Legislation
Belgium – Euromat says ‘governments need to step in with support if they are locking down’
By Phil - 29 October 2020
With several European countries, including France and Germany, escalating measures this week to contain the spread of COVID-19, EUROMAT has set out four principles that it is asking governments to heed as they seek to manage a second wave.
EUROMAT President Jason Frost said: “From the beginning of the crisis, our first priority has been the safety and health of our customers and staff. It is why we invested so heavily in the spring in safety measures to ensure safe operation once venues were allowed to re-open earlier this year. As we now face the prospect of a second lockdown in several European countries, we are asking European governments to learn the lessons of earlier this year and ensure that they put support in place quickly for those businesses and their staff that will face temporary closure. Public health in the widest possible sense has to be the priority and keeping people in jobs during an uncertain time should be an important objective for governments.”
EUROMAT’s four principles that it is publishing today are:
• Employment support and liquidity schemes should be in place quickly and accessible, with no exclusions for our sector. Public money should be there to support jobs of any kind.
• Communicate clearly and consistently: New restrictions need to be consistent and without contradiction to keep public confidence and give the industry certainty.
• Think about the impact on the full supply chain: We are lucky to have a fantastic manufacturing footprint for our industry in Europe and while it is easy to see the immediate impact on operators, manufacturers are also under pressure. These are jobs that we need in Europe and governments should make every effort to protect.
• Work with the sector, both on an orderly entry into and exit from lockdown: We need to work together if we are to get out of this and back to economic recovery. We have learnt a lot from the last 6 months and we want to work with governments to make sure that we get back to safe operations as quickly as possible
