The Diplomat
Spain received yesterday a new tranche of 2.87 billion euros from the European Commission’s SURE instrument to help states finance labor costs related to the coronavirus pandemic. With this new delivery, our country has already received 14.9 billion euros from this fund, almost 70% of the total allocated amount of 21.3 billion.
The European Commission announced the disbursement of 9 billion euros to seven Member States under the fifth tranche of financial assistance to Member States under the SURE instrument. In yesterday’s operations, which correspond to the second disbursement in 2021, the beneficiaries were the Czech Republic (1 billion), Spain (2.87 billion), Croatia (510 million), Italy (3.87 billion), Lithuania (302 million), Malta (123 million) and Slovakia (330 million euros).
The loans will provide assistance to the Member States to cope with the sudden increase in public spending in order to preserve employment. More specifically, they will contribute to the costs directly related to the financing of national working time reduction schemes and other similar measures taken in response to the coronavirus pandemic, including those for the self-employed. In the case of Spain, they will cover ERTE, the extraordinary benefit for the self-employed, the temporary incapacity benefit for those affected by the virus or the support for discontinuous permanent workers.
According to the Commission, yesterday’s disbursements were preceded by the issuance of the fifth tranche of social bonds under the EU’s SURE instrument, which was received with “considerable interest from investors”. Over the course of 2021, the Commission will seek to raise more than an additional €25 billion through the issuance of EU SURE bonds.
To date, sixteen Member States have received a total of €62.5 billion under the SURE instrument in cross-borrowing. Once all disbursements under the SURE instrument have been completed, Spain will have received EUR 21.3 billion, of which EUR 14.9 billion has arrived to date (EUR 6 billion in October, EUR 4 billion in November, EUR 1.03 billion in February and yesterday’s EUR 2.87 billion), almost 70% of the total amount allocated.
