The European Union’s SURE instrument, which aims to mitigate the social effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, has supported 31 million people and 2.5 million businesses, according to the instrument’s second implementation report published by the European Commission on Wednesday 22 September.
This represents more than a quarter of total employment in the beneficiary Member States, states the report, equating to about 22.5 million employees and 8.5 million self-employed people in 2020 under short-time working schemes.
The report notes that 16 out of 19 Member States have used the instrument to support their national short-time working schemes. Half of the total amount allocated, which is €94 billion, was awarded to short-time working schemes, the report adds.
The authors of the report estimate that around 1.5 million people have been able to keep their jobs thanks to SURE. In doing so, the instrument has made a significant contribution to economic recovery in 2021, state the authors. The financial support provided by SURE has also led to significant budgetary savings, notably 8.2 billion in interest payments for beneficiary Member States.
For more information: https://bit.ly/2W1RGqy (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)