The Secretary General of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), Luca Visentini, expressed his concerns about some of the amendments to the European temporary instrument to Support mitigating Unemployment Risks in an Emergency (SURE) in a letter sent to the Presidents of the European Council, the European Commission and the Council of the EU on the evening of Tuesday 21 April.
In a telephone exchange with EUROPE, the Secretary General expressed concern about two major changes: the introduction of a sunset clause, set for 31 December 2022, and the extension of the scope of the instrument to include health systems. For the Secretary General, the sunset clause must not come into effect too early and must cover both the health crisis and the recovery period; otherwise, aid will only partially meet social needs. As for the extension of the scope requested by the Netherlands, Greece and Romania, the Secretary General considers that the European Stability Mechanism should cover health-related aspects, while SURE remains limited to employment-related issues.
Another problem, he explained, is that the instrument does not take into account the quality of existing national systems, recalling that six Member States, namely Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, and Malta, still do not have short-time working systems. The latter two Member States on the list are reportedly in the process of setting up such a system. In addition, in some systems, short-time working pay is 90% of the worker's normal pay, while in others it is only 40%, he said. We also need to analyse the coverage rate of these national systems, he added.
The other long-term issue is the combination of this instrument with the forthcoming European unemployment reinsurance system, which is expected to be presented by the European Commission in 2021, according to the updated work programme (see EUROPE 124667/23). In his view, the temporary instrument and this future permanent system would be perfectly complementary.
Mr Visentini regretted that the social partners had not been consulted during the development of the instrument. He finds this approach all the more regrettable as the social dialogue has been very troubling in several Member States, citing Hungary, Poland and Croatia.
The trade unionist welcomed the proposal for a European Recovery Fund, which will be discussed by national leaders tomorrow (see separate news item), but believes that this fund should be based entirely on grants and not on loans.
To read the union’s letter: https://bit.ly/2XY2a8P (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)