Panorama

A COUNTY PREPARES
In Romania’s Teleorman County, the Caritas Roşiorii de Vede Municipal Hospital was designated as a support
hospital for the treatment of COVID-19 patients. To help it prepare for the eventuality of a large influx of critically
ill patients, Zimnicea City Hospital lent Caritas hospital two injectomates, three vital function monitors and
one general anaesthesia device.
This equipment has been entrusted to Caritas
Hospital until all patients infected with COVID-19
have been treated. It was purchased through the
project ROBG-174 ‘Your health matters! – Modernization
of hospitals in Zimnicea and Svishtov’,
financed under the Interreg V-A Romania-Bulgaria
Programme.
https://bit.ly/3ghxOEo
Several Member States closed their borders from one day to
the next. Although inspired by caution, such unprecedented
decisions did generate complications for many sectors of the
economy. In some areas, certain sectors found themselves
on the brink of collapse.
EU citizens awoke to a world in which the freedoms they
had taken for granted for so long – in particular European
identity and freedom of movement – had been put on hold.
Reacting to this situation, the European Commission emphasised
the importance of assuring the same treatment for cross-border
workers and issued guidelines to ensure that public services in
border areas could still be delivered. In addition, and despite the
EU’s very limited powers in the area of public health, the European
Commission encouraged cooperation in healthcare
between national, regional and local authorities.
This commitment to helping each other resonates with the EU’s
citizens. The response to the COVID-19 crisis reflects Europeans’
impressive resourcefulness, ingenuity and solidarity, proving
once again that territorial cooperation is not an optional extra,
but that it is welcomed by citizens, and in many cases is even
essential to their livelihoods.
Spontaneously, Interreg-funded projects, such as those featured
in this article, both within the EU and at its external
borders, have helped to address the health and economic
aspects of the pandemic.
Stronger together
EU solidarity and the desire for cooperation have been very
much in evidence throughout Europe and beyond. The recent
Franco-German initiative for a European Health Union championed
closer coordination in caring for intensive-care patients
and supported joint research and development for vaccines
and medicines. It also called for a protective European shield
for medicines and medical products with a view to setting up
a resource pool to ensure continuity of the supply chain,
thereby eliminating restrictions across internal borders.
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