The coronavirus crisis “clearly increases pressure on public authorities” to allocate funding wisely and direct Europe's recovery towards “future proof solutions”, the European Commission said on Monday after president Ursula von der Leyen called for “smart and sustainable” investment.
A Social-Green Deal, with just transition—the European answer to the coronavirus crisis.
The European Green Deal Sets Out how to Make Europe the First Climate-Neutral Continent by 2050.
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The biggest difference the coronavirus crisis has brought to political discourse is the destruction of an assertion: markets are best left alone to find solutions, quickly and efficiently, to any big problem. Getting through a massive health crisis and its impact on our societies is only possible with very well calibrated co-operation—among scientists, states, business and the public.
Taking a lot of formerly unthinkable social, political and economic measures is necessary to avoid massive disruption in the short term but without rolling back a transformation that was already in train. That transformation, towards a carbon-neutral European continent, regenerated soils, protected biodiversity and oceans and a circular economy, has been the subject of strategies designed to avoid crises of the magnitude we are witnessing today.
During the first shock weeks, with the goal to flatten the curve of infections, a lot of measures have to be reactive. But proactive measures are needed to guide the recovery and clear vision on its direction is an important ingredient in times of high uncertainty.
Widespread trust
For the first time in years we witness widespread trust in government decisions. Scientific evidence is released next to reports about political actions. In an unprecedented way, monitoring real-life developments—the number of infected people or the latest evidence—precedes the reporting of stock markets. News organs which formerly defended individual freedom against any suggestions to change lifestyles are shifting the moral consensus by condemning the hedonists who still splash out with no interest in the consequences for others or the health system.
And, despite being drastic, the political measures are still widely accepted—because they affect everyone. The support packages, at least in some countries, span direct incomes for the self-employed, compensation of wages and fixed running costs, payments for parents who need to lower their working hours to look after children, direct support to hospitals and guaranteed loans to companies. The terms ‘solidarity’ and ‘community of fate’ (in German Schicksalsgemeinschaft) have become widely used.
Yet, overall, the poor will be suffering the most during this crisis while the distributive effects will be favourable to the already privileged and well-off. And this is where the next round of measures needs to marry economic, ecological and social goals if the emergence of trust in well-calibrated co-operation is to prevail. The more outspoken the will to find crisis-management measures which do not bounce back but bounce forward—into sustainable and thus more resilient societies which leave no one behind—the more that trust will consolidate.
A Social-Green Deal
The deal that should follow the short-term rescue measures and guide the path out of the coronavirus crisis and thereafter is the Green Deal with more courage. Franklin Roosevelt was very clear that his New Deal was not going to leave all institutions and players as they were. The medium-skilled and the pioneers of good business practice were to become the backbone of the future economy, including a sponsored civilian conservation corps to enhance the value of natural resources. People-centred and future-focused crisis management means investing in good education and skill development for all, including an update of what and how we teach and learn.
An upgraded Social-Green Deal and tighter co-operation between member states is an expression of the call for solidarity which the crisis has evoked. After the narrowly national reactions to its onslaught, it is very important to widen the community of fate (at least) to a European scale—and to shape a European identity cognisant of the multiple webs of global connection on which our wealth depends and through which our choices affect lives outside the continent. While measures will have to be adaptive during the transition, the direction of the emerging social contract needs to be put firmly on the table to sustain the trust and will to co-operate.
