The ongoing crisis linked to the coronavirus pandemic is having a myriad of economic and social impacts across Europe. In France, the Observatoire français des conjonctures économiques (OFCE) has estimated that the eight-week lockdown measures cost the French economy €120bn[1]. In the UK, the Bank of England recently forecasted that the UK economy would shrink by 14% in 2020 and that the unemployment rate was likely to double in the near future[2]. Other reports have highlighted that some of Europe’s poorest communities and regions are being disproportionately affected by the health impacts of the pandemic and the economic consequences of lockdown measures.

For instance, the decline...