The European Central Bank and the European Investment Bank support big corporations through non-transparent processes, without taking into account social, environmental or climate criteria and without having binding criteria to stop corporate tax evasion and dividend distributions.
Today, the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) is meeting and will probably announce the extension of it’s Pandemic Emergency Purchase Program (PEPP). It is a good moment to reflect on how EU public aid has been channelled so far to some of the most powerful players of our economy in the context of the COVID-19 crisis, the big corporations.
The spread of COVID-19 and its resulting health emergency have brought an unprecedented economic slowdown. Consequently, public institutions have activated plans, mechanisms and instruments that ostensibly aim to stop the shock, reactivate the economy and restore pre-pandemic normality. In this context, large corporations are playing a central role similar to that of the banking system during the 2008 financial crisis: at a time of high uncertainty, a few powerful actors benefit from public support, while the huge majority is put in second place.
