Annotation. Fighting the difficulties caused by the pandemic required significant financial resources, which was a special challenge for the country with the economic potential of Georgia. In particular, in order to mitigate the consequences of the pandemic, it was necessary to implement measures to contain the virus and mobilize additional medical resources, social support of citizens, save businesses and promote the economy. In order to alleviate the damage caused by the pandemic in 2020, the Georgian authorities developed an anti-crisis plan, and in order to finance the measures provided for in this plan, changes were made in the state budget. The paper discusses the support provided by the European Union to Georgia in the socio-economic field during the coronavirus COVID- 19 pandemic.

Key words: Georgia, European Union, Support, Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic. 

Introduction

In June 2014, the European Union and Georgia signed the Association Agreement (AA), which entered into force on July 1, 2016. This agreement, together with the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area Agreement (DCFTA), laid the foundation for Georgia's political and economic integration with the European Union.

Today, the European Union is the main trading partner of Georgia. The DCFTA deepens Georgia's economic ties with the European Union and covers issues such as public procurement, common customs rules, technical and sanitary food standards, intellectual property issues and competition rules. The EU supports the government in increasing the country's export potential and supporting competitiveness by establishing quality management systems and quality infrastructure systems, thereby ensuring compliance with standards.

The aim of the paper is to investigate the support provided by the European Union to Georgia during an unprecedented crisis - the period of the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. 

* * * 

After the start of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic, the world, including Georgia, began to fight, on the one hand, to save the health and lives of citizens, and on the other hand, to save the country's economy.

The situation caused by the pandemic has greatly aggravated many social, economic and environmental problems already existing in modern society. In the difficult-to-predict situation created (rapidly increasing number of infected people, deterioration of population health, increase in mortality), the pandemic turned out to be a great challenge not only for the world

health system, but also caused great damage to the global economy (according to experts, its decline amounted to 4%). Obviously, Georgia faced an unprecedented challenge and had to solve a number of atypical tasks.

In order to alleviate the Socio-Economic consequences caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the European Commission has allocated a macro-financial aid package in the amount of 3 billion euros to support the candidate countries for EU enlargement and ten neighboring partner countries. Added to this was the strategy developed by the European team „Team Europe“, which is a targeted response of the European Union to support the efforts of partner countries in overcoming the coronavirus pandemic. After a preliminary assessment of financing needs, the European Union allocated 150 million euros from the macro-financial aid funds to Georgia [2].

In Georgia, EU support was implemented in health care and socio-economic fields; Support in the direction of Health Care included approximately 2 million units of medical equipment, including breathing apparatus, medical masks and special clothing for laboratories and medical institutions of Georgia, as well as conducting trainings for representatives of the medical field in cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO) and providing access to existing information about COVID-19 on regional information.

Through the support of small and medium-sized enterprises of Georgia, the European Union cooperated closely with international financial institutions and relevant financial institutions of the EU member states:

-       About 70 million euros were allocated in the form of grants to facilitate access to local currency credit lines and grants for Georgian businesses and the self-employed to help stimulate and rebuild their businesses after the crisis. Funds were provided during 2020 through financial partners;

-       20 million euros of targeted grant funding was directed to help local businesses, farmers and private individuals;

-       At the micro level, EU projects provided legal advice to small businesses involved in the pre- pandemic fight.

In addition, the European Union has included the European Fund for Sustainable Development (EFSD) in the current process.

It should be noted that the European Union was one of the biggest supporters of the COVAX platform. COVAX is an unprecedented global collaboration aimed at promoting the development and production of vaccines against COVID-19 and ensuring equitable access to them. The European Union's European team supported the COVAX platform with more than €2.47 billion. From this amount, 1 billion euros were allocated from the EU budget. As part of the COVAX platform, Georgia - as well as Azerbaijan, Moldova, Armenia and Ukraine - received the first vaccines against COVID-19 through COVAX's distribution partner, the United Nations Children's Fund.

Since February 2021, the European Union and the WHO Regional Office for Europe have made a major joint effort to support the supply of vaccines against COVID-19 and the vaccination process in six Eastern Partnership countries. It was the largest joint action carried out by the European Union and WHO in the European region. The total budget of this initiative to prepare countries for vaccination amounted to 40 million euros over three years. Within the framework of the program, trainings were conducted to facilitate the vaccination process, recommendations were issued and logistic support was launched. Within the framework of the same assistance, vaccines were provided to Eastern Partnership countries through COVAX and the vaccine sharing mechanism of EU member states.

Social Sphere. During the crisis caused by COVID-19, people with disabilities are exposed to additional risks. To ensure the protection of the rights of people with disabilities (PWDs) during the pandemic, a number of international recommendations have been issued to various actors, including the European Disability Forum (EDF) document (see https://bit.ly /2zq6W5m) [3].

