‘Business Over People. A critical analysis of public financing for COVID-19 and cost of living crisis responses in France, Spain and Belgium’ by the European Network of Corporate Observatories (ENCO)
Public funding is a political choice, and these policies can deepen existing inequalities and the ecological crisis if they are not adequately designed and implemented. In the face of the European elections, it is necessary to evaluate what has been done to tackle the current multicrisis, aggravated by the pandemic and the cost of living crisis. The report provides a detailed overview of public crisis financing (amounting to 456 billion euro) and shows that the French, Spanish and Belgium governments have not guaranteed a recovery focused on collective needs nor taken into account ecological or feminist criteria.
In a nutshell, these are the 4 main findings:
- France, Spain and Belgium provided stimulus measures far from a desirable 10% of GDP in 2020, 2021 and 2022 (4% at best).
- From the 456 billion Euro measures identified, between a third and half of the crisis funding have been allocated to private companies.
- If indirect grants are also accounted for, such as job protection measures or household energy subsidies, companies received 69% of the crisis funding in France, 68% in Spain and 58% Belgium.
- Between 2020 and 2022, a very small percentage of financing has been allocated to essential sectors to protect collective needs and people in vulnerable situations. Socially necessary sectors such as health care, education and public transport received less than 17% in France, 9% in Belgium and 7% in Spain of public financing to face the crisis.
To reverse the trend of who wins and who loses in times of crisis, as well as in times of transitions, we must move towards public financing that is based on ecological, fair and feminist criteria and that guarantees collective rights above market interests.
Read the article and report to see the full proposal.
The report is available in English, French, Spanish and Catalan.
