European Commission Vice President Margrethe Vestager told a small group of media outlets including ANSA on Friday she was "deeply concerned" about a north-south split in the EU on responding to the coronavirus's economic impact.

The EU’s executive is open to all options to fight the coronavirus emergency, Commission VP Valdis Dombrovskis told Italian daily La Repubblica on Friday.

The EU is eliminating certain taxes on the import of medical devices and equipment coming from third countries at least up to August this year, or for four months. The Commission approved on Friday afternoon requests from Member States and the UK to temporarily waive customs duties and VAT on this import in order to help in the fight against pandemic.

The EU Commission issued on Friday practical guidance to Member States that sets out a more coordinated approach to cross-border cooperation on emergency healthcare between national, regional and local authorities.

On top of the targeted measures proposed last weeks to give additional firepower to EU countries in responding coronavirus crisis, on Thursday, the Commission put in place its second huge package of swift extraordinary rules for protecting lives, jobs and businesses across Europe.

How to use all the flexibilities offered by the EU public procurement framework in the context of the coronavirus outbreak emergency situation? 

The EU Science Hub Joint Research Centre (JRC), which is a Commission in-house service, have designed new control material that laboratories can use to check the correct functioning of their coronavirus tests and to avoid false negatives.

An initiative to support short-time work in companies hardly hit by the coronavirus crisis, named Sure, is set for adoption by the Commission on Thursday. 

The EU is firming up its support for refugees from Syria and vulnerable people in Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon through a new package of almost €240m, raising the total assistance via the EU Regional Trust Fund in Response to the Syrian Crisis to more than €2bn.

The Commission green-lighted on Tuesday another project as part of its emergency call for urgently needed research and innovation into the coronavirus. This brings the number of supported projects up to 18 from the 17 originally announced.