To help Cyprus recover, the EU has adopted the Assistance – Assistance to Recovery for Europe (REACT-EU) Recap package (REACT-EU), providing € 65 million in additional resources to help the country meet the challenges with coronavirus using EU funds
The implementation period of these projects started in March 2020 until October 2021. The Ministry of Labor, Welfare and Social Insurance (YEPKA) of Cyprus, through the Support Program for dealing with the effects of Covid-19, organized the REACT funding Packages -EU in specific phases (months) and started their implementation starting from the companies that received the heaviest financial blow.
The REACT-EU Initiative entered into force on 24 December 2020 and can retroactively finance expenditure from 1 February 2020 to 31 December 2023. The REACT-EU Initiative helps the areas most affected by the crisis, including health, of tourism and culture. The funds can also be used for investments in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), to help them transition to a digital and green economy, and for cross-border cooperation and technical assistance. The REACT-EU initiative funds the retention and creation of jobs, creates measures for youth employment, short-term employment programs and support for the self-employed, artists and workers in the creative industry – especially people in vulnerable situations. It also covers skills development and social inclusion and helps fight poverty, social exclusion and discrimination.
The government has supported the Republic's economy with subsidies of almost one billion euros, of which A significant number of funded projects have been launched for co-financing.
The projects mentioned above have been organized in the following Phases:
|
Plan |
Date Start |
Date Expiry |
Expenditure |
|
Enterprises under total suspension of operations (2 Phases) |
1/1/2021 |
28/2/2021 |
€ 16,914,383 |
|
Partially suspended operations & nbsp; (1 Phase) |
1/2/2021 |
28/2/2021 |
€ 12,593,221 |
|
Companies that have been reactivated – ESA.9) (4 Phases) |
1/2/2021 |
€ 18.257.960 |
|
|
1/6/2021 |
30/6/2021 |
||
|
1/10/2021 |
31/10/2021 |
||
|
Businesses that have not been reactivated – ESA.14) (7 Phases) |
1/2/2021 |
31/3/2021 |
€ 22.350.130 |
|
1/6/2021 |
31/10/2021 |
||
|
Businesses that are in partial or total suspension of operations in sectors related to the tourism industry (Phase 1) |
1/2/2021 |
< p> 28/2/2021 |
€ 5,593,044 |
The aforementioned distribution of co-financed projects exceeds EUR 65 million. This practice is common in the management of co-financed projects in the Republic of Cyprus, in order to ensure the full absorption of these funds. This expenditure concerns a total grant of 68,400 beneficiaries to 10,323 companies .
The strategy adopted by the Republic of Cyprus, together with the financial support from the EU in the framework of this project, focusing on job subsidies, managed to maintain employment in the local economy by severely reducing unemployment to pre-pandemic levels, allowing the country to employ a significant proportion of the population in the short term.
These types of funding programs protect jobs, help companies survive and stay competitive. Overall, they are an asset to help the industry recover from the COVID-19 crisis.
