We finance companies
that develop COVID-19 treatments and vaccines
to keep people safe from the virus
and save lives.
We help governments build hospitals
and buy new equipment
to stop the virus spreading
and to treat infections.
We lend money to businesses
so they can keep working
and pay salaries to their employees.
Since COVID-19 emerged,
we have decided to lend 56 billion euros
to companies affected by the crisis.
How we help European companies
We created a special fund
of 25 billion euros
to help small businesses in Europe
recover from the crisis.
It is called the European Guarantee Fund.
Many companies had to shut during the pandemic.
They could not sell their products.
Their employees could not work from home
because the business was not online.
We give guarantees to banks
so they can lend money to small companies
that struggle because of the crisis.
We signed 2 deals with the Spanish bank Santander
to give loans to small businesses
in Spain, Austria, Germany, France and Italy.
The loans help companies repay their debts,
make a profit and give people jobs.
How we fight the crisis across the world
We work with the World Health Organization
and the European Commission
to prepare
for health emergencies
in the future.
If hospitals all around the world have good equipment
and doctors and nurses are trained,
everyone can be safer.
We loaned 600 million euros to COVAX.
COVAX will help all countries get vaccines
to stop the spread of COVID-19 worldwide.
We loaned 100 million euros
to the German company BioNTech
so they could develop, test and produce a vaccine.
BioNTech made the first COVID-19 vaccine.
We also lend money to poor countries
affected by the pandemic.
They cannot repay the debts they had before the crisis.
We loaned 75 million euros
to the government of Senegal in Africa.
The money helps fishermen, farmers and people working in hotels
and restaurants,
who have lost business during the COVID-19 emergency.
They can borrow money from banks
to keep their businesses going.