On Monday 24 August, the European Commission proposed granting a total of €81.4 billion in financial assistance to fifteen Member States under the SURE instrument in order to support national short-time working schemes. It will soon do the same for Portugal and Hungary, which have made an official request for it.
Italy and Spain take the lion's share of this envelope, which is to be distributed as follows: - Italy €27.4 billion; - Spain €21.3 billion; - Poland €11.2 billion; - Belgium €7.8 billion; - Romania €4 billion; - Greece €2.7 billion; - Czechia €2 billion; - Slovenia €1.1 billion; - Croatia €1 billion; - Slovakia €631 million; - Lithuania €602 million; - Bulgaria €511 million; - Cyprus €479 million; - Malta €244 million, and Latvia €192 million.
Germany will not use the SURE instrument, and neither will France at this stage. Any Member State has until 2022 to make use of this instrument.
The aid will be distributed once it has been formally approved by the EU Council and once all 27 Member States have given a national guarantee to ensure that SURE will be fully operational (see EUROPE 12525/3).
The loans granted to Member States through the SURE instrument will have an “average maturity of 15 years”, and the interest rate will depend on market conditions at the time at which the European Commission raises capital from investors, said Marta Wieczorek, spokesperson at the European institution. This will put a strain on national public finances. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)