The word ‘unprecedented’ is a commonplace description of the COVID-19
crisis. What is difficult to find out sometimes, though, is how ‘common
places’ have responded to an unprecedented crisis. That was one of the
reasons why the European Committee of the Regions set up the COVID-19
platform and asked regional and local authorities to tell us about their
actions and experiences. The responses have come from every corner of the
EU, and beyond, as you can see on the map and on the
wall
of individual stories. Our thanks to everyone who has responded – and,
above all, for their work in their communities.
The network of associations for local authorities in south-eastern Europe, NALAS, has been producing weekly
digests
of activities by local and regional governments in response to COVID-19. The
result is a wide and detailed tour of a region that includes EU members
(Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Slovenia), would-be members of the EU
(Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia), and a
member of the Eastern Partnership (Moldova). There is much that could be
included here, but better to look directly at what NALAS’s
latest digest
or its
back-catalogue
.
Jordan joins Palestine and Libya in having provided the
CoR with updates. Partners in Amman, the country’s
capital, have written to inform us of how the authorities moved to sanitise
the Greater Amman Municipality. The process has been written up by the
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
, which had helped fund a fleet of refuse-collection vehicles that are now
part of the broader sanitisation work by the city. More detail is
downloadable
here
in ‘guidelines on solid-waste management measures’ adapted because of the
pandemic (including measures to deal with the increase in medical waste).
Island areas across the EU are being hit not just by the pandemic, but also
by a near-total halt of transport to the mainland in some places and the
loss of a major source of revenue, tourism. Their economic fortunes,
relative to other parts of the EU, were already declining before the virus.
Their case has been taken up in the European Parliament by the
Seas, Rivers, Islands and Coastal Areas
(Searica) inter-group, whose members have written to the presidents of the
European Council, the European Commission and the European Parliament. They
warn that “each island territory is threatened with general economic
collapse” and call for “specific emergency measures” and an “adapted
solidarity mechanism to prevent, and limit, the major economic crisis in
the EU islands”.
Satu Haapanen, co-President of the Greens Group in the European Committee of the
Regions, City Councillor and Chair of the Education and Culture Board of
the city of Oulu, shared the quality recommendation standards for distance
learning introduced under her city's leadership. They have been developed
as part of the 'OpenDigi - Teachers in Learning Skills and Digital Pedagogy
Developer Communities' project. More information is available in English
and Finnish at this
page
. Students have been given 'rights': to receive daily support from
teachers; to talk to teachers, and receive verbal feedback; and, finally,
to feel part of the classroom. A similar list of rights was established for
teachers and student's guardians.
The Municipality of Deryneia, led by CoR Member Andros Karayiannis (NA), shared a new update on their
fight against the pandemic. Measures include the use of the 'People's
Bazaar of the Social Welfare and Welfare Committee of the Municipality of
Deryneia' which serves vulnerable people by providing food, clothing and
footwear. Other measures on municipal closures and other public events have
been communicated to the population. The Municipal Council of Deryneia
finally decided additional financial support of the Famagusta Hospital,
converted into a covid treatment and rehabilitation hospital.
CoR Member Barbara Szilvia Hegedűs (HU/EPP), from the
Local Government of Veszprém, shared an update on the increased
responsibilities of the city council in helping elderly citizens,
businesses, rent owners and society at last in these difficult times. From
providing protective masks to all households, to increase in
government-to-citizens communication, a stop in the increase of rents of
municipally-owned flats and free city-parking, measures taken to fight
covid were wide in nature and scope.
Close by, the National Association of the Municipalities of Bulgaria shared
a link to a dedicated section on Covid response on their website. The information is
available in both Bulgarian and English.
The government of the autonomous region of Galicia, chaired by Alberto Núñez Feijóo (ES/PPE), shared a long list of
actions. First, an information campaign on recommendations to avoid
contagions, distribution of sanitary materials and other health measures.
In the business field, support lines have been set up to provide liquidity,
especially to SMEs and the self-employed. For workers and aid for the care
of dependents and social inclusion entities, a social contingency plan was
launched.
