{"id":3162913,"date":"2021-05-20T15:07:50","date_gmt":"2021-05-20T15:07:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webalkans.eu\/eu-invests-an-additional-e40-million-to-help-ease-impact-of-covid-19-crisis\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T15:16:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T15:16:28","slug":"eu-invests-an-additional-e40-million-to-help-ease-impact-of-covid-19-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webalkans.eu\/en\/eu-invests-an-additional-e40-million-to-help-ease-impact-of-covid-19-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"EU invests an additional \u20ac40 million to help ease impact of COVID-19 crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The European Commission has invested an additional \u20ac40 million into\u00a0the European Fund for Southeast Europe (EFSE)\u00a0to help combat the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic in the Western Balkans and EU Eastern Neighbourhood Region. The capital will be used to bolster the ability of local financial institutions to support micro and small enterprises in overcoming the challenges of the crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The new funding will contribute to providing financial institutions in the EFSE target region with the means to continue serving micro and small enterprises. A significant portion of the sum has been designated explicitly for financing in local currency \u2013 providing an extra level of security by safeguarding borrowers from exchange rate risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Micro and small enterprises play a significant role in income generation and employment creation in these regions. Yet, most entrepreneurs in the Western Balkans and EU Eastern Neighbourhood have reported severely negative consequences on their businesses from the coronavirus outbreak, including suspension of operations and drastic declines in revenue. According to a\u00a0<strong>study<\/strong>\u00a0conducted by the EFSE Development Facility, four out of five small businesses have experienced a &#8216;negative to extremely negative impact&#8217; on their operations, with others reporting temporary layoffs that could become permanent. By providing new and restructured business loans, local financial service providers play a crucial role in keeping these enterprises afloat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The European Commission has invested an additional \u20ac40 million into\u00a0the European Fund for Southeast Europe (EFSE)\u00a0to help combat the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic in the Western Balkans and EU Eastern Neighbourhood Region. The capital will be used to bolster the ability of local financial institutions to support micro and small enterprises in overcoming [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3162914,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"area-of-cooperation":[],"country":[245,246,247,248,249,250],"opportunity-type":[],"class_list":["post-3162913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","country-albania","country-bosnia-and-herzegovina","country-kosovo","country-montenegro","country-north-macedonia","country-serbia"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>EU invests an additional \u20ac40 million to help ease impact of COVID-19 crisis - WeBalkans<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/webalkans.eu\/en\/eu-invests-an-additional-e40-million-to-help-ease-impact-of-covid-19-crisis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"EU invests an additional \u20ac40 million to help ease impact of COVID-19 crisis - WeBalkans\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The European Commission has invested an additional \u20ac40 million into\u00a0the European Fund for Southeast Europe (EFSE)\u00a0to help combat the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic in the Western Balkans and EU Eastern Neighbourhood Region. The capital will be used to bolster the ability of local financial institutions to support micro and small enterprises in overcoming [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/webalkans.eu\/en\/eu-invests-an-additional-e40-million-to-help-ease-impact-of-covid-19-crisis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"WeBalkans\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/webalkans.eu\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-05-20T15:07:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-05-05T15:16:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/webalkans.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/gVixCDjB-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"WeBalkans\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@webalkans\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@webalkans\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"WeBalkans\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/webalkans.eu\\\/en\\\/eu-invests-an-additional-e40-million-to-help-ease-impact-of-covid-19-crisis\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/webalkans.eu\\\/en\\\/eu-invests-an-additional-e40-million-to-help-ease-impact-of-covid-19-crisis\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"WeBalkans\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/webalkans.eu\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/37696e5e8da00bfff60a5d65a98e366d\"},\"headline\":\"EU invests an additional \u20ac40 million to help ease impact of COVID-19 crisis\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-05-20T15:07:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-05-05T15:16:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/webalkans.eu\\\/en\\\/eu-invests-an-additional-e40-million-to-help-ease-impact-of-covid-19-crisis\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":232,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/webalkans.eu\\\/en\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/webalkans.eu\\\/en\\\/eu-invests-an-additional-e40-million-to-help-ease-impact-of-covid-19-crisis\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/webalkans.eu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/gVixCDjB-1.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/webalkans.eu\\\/en\\\/eu-invests-an-additional-e40-million-to-help-ease-impact-of-covid-19-crisis\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/webalkans.eu\\\/en\\\/eu-invests-an-additional-e40-million-to-help-ease-impact-of-covid-19-crisis\\\/\",\"name\":\"EU invests an additional \u20ac40 million to help ease impact of COVID-19 crisis - 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