Tribune. Supporting businesses is one of the structural missions of the State and local communities. The targets are multiple and range from helping companies in difficulty to the creation of national champions, through the development of the fabric of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the emergence of start-ups. The priorities vary according to the period, the economic situation and… the respective weight of the professional organizations.
The health, then economic, crisis linked to Covid-19 has changed the usual rules for prioritizing objectives. Summarized by “whatever the cost”, this policy consisted in pouring out on companies several hundreds of billions of euros in the form of loans guaranteed by the State, solidarity funds, refunds of contributions, partial activity, etc. . In total, the emergency measures and the recovery plan ended up by an injection of 240 billion euros for businesses. If this record amount can be justified by the exceptional situation the country had to face, it is part of a long trend of distribution of aid to companies, which already represented between 150 and 200 billion in 2019.
European rules
Who benefits from this windfall? Almost all companies, due to the rules in force within the European Union. Indeed, European law lays down a general principle of prohibition of State aid – which extends to local authorities – which provides a selective advantage to one or a few companies. This decision is justified by the influence that this type of aid exerts on trade between Member States by threatening or distorting competition. Exceptions exist, for example for small amounts of aid (the so-called de minimis), agricultural and forestry sectors and rural areas.
However, this rule no longer applies when Member States adopt measures applicable to all companies meeting certain criteria to reduce the charges that the latter would normally have to bear (exemptions from taxes or social charges, for example). Under these conditions, it is understandable that most of the aid is general and does not target specific sectors or sectors, which an industrial, environmental or agricultural policy should nevertheless favor.
This rule, the aims of which are a priori egalitarian, in fact generates inequalities which affect their efficiency and reflect on the composition of the productive fabric.
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