While emergency aid ends this Tuesday, to the chagrin of many professionals who are demanding their extension, the sectors still affected by the health crisis are received this Monday in Bercy.
A first meeting with representatives of trade, tourism and events in particular started at 9:30 am in the presence of the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, who had promised entrepreneurs a review clause at the end of August.
End of the solidarity fund
In front of the good shape of the French economy, he whistled the end of “whatever it costs” last week, while promising to continue “to support those who need it”. Bruno Le Maire will be accompanied by his counterparts from Labor, Elisabeth Borne, SMEs, Alain Griset, and Tourism, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne. At 2:30 p.m., the world of culture, including representatives of cinema and performing arts, will be received separately by Ministers Le Maire and Griset and their colleague of Culture, Roselyne Bachelot.
The solidarity fund, which has cost nearly 35 billion euros since March 2020 and benefited more than two million companies, must if nothing changes be extinguished on August 31, as well as the increased level of unemployment compensation. partial for the sectors most affected by the crisis. The partial activity device, which has made it possible to preserve employment and skills during the worst recession that France has experienced since 1945, has a cost which amounted to 34.4 billion euros at the end of April. Finally, exemptions or reductions in social contributions for SMEs and the self-employed are also due to end on Tuesday. With the introduction of the health pass, however, requests for aid are no longer limited to sectors which still benefited from emergency aid.
Disparate situations
Retailers’ representatives are also invited to Bercy, in particular because the large shopping centers subject to the health pass have suffered losses in turnover, unlike their competitors who are not constrained by this constraint. “We are ready to help the sectors which really need it, with an inevitably transitory device, very sectorial”, but it is necessary “to look at what is the reality of the losses compared to what is said”, summed up Sunday on Radio J the Minister of Public Accounts, Olivier Dussopt. Representatives of cafes, restaurants, hotels and nightclubs said on Friday that their summer activity had fallen by 20% compared to summer 2019, and are calling for an extension of aid.
According to them, the implementation of the health pass on August 9 caused a drop in activity among 80% of cafetiers and restaurateurs. The situations are however very disparate with a large quarter of restaurant owners who experienced a growing summer, with an average increase in sales of 20% compared to 2019. Self-employed workers and self-employed entrepreneurs also reported a large disparity in situation within them. Their representatives were received on Wednesday by Alain Griset, who is preparing a plan of lasting measures in their favor which should be presented in September.
“Crossing sectors and territories”
In tourism, the Organization of European Road Transporters (OTRE) notes “a decrease of the order of 80% to 85% of the activities of the occasional and tourism by coach compared to the pre-Covid period”, according to a press release calling for the maintenance of aid. The two main inter-professional employers’ organizations, the Medef and the CPME, support the end of generalized aid and ask the government to do “hand stitching”. “An entrepreneur is made for a living from his clients, not from helpers,” said François Asselin, president of CPME.
“But if there are decisions taken that you do not control and which directly impact the activity of your company, it is quite normal that you are supported”, he tempered. To decide on the maintenance of aid, “it is necessary to cross sectors and territories”, explains for his part Pierre Goguet, president of CCI France, the national organization of chambers of commerce and industry. Because while the hotel industry has picked up well in the main French holiday destinations, the same is not true in Paris where it depends a lot on international customers.