The Emergency Support Instrument (ESI) was activated in 2020 in the early stage of the COVID-19 crisis. Its aim was to help Member States respond to the coronavirus pandemic by addressing needs in a strategic and coordinated manner at European level and was in place until January 2022.
Transport of essential goods, medical teams and patients
Part of the total Emergency Support Instrument funding was allocated to the Mobility Package, which provided support for:
The cargo transport of medical items to where they were most needed, by financing the cargo transport of assistance and relief items to and between EU Member States.
The transfer of patients between EU Member States or from Member States to neighbouring countries. This allowed use of spare capacity and relieved health services at risk of being overwhelmed. It also ensured treatment for as many patients as possible.
The transport of medical personnel and mobile medical teams between EU Member States and into the EU from other neighbouring countries, to help people wherever medical assistance was needed most.
This additional funding opportunity came on top of support already available via the EU Civil Protection Mechanism and deliveries of protective equipment through rescEU.
During the activation of the ESI, the Commission allocated more than €164 million for cargo shipments of medical items, vaccination-related equipment, and therapeutics, as well as €9 million for the transport of medical teams and patient transfers.
Overall, this assistance supported more than 2 000 operations via air, land and sea. These transported life-saving personal protective equipment, and medical equipment to Europe as well as 515 health workers and 135 patients.
UV Robots for disinfection of hospitals across Europe
The Commission made available €12 million from the Emergency Support Instrument to donate 305 UV disinfection robots to hospitals in 27 Member States. The robots disinfect a standard size patient room quickly and safely. By doing so, they help alleviate the pressure on hospital staff while offering patients greater protection against infection from pathogens.
Training of healthcare professionals in intensive care skills
The European Commission made €2.5 million available under the Emergency Support Instrument for the training of a multidisciplinary pool of healthcare professionals to support and assist Intensive Care Units. The programme ran for 8 months and trained 17 000 doctors and nurses in 700 hospitals across the EU. It provided intensive care medical skills to healthcare professionals who do not regularly work in Intensive Care Units. This helped increase the availability of staff that could be deployed at a time when there was need for a rapid, temporary and significant scale-up in Intensive Care Unit capacity.
EU Digital COVID Certificate
The EU Digital COVID Certificate Regulation was introduced on 1 July 2021. Already on 17 March 2021, the European Commission presented a proposal to create an EU Digital COVID Certificate to facilitate the safe free movement of citizens within the EU during the pandemic. On 27 September 2021 the Commission awarded grants to 20 Member States totalling €95 million to purchase COVID-19 diagnostic tests, to facilitate the delivery of the EU Digital COVID Certificate.
Ensuring interoperability
The Commission mobilised some €16 million under the Emergency Support Instrument to establish the necessary infrastructure for the issuance and verification of interoperable certificates on vaccination against COVID-19, testing and recovery.
Building on the experience gained from the establishment of the European Federation Gateway Service (EFGS) for the cross-border exchange of data between national contact tracing and warning mobile applications, the Commission developed the EU gateway. This became the secure digital infrastructure connecting the national systems ensuring trusted verification of interoperable certificates across the EU. After a successful pilot phase, the EU gateway went live on 1 June 2021, allowing for the certificates to be verified across borders.
Linking mobile contact tracing applications across borders
22 EU/EEA countries deployed national mobile contact tracing and warning applications to break the chain of coronavirus infections and save lives. These countries and the Commission worked to make sure that these applications were interoperable across borders. 19 of the 22 countries were connected to the European Federation Gateway Service (EFGS), and thus connected to each other.
Around €10 million was made available under the Emergency Support Instrument to support the interoperability of mobile contact tracing and warning applications. Of this, €7 million was used to develop and deploy the EFGS – the EU-wide gateway that enabled such cross-border interoperability, and €3 million was made available to support Member States to adapt their national applications and systems to connect to the interoperability gateway service.
Useful links
- The Commission’s coronavirus response in the area of public health.
- Emergency Support Instrument Q&A.
- Emergency Support Instrument 2016 legal base and 2020 activation.
- Commission Clearing House for medical equipment