EU – The Delegation of the European Union [EU] in Guyana, for Suriname and with responsibility for Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, Saint-Barthélemy, St Eustatius and St Maarten is announcing a special facility to support the Caribbean Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) as they face the enormous resilience challenges that the COVID-19 crisis has further precipitated.
The facility is an immediate response to help the OCTs as it has been incorporated into the existing EU-funded RESEMBID programme (Resilience, Sustainable Energy, and Marine Biodiversity Programme) for Caribbean OCTs which has been in operation from its base on St Maarten and is implemented by Expertise France.
Through this fully operational programme we have developed a regional mechanism that offers a rapid, highly flexible response to the needs of the OCTs amidst this deepening crisis. The EU is therefore pleased to announce the establishment of the RESEMBID COVID-19 resilience response facility, allocated by 10M€ of technical assistance mechanism that has been purpose-designed to provide a ready, highly flexible response.
The facility is being deployed across the OCTs, equipped with accelerated procedures, with priority actions to be determined by each OCT, consistent with urgent local public health, and socio-economic demands. To meet the urgent needs of societies the facility is at the ready to support actions in a broad spectrum of areas, ranging from medical equipment to technical support expertise to strategies for transition and recovery.
This initiative is part of a broader EU response approach that combines a number of special urgency measures, including the redeployment and reassignment of resources and loans from EU financial institutions. The intent is to address readily short-term needs as well as the severe long-term structural and economic dislocation that the crisis is expected to wreak on societies.
On 16th April, in her speech at the European Parliament special session on the coronavirus pandemic, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, firmly echoed the commitment of the European Union to humanity, stating that “Europe has now become the world’s beating heart of solidarity. The true Europe is standing up, the one that is there for each other when it is needed most”.
Ambassador of the European Union with responsibility for Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, St Eustatius and St Maarten, H.E. Fernando Ponz Cantó, said, “I am proud to note that in this crisis the European Union is taking vigorous and intense action to support its citizens and its partners, and the values Europe holds dear across the world. These are the values that place humanity at the heart of the European project, and all that it stands for. And it is precisely in this spirit that we are honouring our association links with the Caribbean OCTs at this exceedingly trying time.”
