Eurofound's EU PolicyWatch collates information on the responses of government and social partners to the COVID-19 crisis, the war in Ukraine, rising inflation, as well as gathering examples of company practices aimed at mitigating the social and economic impacts.
Factsheet for measure EU-2019-21/1065 – measures in European Union
Country | European Union , applies eu-wide (or beyond) |
Time period | Temporary, 19 May 2019 – 31 December 2022 |
Context | COVID-19 |
Type | Legislations or other statutory regulations |
Category |
Employment protection and retention
– Income support for people in employment (e.g., short-time work) |
Author | Barbara Surdykowska (Institute of Public Affairs) |
Measure added | 05 September 2020 (updated 18 September 2020) |
The EU instrument "Support to mitigate Unemployment Risks in an Emergency" (SURE) is one of the three safety nets, for jobs and workers, businesses and Member States, contained in the Eurogroup report agreed on 9 April 2020. In order to provide requesting Member States with financial assistance at favourable terms, the European Commission will raise funds on international capital markets on behalf of the EU. SURE loans will be backed by the EU budget and guarantees provided by Member States. Formally, the financial assistance will be granted by a decision adopted by the Council on a proposal from the Commission.
SURE is a temporary scheme which can provide up to €100 billion of loans under favourable terms to all Member States. The instrument enables Member States to request EU financial support to help finance the sudden and severe increases of national public expenditure, as from 1 February 2020, related to national short-time work schemes and similar measures, including for self-employed persons, or to some health-related measures, in particular at the workplace in response to the crisis.
SURE will become available after all Member States have provided their guarantees. Each Member State's contribution to the overall amount of the guarantee corresponds to its relative share in the total gross national income (GNI) of the European Union, based on the 2020 EU budget. The instrument will then be operational until 31 December 2022. On the proposal from the Commission, the Council may decide to extend the period of availability of the instrument, each time for a further six-month period, if the severe economic disturbances caused by the COVID-19 outbreak persist.
On August 24, the first SURE loans were proposed by the Commission for the following countries:
Workers | Businesses | Citizens |
---|---|---|
Applies to all workers | Applies to all businesses | Applies to all citizens |
Actors | Funding |
---|---|
National government
EU (Council, EC, EP) |
European Funds
National funds Other |
Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:
Trade unions | Employers' organisations | |
---|---|---|
Role | Informed | Informed |
Form | Not applicable | Not applicable |
Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:
Social partners were not directly involved in the work on this initiative. However, they had demanded its creation (especially trade unions) and monitored the design process.
The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) has supported the SURE initiative from the outset, calling for it to be implemented as soon as possible. However, it currently call for reinforcing the social partners' involvement in the design, governance and implementation of the Recovery Plan.
BusinessEurope (BE) treats SURE with caution, although it recognizes its usefulness in the current state of EU economies. In its proposal for a European recovery plan, BE indicates that where new instruments are developed as SURE, they should be temporary and directly connected to the COVID-19 crisis.
Citation
Eurofound (2020), Creation of a new instrument for temporary Support to mitigate Unemployment Risks in an Emergency (SURE), measure EU-2019-21/1065 (measures in European Union), EU PolicyWatch, Dublin, https://static.eurofound.europa.eu/covid19db/cases/EU-2019-21_1065.html
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