The French government plans to allocate an additional 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) to support local authorities in their effort to carry out an ecological transition as a part of a "massive and unprecedented" aid strategy to maintain the "communal bloc," which has been hit hard by the coronavirus crisis, French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced on Friday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th May, 2020) The French government plans to allocate an additional 1 billion Euros ($1.1 billion) to support local authorities in their effort to carry out an ecological transition as a part of a "massive and unprecedented" aid strategy to maintain the "communal bloc," which has been hit hard by the coronavirus crisis, French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced on Friday.
"[The government] has made the decision to endow an additional billion euros from the available state funds, which will accompany the green investments of the municipalities," Philippe said.
This allocation, already endowed with 600,000 euros, will, therefore, increase to 1.6 billion euros.
Apart from money for green investments, the prime minister unveiled major aid for a guarantee program for municipalities' lost revenues. The state will compensate the losses of the municipalities that saw budgets fall below the average in the last three years.
Around 750 million euros will be allocated to the "mechanism of compensation of tax and state revenues," Philippe indicated.
The prime minister also noted that the government intends to cover municipalities' expenses "exclusively related to the COVID-19 [pandemic]." In particular, the state already pays 50 percent of the cost of face mask orders made by the local authorities, he added.
These proposals will be contained in the finance bill that will be submitted to the Council of Ministers next month and then discussed in parliament.
France began gradually easing its two-month lockdown introduced in mid-March on May 11. Non-grocery stores, entertainment venues, parks and other public places that remained closed in line with the COVID-19 related restrictions have now been reopened in so-called green zones of the country, less affected by the virus. The local authorities of red, or highly infected regions, remain on high alert regarding the health situation.
As of Friday, France has reported 186,364 COVID-19 cases, the world's seventh-highest total. The death toll stands at 28,665.
