OVERVIEW OF COHESION POLICY 
CORONAVIRUS INDICATORS

(Aggregating CRII/CRII+ and REACT-EU) 

The coronavirus specific indicators are used under the cohesion policy coronavirus response investment initiatives - CRII/CRII+ - and the 2021-2022 REACT-EU top up of the 2014-2020 programmes.
This #CohesionOpenData story presents an aggregate overview of
(1) the 2023 target values set over time for the coronavirus specific indicators and
(2) the implemented values reported by national and regional programmes to the end of 2020.

0. INTRODUCTION

What is CRII and REACT-EU?

Linked to the EU cohesion policy response to the Coronavirus / COVID-19 pandemic the Commission launched in 2020 two strands of measures:
  1. The Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative (CRII) and the Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative Plus (CRII+) proposed to mobilise EU cohesion policy to face the unprecedented health and economic crisis. The two initiatives were swiftly adopted by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU. The CRII package did not offer new EU financial resources, rather it provided flexible use of existing, unspent resources to redirect them where they were most needed and other financial flexibilities. The range of CRII/CRII+ measures is presented in more detail in this dashboard.
  2. The REACT-EU package supplemented the CRII/CRII+ initiatives with additional EU resources to foster crisis repair and resilience. The REACT-EU legislation was adopted in late 2020.  During 2021 and 2022 the additional resources reinforced the ERDF/ESF allocations to 2014-2020 programmes. The REACT-EU allocations are presented in more detail in this dashboard.
Both these initiatives are delivered under the 2014-2020 cohesion policy rules under which tracking the COVID-19 pandemic response posed a challenge for cohesion policy (managed using "shared management" across more than 390 decentralised programmes). The original monitoring systems were not designed to track the exceptional measures introduced.  For this reason, on 12 May 2020, the Commission services proposed new financial and output indicators - informal "common" COVID-19 indicators - to be used by the national and regional programmes. The COVID-19 indicator non-paper was supplemented in February 2021 to cover vaccination campaigns. Using the COVID-19 related indicators we gather more detailed and accurate information on how cohesion policy is helping MS to recover from the crisis.  For more information on the indicators see the Commission non paper - Indicator metadata - FAQ  - Dataset of COVID-19 indicator targets set by programmes - Dataset of COVID-19 indicators implementation progress (timeseries).
While the Commission strongly encourages their use, the proposed COVID indicators alone do not paint the whole picture (the use of such indicators is voluntary). Moreover, some countries have targeted very specific national actions that cannot be aggregated at EU level. The full dataset showing all the "common" and national COVID-19 indicators and targets is here.  

Implementation of the coronavirus specific targets to the end of 2020

In relation to the initial CV indicator targets set during 2020 the EC services received a first report on implementation by the end of May 2021. After quality checks, the ERDF values were published in December 2021 with the 2021 Annual Summary report. Most ERDF programmes were in a position to report some monitoring values on the implementation of pandemic measures. However, many 2020 implementation values appear to be under reported. The 2020 implemented values should therefore be seen as giving a preliminary picture to be completed in future reporting rounds.    
2020 underreporting  appears to be explained by several factors:
  • Programmes authorities had to work to adapt the national and regional monitoring systems to capture data from beneficiaries; 
  • Some beneficiaries were new to cohesion reporting systems, leading to delays in reporting;
  • In some cases the 2014-2020 programmes were only modified in the last quarter of 2020 reducing the time to implement and monitor the actions;
  • Financial values for coronavirus indicators show lower levels of progress reported than some related physical indicators, possibly linked to challenges completing the financial checks before the cutoff date of the report.    
The implemented values related to ESF programmes from end 2020 are not currently published in open data form.  The EC services are working to publish them later in 2022.

