For the countries of the European Union, the pandemic was the occasion for a colossal increase in social benefits.
All expenditure items combined (health expenditure, unemployment, housing, etc.), it is Germany which leads with 1075 billion euros, according to Eurostat data published on Tuesday.
Berlin already occupied the first place in the ranking in 2019 with 1,003 billion euros.
In terms of GDP, on the other hand, France remains first with 35.7% of GDP, against 32.3% across the Rhine.
Italy, whose hospital system was the first in Europe to be overwhelmed, comes third at 33.4%, behind Austria (33.8%).
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Overall, it is all the member countries that increased the share of their GDP devoted to social protection between 2019 and 2020. However, not all countries have made the same financial efforts.
Malta and Austria are the two countries that have increased their social protection spending the most, with an increase of 5.2 points each, followed by Italy (+5 points).
In France, expenses increased by 4.7 points when, in comparison, they increased by 4 points in our German neighbor.
Poland has increased its spending by only 1.2 points.
In France, social spending increased by 4.7 points.
Eurostat
For health spending alone, it is Germany which occupies the top with a share of GDP of 11.2%, against 10.0% for France which comes second.
But, for all or almost all member countries, this share has increased very little.
It even decreased for Poland.
In France, it only increased by 0.9 point, and in Germany by 0.7 point.
Read alsoWhy health spending has (almost) not increased in 2020 despite the Covid
The share of health spending has increased little in the face of Covid.
Eurostat