During the crisis, the European Union implemented several projects in Georgia to help the most vulnerable groups of the population, including the disabled, as well as victims of domestic violence, the elderly, children and internally displaced persons. Thus, with the support of the European Union, three projects were implemented in Georgia to help vulnerable groups overcome the problems caused by the crisis caused by COVID-19. The projects implemented by EU partner local public organizations "Women's Information Center", "Coalition for Independent Life" and Association of Internally Displaced Women "Consent" helped victims of domestic violence, internally displaced persons and persons with disabilities throughout Georgia [4,5].

Recovery of the economy. Since 2009, the European Union has been supporting the development of small and medium-sized businesses in Georgia through the EU4Business program. About 50 different projects are operating in the country, the total budget of which exceeds 320 million euros. The results of these efforts are that in 2019 alone, more than 36,000 small and medium- sized businesses were supported in Georgia, resulting in 30,000 new jobs and up to 400 million euros of additional income [6]. It should be noted that EU4Business was one of the main instruments of the European Union, which contributed to the recovery of the economy weakened by the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic; Within the framework of various programs, financial assistance to small and medium-sized businesses was implemented, the selection criteria were simplified, more than 200 million GEL was given to businesses in order to promote access to loans and provide consultations. Loans were made available from local banks with the help of partners such as the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the German Bank for Reconstruction and Development (KfW); More than 60 million GEL of local targeted grants were mobilized through ongoing EU projects across the country to stimulate economic activity in areas such as agriculture, tourism, rural business development and vocational education.

Recovery of the Economy. Since 2009, the European Union has been supporting the development of small and medium-sized businesses in Georgia through the EU4Business program. About 50 different projects are operating in the country, the total budget of which exceeds 320 million euros. The results of these efforts are that in 2019 alone, more than 36,000 small and medium-sized businesses were supported in Georgia, resulting in 30,000 new jobs and up to 400 million euros of additional income [6]. It should be noted that EU4Business was one of the main instruments of the European Union, which contributed to the recovery of the economy weakened by the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic; Within the framework of various programs, financial assistance to small and medium-sized businesses was implemented, the selection criteria were simplified, more than 200 million GEL was given to businesses in order to promote access to loans and provide consultations. Loans were made available from local banks with the help of partners such as the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the German Bank for Reconstruction and Development (KfW); More than 60 million GEL of local targeted grants were mobilized through ongoing EU projects across the country to stimulate economic activity in areas such as agriculture, tourism, rural business development and vocational education.

The Institute for the Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI), with the support of the European Union (EU), implemented the project "Monitoring the costs and protection of human rights related to COVID-19 during and after the state of emergency". In order to improve the effectiveness of actions directed against the pandemic in Georgia, within the framework of the initiative, monitoring of public finances related to COVID-19, public procurement, implementation of the government's anti-crisis plan, spending of the StopCov fund and distribution of donor aid was carried out. This document is a summary report of the project, which reviews the monitoring results of the anti-crisis measures implemented by the Georgian authorities in the framework of the fight against the pandemic, the sources of their financing and the expenses incurred, the main findings and the recommendations issued. 

Conclusion

Thus, the European Union and the European team (Team Europe) have mobilized approximately 1.5 billion GEL to help Georgia fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, by raising new funds and redistributing existing ones. Almost 2/3 of this amount is presented in the form of a grant, and the rest in the form of a preferential loan. This is one of the highest indicators of per capita aid provided by the European Union to any foreign country in the world, which confirms the strong solidarity expressed by the European Union to Georgia during an unprecedented crisis. The EU aid amounting to almost GEL 1 billion was intended to: strengthen the efforts of the Government of Georgia to overcome the COVID-19 crisis and also included an Anti-Crisis Economic plan and new regional/rural and agricultural development programs to ensure the country's macroeconomic stability. 

References 

1. Larisa Takalandze, Corporate Social Responsibility in the European Union, Text-book, 2024 https://zenodo.org/records/10775964
2. Larisa Takalandze, Corporate Social Responsibility: EU’s Experience. Manual, Tbilisi, 2021, p.152
3. Larisa Takalandze. Corporate Social Responsibility in the European Union and Experience for Georgia (in Russian lang.) Business and Law. Vol. 14. No 2 (2021)  pp.24-32 https://ojs.b-k.ge/index.php/bk/article/view/727 
4. Larisa Takalandze The Conditions and Issues for the Development of CSR in Georgia. World Economy and International Economic Relations. International Scientific Collection. Vol.4 Scientific Editors: Y.Kozak, T. Shengelia, A. Grinbinea. Kyiv CU. 2021 p.30-36        ISBN 978-611-01-1865
5. www.asocireba.ge
6. https://eu4georgia.eu
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