Monday, April 26, 2021
Call for special economic assistance
Schwesig sees “division of the economy”
Tourism is one of the most important industries in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Prime Minister Schwesig would like further help from the federal government for the lockdown-stricken businesses. Economy Minister Altmaier is now calling for perseverance.
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig is calling for new “special economic aid” for industries that are particularly hard hit by the consequences of the Corona crisis, such as tourism or gastronomy. In “Bild” -live, the SPD politician justified this with a “split in the economy”. On the one hand, a large part of the economy in the corona pandemic worked as before and in some cases made even higher sales, such as the food sector and the construction industry. A smaller part, to which tourism, gastronomy, hotels, but also the cultural and event industries belonged, would, however, bring “a special sacrifice”.
She advocates “that we repeat what we did in November and December: Back then, economic aid was linked to sales. That was much better for these industries than bridging aid 3 is now,” said Schwesig.
Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier called on the industries affected by the lockdown to persevere. “I want to encourage our companies, the fashion boutiques, the corner bars, the travel agencies. Your perseverance impresses me deeply. We will get out of this crisis together,” said the CDU politician to the newspapers of the Funke media group. He expects significant relaxation in summer at the latest.
Since the beginning of the crisis, 95.9 billion euros in aid have been approved, report the Funke newspapers, citing data from the Federal Ministry of Economics. Of the November and December aid, which made headlines because of sluggish disbursements, more than 10.7 billion euros, or around 96 percent, were paid out to companies.
Altmaier justifies delays
Altmaier defended the sometimes lengthy test procedures against the Funke newspapers. The payment of the full sums lies with the federal states and is carefully checked there. After all, sometimes several million euros are at stake for a company that no longer has to repay them, explained the Minister of Economic Affairs.
According to the ministry, there has also been momentum in the disbursements of the bridging aid III, which has been available since mid-February, as well as in the restart aid that can be used for solo self-employment. Bridging aid III has so far received 146,533 applications with a volume of around 8.66 billion euros, and more than 4.18 billion euros have been disbursed. 161,280 applications were received for the new start aid, of which around 984 million euros were paid out to the solo self-employed.
According to the ministry, 16 companies are under the state rescue package, the economic stabilization fund. “In the majority of cases it is about loans, only in one case there is government participation,” said Altmaier. The state participation is the partially nationalized Lufthansa. According to the ministry, a total of 18 applications with a volume of around 8.5 billion euros were approved.
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