The economy put to the test of Covid-19 and Brexit

Audio 19:30

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels, December 9, 2020. Aaron Chown POOL / AFP

By: Frédérique Lebel

23 min

While negotiations stumble again on Brexit, and in particular on the fishing sector, another major sector, that of finance, awaits with feverishness January 1.

Whether we judge fishing is 0.12% of British GDP, finance is 7% and one million jobs.

Removed from the negotiations, the sector, which previously had a passport to trade freely in the single market, will now have to obtain authorizations on a case-by-case basis.

Publicity

A ghostly city

In the City of London, it is estimated that 7,500 jobs have already been relocated to Europe.

If we add to this the Covid-19 epidemic and teleworking, the financial district in the east of the capital, which is generally bubbling with activity, is only a shadow of itself, almost a desert is the report by

Marie Billon.

A recovery plan that will first benefit Italy and Spain

The pandemic is expected to cost the UK a GDP dip of 11%.

In Spain, which has suffered particularly from the border closures, GDP is expected to have fallen by 12.8% by the end of the year.

The Confederation of Spanish Businesses has already announced that 100,000 businesses had to go out of business.

But that's without counting the European plan of 750 billion euros approved on the eve of the weekend by the European Union.

Spain will be the second beneficiary after Italy.

This aid should above all help to develop the green and digital economy. 

In Madrid Diane Cambon.

And Italy, the most indebted country in the euro zone, will receive 172 billion euros in European funds.

Aid that allows it to look forward when the economy as a whole and employment in particular have been particularly decimated by the pandemic.

The explanations from Milan by Franceline Beretti

.

Book chronicle:

The homeland of the Werner brothers

 by Philippe Collin and Sebastien Goethals

Head to Germany with a fascinating graphic novel: 

La Patrie des frères Werner

.

Its authors, Philippe Collin and Sebastien Goethals, superimpose the story of two orphaned brothers from the Second World War in Germany and the history of sport and the Cold War.

An original way to revisit the GDR.

Léa-Lisa Westerhoff

  asked its author, journalist Philippe Collin, why he wanted to talk about Europe.

And for our musical journey we find Vincent Théval

The French musician

Dominique A

 revisits for us today an essential song under the Greek sky:

The children of Piraeus.

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