Next Generation EU: Industrial Policy Initiatives in Post Pandemic Times

Governments across the world have immediately responded to the spread of the Covid-19 disease through border closures, lockdown strategies and physical confinement measures to contain contagion. However, multiple waves of pandemic have unprecedently challenged not only public health, but also threatened food systems sustainability, disrupted trade linkages, and exposed the workforce to the risk of losing their livelihoods in developed and developing economies alike. In the coronavirus pandemic, health, economic, social, environmental, and human crises converge. In this context, many countries have soon witnessed a growing role of the State into domestic economies and societies. Different types of supports (e.g., cash transfers, relief measures for firms, employment retentions initiatives and child allowances, fiscal supports) have been deployed. In Europe, the «Next Generation EU» – a stimulus package of economic measures – has been deployed to support the recovery of the member States.The present article introduces the current theoretical debate on the role of industrial policies; then, a comparative analysis of the Recovery and Resilience Plans that France, Germany and Italy have drawn up to access the «Next Generation EU» funds follows. The contribution not only shows and comments upon the heterogeneity of the priority intervention areas identified by these countries, but it also contextualizes such a comparative analysis with respect to the debate on the possible new role of industrial policies in the pandemic context, with the aim of stimulating a reflection on industrial policy actions face to the challenges of our present