Daniela Cîmpean, President of the Sibiu County Council and CoR member (RO/EPP), said that
increased public/private collaboration was key in the management of the
crisis. Sibiu County Hospital was strenghtened, and an additional 6.6
million Lei came from additional allocations from the county budget,
donations from companies and individuals. Numerous anti-covid measures were
taken, including separate circuits for patients and increased protection
for staff. Sibiu also applied other measures, from home isolation norms to
other lockdown measures for citizens from highly infected provinces. #SolidariPentruSibiu
is a platform where the needs of the medical and social units in the county
were communicated widely. #StamAcasa (StayingHome) was a slogan and
campaign embraced by institutional, cultural associations and private
citizens.
On the EPP CoR's website, Members and other EPP-led local and regional
authorities shared new
developments
. Some of the latest contributions include Lombardia's
three year investment plan; Vimsi's collaboration with
Estonial national authorities on the use of European Solidarity Funds; Virovitičko-Podravska Zupanija, where Croatian business is
being helped to best access liquidity by the municipality; Sofia, where the municipality has stopped charging rents
on municipal properties and other all-encompassing measures; Espoo's 25-point package of measures to support companies
as well as sports and cultural sectors; a long list of municipal decisions
in the city of Nice and the Métropole Nice Côte d’Azur;
and in Harghita, where the local council approved a
significant increase of 650.000 RON for health facilities.
Some of the work done by the regional government of Catalonia during this crisis has featured in previous
weekly updates. But it is difficult to capture the full variety of
initiatives in the region. Fortunately, the regional government has sent in
an overview of the work done in the interests of health, food production
and distribution, public administration, public information, social-media
and misinformation, policing, justice, citizens abroad, finances,
entrepreneurship, workers, families, children, transport, culture and sport
(among others). More information can be found
here
. It is, truly, evidence of the comprehensive response that a pandemic
requires.
Saving local bookstores was the objective of an individual initiative in Catalonia brought to our attention this week. The
cooperative SOM* (@som_cultura), a leading cooperative in the cultural and
communication sector, has set up # LlibreriesObertes, an
initiative enabling citizens to purchase books and other media from
(smaller) local bookstores forced to close due to the lockdown. The goods
can be picked up once the shops open again.
The pandemic is the second disaster to hit Krefeld in
North Rhine-Westphalia in recent months. The first was a fire at the city’s
zoo on New Year’s Eve. On both occasions, says Mayor Frank Meyer (PES), the
community has shown its solidarity and ability to work together. Within
days, aid organizations and associations were sewing masks, as were the
tailors of the city’s theatre – and masks has been widely donated,
including to refugees. A ‘gift fence’ in the city centre – where everyday
items and food are left for the homeless – is one part of the
‘Krefeld solidarity’ campaign
involving a range of social alliances. European solidarity also features:
Krefeld is treating patients from the Netherlands and is in close contact
with partner cities. A full account can be found on the PES group’s page
dedicated to its members’ experiences during the crisis.
PES' CoR website continued to offer long insights, stories and footage from
across Europe on a dedicated page with several new updates in the past few
days. Castilla-La Mancha has detailed their plans at
length, showing leadership in the number of tests performed, and great
attention to its rural municipalities and more at risk citizens. Polish
city of Częstochowa detailed its information actions, plus
a number of measures related to transportation, functioning of city hall,
social welfare, business aid and, of course, healthcare support including
an additional million zlotys to the Municipal Hospital. The French
department of Aude focused on sharing two best practices.
First, the testing of a scheme
allowing beneficiaries of the 'Active Solidarity Income' (Revenu de
solidarité active (RSA) in French) to combine seasonal agricultural
employment with their short-term allowance. Second, is the dispatching of
IT equipment for students confined at home (an article with more
information can be accessed
here
).
Tuscany governor Enrico Rossi (IT/PES) shared a message on
the pandemic, calling it "a general rediscovery, in the field of health but
not only, of the sense of community and of the importance of territorial
services". Local actions are wide and include economic measures, protective
anti-contagion measures, assistance to elderly and disabled, combating
violence against women, increased counselling services, schooling for 0-6
years old, culture and voluntary sector and many others. A long and
in-depth summary was published on the PES' CoR website here. The region further
shared a full list of actions that can be accessed at this
link
(in Italian).
The
European Network of Cities and Regions for the Social Economy
(REVES) has sent in a wealth of examples of good cooperation between local
and regional authorities and social-economy enterprises during the crisis. The following cases come from them:
In Italy, Assifero, the national membership association of
Italian grant-making foundations and private institutional philanthropy,
has helped to launched the platform "
Coronavirus: System philanthropy
". The portal collates the initiatives of foundations, philanthropic
organisations, companies and individuals (donors of more than €100,000)
with the aim of making them part of an enhanced networked system accessible
to all. The platform also aims to map the short- and medium-term needs of
non-profit organizations arising out of the emergency situation, through a
survey that you can find
here
. The portal is not a fundraising tool.
