On Tuesday 16 March, the European Commission announced the payment of €9 billion to seven Member States under the fifth financial tranche of the SURE instrument to support national short-time working schemes in response to the coronavirus.
The Czech Republic received for the first time €1 billion (out of a total of €2 billion expected), Spain €2.87 billion (out of €21.3), Croatia €510 million (of €1 billion), Italy €3.87 billion (of €27.4bn), Lithuania €302 million (of €602 million), Malta €123 million (of €244 million) and Slovakia €330 million (of €631 million).
To date, the institution says, 16 Member States have received a total of €62.5 billion under the SURE instrument. The Commission hopes to raise more than €25 billion in 2021 by issuing bonds.
As a reminder, 19 Member States have made requests from the SURE instrument to the tune of €90.6 billion, with a recent application from Estonia (see EUROPE 12667/28).
Faced with successive waves of coronavirus infections and the restrictive health measures they generate, there are increasing calls, particularly from trade unions, to extend the instrument beyond the time originally planned (see EUROPE 12648/13). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)