Reading the charts 

The pairs of charts below display key "common" COVID-19 indicator values as follows: 
- The green/mauve charts show progress (the implemented values) compared to the cumulative target set by  the end of each year;
The blue charts show the latest 2022 targets set, aggregated across both CRII/CRII+ and REACT-EU reprogramming decisions.
The COVID-19 indicator target charts on this page are colour coded as follows:
  • ERDF charts: Light blue charts for Covid-19 related financial indicators / Dark Blue for  Covid-19 related output indicators 
  • ESF charts: Light mauve charts for Covid-19 related financial indicators Dark mauve for Covid-19 related output indicators 
The charts are interactive:
  • Use the filters (top right) to select a specific fund, country or programme.
  • Use the drill up/ down buttons (top left) to explore totals by fund, country, programme or thematic objective.
  • Click on the bars in the chart to explore the composition of the fund values. 
Using the Global filter 
The "global filterbelow is set by default to present the aggregation of the most recent CRII(+) and REACT-EU targets for the COVID-19 indicators. You can reset the global filter on all target charts on the right hand side of sections 1, 2 and 3 and in section 4 simultaneously.  This filter does not apply to the implementation charts on the left hand side of sections 1, 2 and 3. 
Follow these steps to filter the COVID-19 indicator target charts with the latest targets: 
  • To filter by Member State (MS): preselect values for one country or more;
  • To filter by FUND: preselect a value for one fund (ERDF / ESF); 
  • To filter by REACT-EU or CRII/CRII+ use the "TO_Code": adjust the default to select the COVID-19 indicator values either for CRII /CRII+ or REACT-EU:
    -  To see only CRII values: exclude REACT-EU which is TO_Code "13" filter TO_code => "Is not equal to = 13";
    -  To see only REACT-EU values:  filter TO_code => "Is equal to = 13"

Total health costs covered by CV indicators (total public cost)

Health equipment 

Personal protective equipment

COVID-19 testing 

COVID-19 Vaccination

The COVID-specific indicators relating to vaccination were only proposed in February 2021 and introduced in programmes later in 2021 (during REACT-EU reprogramming). For this reason there were no 2020 targets as can be seen in the charts on the left hand side.  

2. SUPPORT TO EDUCATION (Information Technology)

3. BUSINESS SUPPORT

Support through grants

The values are in total public cost (EU and National). Some programmes chose to use their own COVID-19 indicators with very specific actions, which cannot be aggregated, but are available in this dataset.  

Support through Financial Instruments

Support to SME - IT support

4. ESF SUPPORT TO PEOPLE

The targets for the value (total public cost) of financial support under ESF programmes indicated below were flagged by those national and regional programmes that decided to identify and track using the COVID-19 specific indicator (CV30). The total amount of such support is likely to be higher.
The implemented values related to ESF programmes from end 2020 are not currently published in open data form.  The EC services are working to publish them later in 2022.

5. COVID-19 SPECIFIC INDICATORS

In addition to the Commission proposed COVID-19 specific indicators some programmes have also used other national indicators. In some cases the national indicators have very significant target values, for instance, for the total funding to be dedicated to the COVID-19 response without specifying the nature of the response (health, SMEs, workers, etc.).  Such national indicators cannot be aggregated to EU level.  The chart below shows the number of uses of common and national COVID-19 indicators. 

Table: CV indicator - latest cumulative targets 

The table below presents the current cumulative targets under the CV non-paper indicators by fund and is updated regularly as programmes are formally modified.  The targets cover actions under all forms of EU financing, that is, financing under
  1. CRII reprogramming of the original financial allocations and
  2. Programming under REACT-EU.   
All the common and national indicators used in adopted programmes are found in this dataset
European Commission overview of all EU Coronavirus measures: LINK
  • Latest news with details on specific policy responses by country and region for ERDF / Cohesion fund :  LINK
  • Latest news on the specific ESF policy response: LINK
  • Links to the COVID-19 indicator dataset used on this page: Common and Specific COVID-19 Indicator targets;
Below you find related data stories on the CRII/CRI+ initiatives and on the use of REACT-EU resources.
Author: John WALSH, Arianna ALFANO
Date of text: January 2022 rev 1 ; 30 June 2021 original.