The Economic Reaction of Selected EU Member States to the Outbreak of the Corona Crisis 2020

The corona crisis has placed European economies under enormous pressure. After a return to national solutions such as border closings for exports of medical products, the governments began to reflect and slowly assemble aid packages for their national economies – some even dreamed of a ‘financial bazooka’. In this situation transform!europe last year commissioned scholars from nine European countries to produce an analysis of the various economic measures enacted by the governments to support their economies.
The questions were: In what sectors was money invested? Were jobs secured – was the attempt made to create new and ‘good’ jobs – that is, work that is the opposite of precarious employment? Was the money only used for established production and services, which often negatively impact the environment and workers? Or was money also used to invest in socio-ecological transformation? Was consideration given to create and safeguard ‘good’ jobs through active industrial policy in the particular countries, or will money simply flow out of the countries (for example, for the purchase of photovoltaics and wind turbines)? To what extent have trade unions beenbrought into the planning?
The economic measures and rescue packages adopted by the European governments – although an improvement on what was done after the last great crisis following the collapse of the Lehmann Brothers’ bank – are far from adequate for ending the over-exploitation of people and nature. They do not enable the respecting of the planetary limits.
In 2021 the debates over who will bear the costs of the pandemic have continue unabated. What positive and negative lessons can we draw from last year’s economic-policy experiences? What are the dangers, but also what are the positive points from which the left in all of Europe can learn?
The present studies were not regarded as an aim in themselves but rather as enquiries into what the possible political consequences may be.
12 June 2021
12:00 – 17:00 (CET)
via Zoom