PANDEMRIC is an amalgamation of the words pandemic and EMRIC. PANDEMRIC is supporting EMRIC in work related to the COVID crisis. PANDEMRIC therefore focuses on promoting Euroregional cooperation in the event of a pandemic or large-scale outbreak of an infectious disease.
At the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, it quickly became clear that crisis policies were often implemented at the national level. Existing Euroregional networks were more or less overruled. Dis-coordination between the countries created numerous bottlenecks in the border regions, which proved detrimental to the citizens of the Euregio Meuse-Rhine (EMR). PANDEMRIC therefore focuses on promoting Euroregional cooperation in the event of a pandemic or large-scale outbreak of an infectious disease.
ITEM study: The Limitations and Opportunities of Cross-border Procurement during the COVID-19 Crisis and Recommendations for the Future
In terms of public procurement, many of the partners working together under EMRIC reported experiencing shortages of necessary materials and difficulties in purchasing them. These challenges regarding the procurement of necessary materials led to the desire to have procurement processes examined in depth. This study covers the procurement of materials and related goods and services needed to effectively combat a crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Indeed, the urgency and intensity of the COVID-19 crisis led to questions about the procurement of such materials, whether they were available, to what extent procurement procedures should be used, what procedures from national or European legislation were relevant to procurement in times of crisis, and what bottlenecks occurred in the procurement of necessary goods.
