Small business federation upbeat about measures agreed by parties on Friday evening
The small business federation Unizo has responded extremely positively to new raft of fiscal measures to help businesses through the crisis that were approved on Friday evening. The measures were approved by 9 of the 10 parties that are currently backing the minority Federal Government in the measures it is taking to address the corona crisis and the economic consequences thereof.
In a statement, Unizo’s Managing Director Danny Van Assche said “We have strongly lobbied the government for these measures over the past few week and now hope that parliament will take responsibility and pass the measures”.
Mr Van Assche added that “By introducing these measures SMEs and the self-employed are being given decisive help to see them though the current crisis, to prepare them for future and protect them against further shocks. Moreover, people’s savings are being activated and used to crank up the economy”.
While, it backs the extension of the temporary unemployment, Unizo does question whether it is a good idea to make so called “end of career time credit” possible from the age of 55 rather than 57 as it was previously.
Unizo says that “This totally contradicts the measures that have been taken in recent year to break through the stigma that surrounds older employees and to raise the number of over 55’s that are economically active”.
"We hope that this is a temporary measure that will be altered once the corona crisis is over. It might have been easier to extend the system of temporary unemployment due to force majeure for people from all sectors of the economy until the end of this year”.