20 May Franco-German EU recovery fund: Opportunities for European Tech
Accelerating rebuilt and growth after the COVID-19 crisis
May 18th 2020 may come to be remembered as a deciding day in European history, as Germany and France decided on a 500 billion recovery fund to support the European economy. If approved by the 27 EU member states, it will support sustainable economic recovery and ecological and digital transitions, especially in the health sector. Considering this strategy, it is interesting to evaluate how European tech companies can benefit from it.
European cooperation
This Franco-German collaboration has been highly anticipated and proves the great significance of European cooperation. Uniting European countries can be crucial in sparking interest on an international scale, which this initiative proves.
And yet, is the Franco-German powerhouse strong enough to pull Europe out of a possible crisis? Will all 27 EU member states agree to this initiative? In any case, this funding would be an investment into a future, where European countries can react to a similar economic crisis in a more coordinated and coherent way.
Start-ups: An essential part of Europe’s innovation potential
The European recovery fund would, amongst other aspects, drive the digital transition to new heights, especially focusing on health tech. Currently, a high number of start-ups are active in Europe, regularly churning out new business ideas. Tech start-ups especially have laid the foundation for a new kind of development in Europe and could even benefit from the crisis. For instance, a further expansion of digitisation would support the sharing of information, which is of particular interest in the health sector. In addition, one should keep an eye on the emergence of start-ups in health tech, where there are still many opportunities for growth in Europe.
All in all, this Franco-German initiative looks promising for Europe’s reconstruction and development and offers great opportunities for the technology sector, especially in the context of digitalization. It remains to be seen whether the member states are willing to provide funding from the EU budget, as proposed in the joint paper by the German and French governments.
Recently, European Champions Alliance has been reporting about the topic of cybersecurity which is becoming more and more relevant on a European scale. You can have a look at one of our articles about cybersecurity here.
If you want to consult the paper (FR/DE):
- FR Initiative franco-allemande pour la rélance européenne 18-05-20
- DE Deutsch-französische Initiative zur wirtschaftlichen Erholung Europas 18-05-20
Sources:
- https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/coronakrise-angela-merkel-und-emmanuel-macron-planen-500-milliarden-hilfen-fuer-die-wirtschaft-a-d9bf5dfc-3c68-4ffa-8090-c57cd3dacbac
- https://www.zeit.de/politik/ausland/2020-05/corona-hilfe-europaeische-union-konjunktur-paket-deutschland-frankreich
- https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6668258083774443520/
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-6668253809367638016-snVg/
Image: © Francois Mori/AFP/Getty Images