In Europe, there would be little sense in giving a cheque to every household, which forms part of the US recovery plan. We do not have – fortunately, to my way of thinking – the same social model. Given the various social protection schemes in place in Europe, to which we can add forced saving during periods of lockdown, household demand should recover quite spontaneously. In terms of total demand, greater uncertainty remains around investment and external demand, particularly with regard to the time needed for the global economy to overcome the public health crisis. Supply from businesses could remain stymied in some sectors due to lasting loss of capacity (bankruptcies) and supply chain difficulties. This is therefore likely to require investment programmes and climate transition programmes that sustain demand while improving production capacity; and for that, priority will have to be given to financing joint initiatives at the European level , particularly given its higher "debt capacity". In this instance, our remedies for the crisis will be in step with our long-term priorities. At the national level, any initiatives to further education, professional training and more skilled employment will continue to be the best investment for growth: France had fortunately created one million extra jobs during the four years preceding the coronavirus shock; tomorrow, it will still be through our wealth-producing work that we will cover the price of this shock. 2/ How to treat the debts inherited from the crisis? Secondly, the question of public and private debt will arise.
Our arrangement – currently the most generous and costly in Europe – should avoid what has started to happen in the United States: ten million job losses in fifteen days and possibly a lot more tomorrow; it protects employees and their incomes and maintains production capacities for the future recovery. The measures also include state-guaranteed loans, up to a total of  Page 3 of 8 EUR 300 billion, repayable over one to five years and for an amount covering up to 25% of annual revenue. Overall, banks are playing their part, but the Credit Mediation Scheme’s services, under the aegis of the Banque de France, are involved and ready to assist any businesses experiencing difficulties. Already, each week we are receiving over ten times more cases than last year. I will now turn to the monetary measures of this cash shield. All over the world, the major central banks have taken bold measures to guarantee financing for businesses in the short term, through purchases of commercial paper, and in the medium term, through purchases of corporate bonds. In this respect, the ECB was among the first to lead the way. The ECB also stands out in that it has the capacity to provide banks with immediate and almost unlimited liquidity, so that the banks can in turn finance all the economic players: businesses, government and households. To do so, during the course of two successive meetings the ECB took some exceptional decisions.