Legislation – Regulation (EU) 2020/460 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 March 2020 amending Regulations (EU) No 1301/2013, (EU) No 1303/2013 and (EU) No 508/2014 as regards specific measures to mobilise investments in the healthcare systems of Member States and in other sectors of their economies in response to the COVID-19 outbreak (Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative)

Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013 is amended as follows:

1. (1)

   in Article 30, the following paragraph is added:

   “5.

   By way of derogation from paragraphs 1 and 2, for the programmes supported by the ERDF, Cohesion Fund and ESF, the Member State may transfer during the programming period an amount of up to 8 % of the allocation as of 1 February 2020 of a priority and no more than 4 % of the programme budget to another priority of the same Fund of the same programme.

   Such transfers shall not affect previous years. They shall be considered to be not substantial and shall not require a decision of the Commission amending the programme. They shall however comply with all regulatory requirements and shall be approved by the monitoring committee in advance. The Member State shall notify the revised financial tables to the Commission.”;

2. (2)

   in Article 37(4), the following subparagraph is added:

   “Financial instruments may also provide support in the form of working capital to SMEs, if necessary as a temporary measure, to provide an effective response to a public health crisis.”;

3. (3)

   in Article 65 (10), the following subparagraph is added:

   “By way of derogation from paragraph 9, expenditure for operations for fostering crisis response capacities in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak shall be eligible as of 1 February 2020.”;

4. (4)

   in Article 96, paragraph 10 is replaced by the following:

   “10.

   Without prejudice to Article 30(5), the Commission shall adopt a decision, by means of implementing acts, approving all the elements, including any of its future amendments, of the operational programme falling under this Article, except those falling under points (b)(vi), (c)(v) and (e) of the first subparagraph of paragraph 2, paragraphs 4 and 5, points (a) and (c) of paragraph 6 and paragraph 7, which remain under the responsibility of the Member States.”;

5. (5)

   in Article 139 (7), the following subparagraphs are added:

   “By way of derogation from the first subparagraph, the Commission shall not issue a recovery order for amounts recoverable from the Member State for the accounts submitted in 2020. Amounts not recovered shall be used to accelerate investments related to the COVID-19 outbreak and eligible under this Regulation and Fund-specific rules.

   The amounts not recovered shall be cleared or recovered at closure.”.