The European Commission announced on Wednesday 7 October that it was preparing to issue social bonds worth 100 billion euros to finance the European instrument for temporary support for national short-time work schemes (SURE).
To this end, the European Commission has adopted a framework, the Social Bond Framework, in order to guarantee to investors that the funds raised are channelled to social objectives, from project selection to reporting. The framework has been independently evaluated by Sustainalytics (the world leader in corporate governance risk ratings), the institution explains.
This approach will allow investors to direct its funds towards a clearly identified objective: the social needs of Member States in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition, the institution adds, this will contribute to the development of the market for social bonds, the Commission hopes.
This announcement follows the green light given by Member States at the end of September to national requests to use the instrument (see EUROPE 12568/29). The EU Council approved 87.4 billion euros in support for 16 Member States that applied for the instrument.
Hungary. On the same day, the European Commission presented to the EU Council a proposal for a decision on the Hungarian request to mobilise the SURE instrument for 504 million euros. Ireland and Estonia, for their part, have reportedly expressed interest, but to date have not yet formally requested the instrument. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)