AICV joins the call for setting up an EU hospitality recovery task force

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit livelihoods and businesses hard, throwing Europe’s restaurants, bars, hotels, cafés, pubs and nightclubs into a deep crisis. The hospitality sector has been among the hardest hit, with businesses being forced to shut down at short notice as part of the collective fight against the virus. It has led to a dramatic knock-on effect on its suppliers. Many actors in the food supply chain such as farmers, processors, traders, wholesalers, and food and drinks manufacturers face severe hardship. Many of these sectors are primarily made up of SMEs and these businesses are intrinsic to the functioning of the hospitality sector. We turn towards 2021 with the core objective of creating some predictability for the hospitality sector and its supply chain, through a safe, timely and sustainable reopening. Many businesses in the hospitality sector are at risk of collapse and will take down many other supporting industries in the process. Millions of workers and their families are facing great uncertainty and fear for the future. The necessary financial, fiscal and operational support must be extended for companies directly and indirectly affected by the lockdown, for as long as it is necessary, to provide liquidity to companies and to help avoid bankruptcies. State wage compensation schemes must also be extended until this crisis is not over to protect as many jobs as possible. Supporting the hospitality sector and its value chain now, can play a leading role in Europe’s recovery from the COVID-19 crisis. AICV together with other signatories of this request, are therefore asking for setting up an EU hospitality recovery task force to tackle these issues in a systematic, harmonised and effective way.