Report from FCM - Protection of SMEs and Self - Employers in times of COVID-19

2020-04-21 - 08:06

As COVID-19 has spread around the globe, SMEs and self-employed workers seem to be the most vulnerable to the economic effects that it’s causing at a global level of society.

As the number of SMEs in Europe goes up to 25,000 representing 2/3 of the jobs, it is of extreme importance for the economy to reduce as much as possible the economic impact COVID-19 may have in this group. These is why, among the measures governments worldwide have implemented in the framework of these crisis, many of them have concretely focused on these two groups, implementing fiscal and monetary measures.

The general practice among countries has been to defer the tax payment, increase the flexibility when granting loans, as well as to giving special grants to the most affected groups. This has been possible thanks to the extraordinary unprecedented measures taken by the European Commission, such as the adoption of a Temporary Framework to enable Member States to use the full flexibility foreseen under State aid rules to support the economy during the outbreak and the amendment of the Short-term export-credit insurance Communication so as to allow companies to obtain short-term export-credit insurance from public insurers.

Also, the ECB (European Central Bank) has adopted a package of monetary policy measures, such as additional longer-term refinancing operations (LTROs), more favorable terms in already existing LTROs, and the addition of a temporary envelope of additional net set purchases, among others.

The present document gather the measures taken by each state member of the Fédération des Experts Comptables Mediterranean’s (FCM) to protect SMEs and self-employed workers as of April 20th 2020 and will be updated on a regular basis. 

To access the Document, click Here.