Fiscal policies to combat the consequences of the coronavirus

The consequences of the health crisis are affecting the whole world and all dimensions of development: health, economic, social, etc. This impact has been greater in the most vulnerable social sectors and has led levels of poverty and economic and social inequality to soar around the globe.  

In this context, fiscal policies have become a key tool to limit and mitigate these impacts. Measures such as minimum incomes or expansion of unemployment insurance have been placed at the centre of the debate to give a fiscal response to the consequences of the pandemic.  

For this reason, EUROsociAL+, together with the Central American Secretariat for Social Integration (SISCA), has organised a series of webinars that address this dimension of the response to the health crisis.  

 In the first webinar, specialists discussed fiscal responses to the effects of the health, economic and social crisis and explored the spheres of tax, budgetary, financial and social policy through experiences in the countries of Latin America and the European Union.  

‘It is essential to protect the most vulnerable population and the business fabric, which will be key in the post-pandemic recovery,’ explained Alfredo Suárez Mieses, Secretary General of the Central American Secretariat for Social Integration (SISCA).   

For his part, the director of the EUROsociAL+ programme, Juan Manuel Santomé, stressed that it is important to study who might be able to benefit from the measures: “A clear analysis must be made of who wins and who loses with the measures, it is key to fight with a gender focus. We face many shared challenges both in Europe and in Latin America, I hope we learn and emerge with more resilient societies aimed at inclusive development that leaves no one behind, as the 2030 Agenda says.” 

With the series of webinars, EUROsociAL+, a project funded by the European Union and in whose management FIIAPP participates, has several objectives: to present an overview of the first fiscal responses from the experiences of Latin America and the European Union, to reflect on the medium-term responses and on the role that the State and fiscal policies must play to ensure acceptable levels of health coverage, income support and social protection, and to identify common challenges in fiscal matters and cooperation mechanisms to enable these policies to be strengthened.