EC has paid EU countries 98.4B euro to protect jobs and incomes hit by Covid-19 pandemic
The European Commission (EC) said on December 14 that it had today paid out more than 6.5 billion euro to nine EU countries in the final transaction under SURE, the instrument designed to protect jobs and incomes affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“With today’s ninth and last payment, SURE has provided a total of 98.4 billion euro of financial assistance to 19 member states,” the EC said.
The statement said that as part of the December 14 operations, Bulgaria had received 460 million euro, Cyprus 29 million euro, Czech Republic 2.5 billion euro, Greece 900 million euro, Croatia 550 million euro, Lithuania 142 million euro, Latvia 167 million euro, Poland 1.5 billion euro and Portugal 300 million euro.
All nine member states had already received financial support under SURE, the EC said.
The disbursed loans will fund past expenditure on measures introduced to tackle the severe socio-economic impact of the Covid-19 crisis.
They will help EU countries cover the costs related to the financing of national short-time work schemes and other similar measures, including for the self-employed, as well as some health-related measures.
“These measures helped protect employment and support income during the Covid-19 pandemic,” the Commission said.
“SURE successfully helped member states mitigate the impact of the pandemic in 2020 and supported the rapid recovery in 2021,” it said.
The Commission said that its latest report on SURE shows that the instrument supported approximately 31.5 million people and 2.5 million firms in 2020, and nine million people and over 800 000 firms in 2021.
In June 2021, SURE won the European Ombudsman 2021 Award for Good Administration, in the category citizen-focused service delivery. The availability of the SURE instrument ends on December 31 2022.
“Today’s disbursements were financed by the Commission’s issuance of 6.548 billion euro of EU SURE social bonds last week, which were well supported by investors during this end-of-year window,” the EC said.
(Photo: Sébastien Bertrand)
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