The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) created a COVID-19 exchange platform, where European cities and regions put their successful practice about measures to fight againg COVID-19.

A large number of contributions from European regions is reaching via our Covid-19 exchange platform, informing us about additional measures of local and regional governments, supplementing the efforts of the Member States.

Economic measures in the Region of Madrid

The Region of Madrid has launched off a renting service for those affected by the coronavirus. The government of the region of Madrid has set up an initiative to help renters face the current economic situation due to coronavirus. Hence, a study will be carried out during the following days to detect which renters are in a vulnerable economic situation. After this selection process, the government will act as intermediary between the two parts in order to achieve a deal which favours everyone. The government of the region of Madrid has passed a financial support plan for SMEs and self-employed, to help them cope with the economic impact of the crisis. The plan has €220M at its disposal, 68.2M of which will be used as economic aid, while the rest will serve as financing through endorsements.

Mosina asks businesses what they need to respond to the crisis

The city of Mosina is well aware that Covid-19 hit many parts of the population and is proving a challenge for everyone. It has thus implemented many actions to help business and the population. To help entrepreneurs, the municipality surveyed private business and offered tax relief, including tax reductions or postponement of fees. For senior citizens, since 30 March, the municipality provides a service with the help of volunteers, in cooperation with the Caritas of the Archdiocese of Poznań and the Centre for Senior Initiatives, to help seniors with food and medicine shopping, so they don't need to leave their homes. Citizens can sign up with a telephone call.

Lower Silesia (Poland) and the Free State of Saxony (Germany) example of cross-border cooperation during the COVID-19 epidemic

On 22 April, 100 000 face masks for protection against coronavirus arrived in Lower Silesia. These masks were donated to Lower Silesia by its partner region, the Free State of Saxony in Germany; 50 000 of them are protective FFP2 masks while the rest 50 000 are surgical masks. As the Polish national government has recently made it compulsory to wear protective facial equipment outside one's home, this assistance from Saxony was greatly appreciated by the Marshal of Lower Silesia, Mr. Cezary Przybylski. A few days earlier, 1 000 protective suits and 2 000 masks had also arrived from Saxony. This cooperation between Saxony and Lower Silesia also extends to testing for COVID-19, with labs in Dresden testing sometimes as many as 200 samples from Lower Silesia every day. Over 3 000 medical samples from Polish citizens had been tested for COVID-19 in Germany as of 24 April.

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