The response to the Coronavirus crisis must be immediate and supportive. There is no more time to safeguard the future of many small and medium-sized European companies. With this conviction, the president of the employer association Cifa Italia and the inter-professional fund Fonarcom wrote a letter to the German chancellor Angela Merkel to ask for her go-ahead to the temporary Eurobond issue.
"Allow me to launch a heartfelt appeal to the European Union", Cafà writes in his message, which has become a petition on Change.org that has collected the adhesions of entrepreneurs, professionals and workers. "It is necessary to immediately introduce new resources into the market - reads the text - through the solidarity and temporary issue of Eurobonds thus strengthening the central role of Europe. Millions of jobs will be safeguarded and the productive and industrial stability of the small ones will be ensured and medium-sized Italian and European companies that represent the greatest economic strength of our continent ".
The crisis linked to the pandemic risks, for the CIFA, to turn into a long and deep recession with serious social consequences, and the European reaction must be an "intelligent and mutual solidarity" that marks an "epochal turning point, also in relations between countries of the 'Union". The letter to Merkel was born - explains Cafà - from the awareness that "the time is over: many small and medium-sized enterprises do not have the liquidity to stand in a stall for two to three months". For this reason it is necessary to act immediately with a Eurobond issue and relaunch the development of the European continent with extraordinary investments. In this way, according to the president of Cifa and Fonarcom, opportunities can also be seized from this bad experience.
"The Coronavirus will block displacements for a period - says Cafà - and many companies that had relocated perhaps will produce more in Italy and create more jobs in our country". The point is to help businesses before it's too late. "Aid is needed immediately and liquidity is needed in the market, but as long as the engines of small and medium-sized enterprises can be restarted," we can start again, "says Cafà, convinced that" we have a great capacity which is to recover quickly and the made in Italy is very valuable and will still be in demand abroad, once out of the crisis ".
Another problem will then be to prepare ourselves to face new emergencies that may arise. "This situation shows that we have to get used to being ready to face things that we didn't expect to happen," for the entrepreneur representative who underlines the central role of training and industrial policy that "should have a ten-person vision ability." fifteen years and also guide managers who, today, do not have a great reading ability ".
In this context, Fonarcom, together with Cifa and Confsal, has created the "Il lavoro continua" website where entrepreneurs and professionals can keep up to date on regulatory developments regarding smart work and social safety nets. "In the next few days then - anticipates Cafà - we would like to activate webinars with economists and intellectuals to devise proposals for the exit from this moment of crisis and future plans for industrial policy to be submitted to politics". "We plan the future today - concludes Cafà - in order to be able to leave quickly when we can leave the house. We cannot waste time".
In collaboration with:
Fonarcom