Based on national legislation adopted in Italy at an early
stage of the crisis, several cities and regions adopted Memoranda of
Understanding with representatives of social economy / third-sector
organisations. The agreements foresaw public contracts for the delivery
social and health-care services by third-sector organisations with the aim
of ensuring, where possible, remote services and new services to cope with
the impact of the COVID-19 crisis. In this way, social-economy players
should sums equivalent to the amounts for contracts signed prior to the
COVID-19 crisis.
Concerns about the supply to vulnerable persons – such as the elderly,
people with underlying health conditions, pregnant women, and people in
quarantine – prompted a major coordination effort in the Lazio region of Italy. The regional authorities brought
together the regional association of municipalities, business federations
(representing amongst others supermarkets and the food distributors),
associations of consumer cooperatives, and major third-sector platforms
(including volunteer associations), with all of them signing a Memorandum
of Understanding. The result was that people in need had a more
user-friendly means to choose food, while food was collected and
distributed more easily, via volunteers. Importantly, volunteers were given
badges that assured them preferential access to all participating points of
sale.
The Swedish region of Östergötland has set up a new web-based service to match the
needs of local companies and organisations (including in the public sector)
and, thereby, to support each other through the crisis. Examples include
companies with the capacity to take on assignments that were not part of
their traditional business, or companies looking for staff. The information
on the website is open to everyone, including the unemployed.
During the crisis, many staff in the health and social services have needed
accommodation close to their workplace. Securing accommodation is a
challenge that requires not just finding rooms, but also lawyers and
cleaners. In France, a range of (platform) cooperatives
and associations from sectors such as accommodation and IT came together
with foundations, lawyers, cleaning services and others to set up Etikbnb, a platform that matches
needs and offers of support.
France Barter
, a platform cooperative providing enterprises with the possibility to
purchase through an exchange of goods and services (i.e. without engaging
cash flow), offered free membership until the end of April 2020. The city
of Paris encouraged local enterprises to use this
opportunity.
In Belgium, the cooperative Smart announced that it will
assume the payment of the fixed-term contracts of its
entrepreneur-employees endangered by the Covid-19 crisis and, from its
solidarity fund, the payment of expenses related to cancelled orders. Smart
is a cooperative that provides services and social protection for
independent workers, by mutualising resources and the provision of
entrepreneur-employee status.
The Brussels-Capital Region, together with a number of
civil society organisations and (social economy) enterprises, has
established a participatory initiative that aims to produce at least
100,000 protection masks for nursing personnel/caregivers. Among those
involved are a work-integration enterprise, Travie, that pre-cuts the tissue and a
platform cooperative (Urbike) whose
volunteers collect the tissue by bike and sew the masks. Social enterprises
will also benefit from all measures that the region puts in place to
support enterprises.
Also in Belgium, the Collège of Cocof (the French Community Commission in
Belgium) in early April opened up a 25-room Brussels hotel
for female victims of domestic violence. This scheme complements others
already in place in Brussels to provide refuges, and is based on an
agreement between the municipality and the Centre for the Prevention of
Conjugal and Family Violence (CPVCF). Reports suggest that, across Europe,
the lockdown has been marked by an increase in violence at home. The
Wallonia-Brussels Federation, Wallonia, the Brussels-Capital Region and
Cocof have created a task-force on domestic violence as well as an
inter-ministerial conference on women's rights.
A website to look for for initiatives in Brussels is
Solidair, which was set up by a group of citizens with the objective of
providing visibility – in a participatory and easy accessible way – to
existing solidarity initiatives in different fields, to create links, and
to mobilise mutual help. Initiatives range from help for elderly, families,
refugees, medical personal, artists and other groups to support for local
enterprises (including (small) catering firms, neighbourhood restaurants
and cafés, etc.). A specific example is L'Ilot, an association that helps
the homeless secure housing, jobs, and a place in society.
As elsewhere in Europe, in Brussels and many other Belgian cities, neighbourhood committees are active in
organising mutual help between neighbours (such as grocery shopping for
elderly, babysitting, preparation of food, exchange of books and games).
Platforms such as HOPLR
and municipal websites have helped to put people in touch with each other.