Two senior officials representing the European Commission left the door open to the creation of a permanent instrument on unemployment reinsurance, on the occasion of the presentation of a report on the European SURE instrument (a financial aid instrument to mitigate the direct economic and social consequences of the pandemic by supporting national short-time working schemes) to the European Parliament’s Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL) on Monday 25 October.
In view of the particularly positive results presented by the European Commission, the question of the instrument’s sustainability was on the lips of all MEPs, including Dennis Radtke (EPP, Germany), Estrella Durá Ferrandis (S&D, Spain), Sylvie Brunet (Renew Europe, France) and Sandra Pereira (The Left, Portugal), all of whom recalled that this project was on the agenda of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the beginning of her term of office (see EUROPE 12471/26).
Gilles Mourre, Head of Unit for Budgetary Policy and Surveillance at the Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs, firstly indicated that there is still €6 billion left under the instrument until the end of 2022. In addition, Member States may extend the instrument by 6 months if necessary.
However, he acknowledged that “many economists” felt that there was a need to move from “emergency mode” to economic “recovery mode”, and that, therefore, measures to strengthen the labour mobility market should be considered.
And, he concluded: “In thinking about a permanent instrument, I think the experience with SURE and RRF (the Recovery and Resilience Facility - editor’s note) will be important. That’s why, in the report, we have dedicated a lot of effort and gone beyond the minimum requirements (established in the SURE regulation - editor’s note) to provide a rich set of information that could be useful in this kind of debate”.
Matteo Duiella, Team Leader on Labour Market and Wages at the Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, said that it was difficult to apply the SURE instrument to a permanent model. The SURE instrument is indeed a temporary instrument responding to a crisis of a specific nature. A permanent instrument should be able to respond to any form of crisis.
Last week, on Tuesday 19 October, the European Commission seemed to rule out any immediate consideration of such an instrument in the context of the reflection on the reform of the European economic governance framework of the Stability and Growth Pact (see EUROPE 12815/5).
Very positive results
The European Commission’s second report on the SURE instrument is particularly conclusive: - 94% of the €100 billion was allocated to 19 Member States; - six Member States benefited from a surplus of €3.7 billion in April 2021; - and finally, all this was obtained at particularly favourable rates.
Total public expenditure on SURE-eligible measures has increased “significantly” to €114 billion, more than the financial support originally planned, reflecting the “good choice of scope” for SURE, according to the European Commission. The absorption rate of financing is very good, except for Romania and, to a lesser extent, Cyprus and Portugal.
In all, the instrument helped 31 million people in 2020 (22.5 million employees and 8.5 million self-employed) and 2.5 million enterprises. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)