financing needs which have increased as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Together with the support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the funds will help enhance macroeconomic stability and create space to allow resources to be allocated towards protecting citizens and to mitigating the negative socio-economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.
The MFA funds will be made available for a period of 12 months.
2.3​ ​Business rallies to help in fight against coronavirus across Eastern Europe and Central Asia
The outbreak of the coronavirus in Eastern Europe and Central Europe has not been as severe as in the rest of the Continent, but that is starting to change as curves flatten in western Europe and governments there start to wind back their lockdown restrictions.
Russia is now in the frontline after the number of reported infections skyrocketed to over 10,000 new cases a day. In the last week the rate of growth of the infection has slowed but by 17 May the country had the second most infections in the world after the USA.
Many of the countries have reacted fast and imposed strict lockdowns as they are less prepared than their western counterparts to deal with an epidemic. Burdened with fragile institutions, very weak public finances and underfunded public health institutions they are poorly equipped to deal with a large-scale public health emergency.
Russia had more than 290,000 cases of coronavirus as of May 18 and 2,722 deaths from the disease. Moscow is the epicentre of the outbreak, where more than half of Russia’s infections have been reported. However, the authorities were slow to acknowledge the global nature of a pandemic and slow to impose social distancing restrictions.
The coronavirus is a global problem. It is not a Chinese virus or a European virus, and no one is immune from it. The Russian authorities have now accepted this and are adopting many measures taken in other countries. There has been some controversy over the accuracy of the infection and mortality rates, as the numbers of infected are high, whereas the number of deaths per
8​ GEORGIA Country Report ​June 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com