The European Commission has disbursed €9 billion to seven EU Member States in the fifth instalment of financial support to Member States under the SURE instrument.
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This is the second disbursement in 2021. As part of this operations, Czechia has received €1 billion, Spain €2.87 billion, Croatia €510 million, Italy €3.87 billion, Lithuania €302 million, Malta €123 million and Slovakia €330 million.
This is the first time that Czechia has received funding under the instrument. The other six EU countries have already benefitted from loans under SURE.
These loans will assist Member States in addressing sudden increases in public expenditure to preserve employment. Specifically, they will help Member States cover the costs directly related to the financing of national short-time work schemes, and other similar measures that they have put in place as a response to the coronavirus pandemic, including for the self-employed.
The disbursements follow the issuance of the fifth social bond under the EU SURE instrument, which attracted a considerable interest by investors.
So far, 16 Member States have received a total of €62.5 billion under the SURE instrument in back-to-back loans. Throughout 2021, the Commission will seek to raise in addition over €25 billion through the issuance of EU SURE bonds.
Once all SURE disbursements have been completed, Czechia will have received €2 billion, Spain €21.3 billion, Croatia €1 billion, Italy €27.4 billion, Lithuania €602 million, Malta €244 million and Slovakia €631 million.
Overall, the Commission has so far proposed a total of €90.6 billion in financial support to 19 Member States, of which €90.3 billion for 18 Member States have been authorised. The Council approval of the proposed €230 million to Estonia is expected in due course.
In addition, Member States can still submit requests to receive financial support under SURE which has an overall firepower of up to €100 billion. ■