CoFoE: Financial Aid Must Be Targeted in Pandemic, Jurzyca and Lexmann Concur
Bratislava, February 23 (TASR) – The novel coronavirus pandemic has had a strange economic course; first, a V-shaped development was expected (sharp decline, followed by a sharp increase), then a U-shaped development (milder decline and growth), and in the end, the letter K is being discussed (some sectors declined, but others increased), and therefore, financial assistance must be targeted, there is no need to provide assistance to all sectors, MEPs Eugen Jurzyca and Miriam Lexmann concurred in a discussion on TASR TV.
A stronger economy is also a topic at the ongoing Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE).
Jurzyca also illustrated the peculiarity of the coronavirus crisis on several macroeconomic indicators – gross domestic product (GDP) grew on average, employment and wages also swelled. Household consumption in the EU dropped, but went up in Slovakia. Household savings and the assets of financial institutions also increased in their volume.
However, he pointed out that the debt of the EU member states and inflation haven’t avoided growth either, which he considers to be a problem. People will pay off the public debt in the future and are already paying for inflation. “I think that the fact that the costs of the crisis will be spread over time worldwide has been a good step. I think we’ve also overdone it a bit, because in the end the crisis turned out in such a way that it hasn’t been felt on average, but inflation increased, debts increased,” noted the MEP.
Meanwhile, Lexmann drew attention to the issue of socially disadvantaged groups who have been more affected by the crisis – almost half a million Slovaks have found themselves close to the risk of poverty due to the pandemic. According to her, it is the role of the EU in allocating resources to help them overcome the crisis. The aid needs to be targeted and she criticised the way Slovakia has done it. She thinks that it has been too bureaucratic and complicated, compared, for example, to Germany or Austria.
