Commissioner for Economy Paolo Gentiloni announced on Twitter on Tuesday 22 September that he had notified the German Presidency of the EU Council of the conclusion of all bilateral guarantees to operationalise the European temporary Support to mitigate Unemployment Risks in an Emergency (SURE).
Last week, Bulgaria was the last Member State that had yet to notify ratification by its parliament for the guarantee (see EUROPE 12559/14). This has now been done: the Member States have provided the €25 billion needed to raise the €100 billion on the financial markets to support national short-time working schemes, which have been severely affected by the pandemic.
So far, 16 Member States have applied for the instrument for a total value of €87.3 billion (see EUROPE 12545/11). Hungary’s claim is still in the validation process by the European Commission, fine-tuning certain technical aspects. Ireland and Estonia have reportedly expressed their willingness to make use of the instrument. But for the time being, no formal request has been sent to the European Commission.
It now remains for the EU Council to adopt these proposals. The Committee of Permanent Representatives will launch the written procedure to validate the requests for implementation of the instrument as of Wednesday 23 September. The results should be known by the end of the week, we are told. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)