The direct aid, which has been approved in the last Council of Ministers of the Central Government, assigned to companies and the self-employed for a total of 7,000 million, is insufficient compared to the losses suffered only from the audiovisual sector and events in Spain, caused by the Covid-19 health crisis.
These announced grants are intended to cover the payment of fixed expenses, invoices with suppliers and bank / financial debts. They will be eligible for companies whose income has fallen more than 30% compared to 2019.
But, what about the help that the Audiovisual and Events sector really needs?
During the year 2020 this sector has had losses of more than 11,000 million euros, (2% of Spanish GDP) and leaving behind more than 100,000 professionals and at the moment the Central Government is not seen to move to alleviate this great hole sector that suffers an economic crisis of great magnitude.
A sector directly related to culture and tourism. The latter has received significant attention from the Central Government, unlike the cultural sector, which at the moment has only announced aid for the promotion of reading, with 1 million euros, and some credit lines, for a value total of 16 million euros. A line of credits for SMEs and self-employed in the culture sector that are granted through CREA SGR.
In fact, members of the events, shows, performing arts and culture sector have mobilized this past Sunday, March 14, in several cities throughout Spain, one year after the declaration of the State of Alarm, to demand the recovery of the activity and remind the administrations of the “situation of total abandonment” in which we find ourselves, manifesting under the slogan “one year of sentence” and claiming all the rights taken away.
“The cultural sector is the sector most affected by the measures derived from the health emergency, the first to stop and still waiting for concrete measures for its recovery,” laments Francisco Bustamante, president of FIAVE.
From FIAVE, the first Spanish federation that represents the audiovisual and events industry, we are joining forces to work together to recover the sector, join us!