EU Commission: support for employment, another 14 billion to 12 Member States under SURE. 751 million to Italy

The European Commission continues its disbursements under the SURE instrument to preserve jobs through national programmes such as the wage guarantee fund. Today, another €14.137 billion has been distributed to 12 EU Member States. In addition to Italy, which received €751 million, funding went to Belgium (2 billion), Bulgaria (511 million), Cyprus (124 million), Greece (2.54 billion), Spain (3.37 billion), Lithuania (355 million), Latvia (113 million), Malta (177 million), Poland (1.56 billion), Portugal (2.41 billion), and Estonia (230 million). Only Bulgaria and Estonia had not previously benefited from the instrument. The disbursements follow the issuance of the seventh social bond. So far, the EU has provided €90 billion in loans. With a maximum available ceiling of €100 billion, SURE can be accessed until the end of 2022. Italy, which has so far received 26.68 billion of the 27.43 requested, is the country that has made the most use of the European instrument. “SURE is a European success story”, said Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, having “benefitted up to a total of 30 million workers and 2.5 million firms so far”. According to Commissioner for Economy Paolo Gentiloni, SURE “has also saved Member States €5.8 billion with respect to market funding rates”. For Johannes Hahn, Commissioner for Budget, “this success story paves the way for NextGenerationEU”.

Gigliola Alfaro