on aid to businesses, the Draghi government is preparing for a double turn. According to rumors reported by Republic, the Prime Minister intends to put into practice the approach illustrated last year first in the famous article on Financial Times, then in the December intervention at the G30. In essence, the goal is focus aid on companies that – once the impact of the pandemic has passed – they will be able to leave with their own strength. Nothing to do instead for the so-called "zombie feats”, those that were already in crisis before the arrival of Covid and which, without public aid, would not be able to remain on the market. In this regard, the new Economy Minister, Daniele Franco, told the Eurogroup that "we need more specific and targeted solutions".
The change of philosophy brings with it the second revolution, which concerns the method, that is the criteria for awarding aid. So far, the Giallorossi government has sorted out non-repayable money to give companies back around 20% of the turnover burned by Covid, taking as a reference the loss on an annual basis recorded in April 2020. Now Draghi aims to establish more uniform and less arbitrary criteria , based no longer on the decline in revenues, but on the reimbursement of out-of-pocket costs (such as rents, maintenance and bills), the most decisive for the survival of businesses.
The double breakthrough in business aid will become a reality with the next "Refreshments" decree, which at this point should perhaps be called by a different name, precisely to underline the differences with respect to the previous provisions.
The financial coverage will be guaranteed by the latter budget variance – the fifth – which has already been authorized by the European Commission and is worth a total of 32 billion, 10 of which are intended for businesses (at least in the setting of the Conte 2 government). Resources to which the 4,5 billion requested by the winter tourism sector after the controversy closure of the ski lifts decided by the government last Sunday.
