SURE PROJECT OF EU SAVES JOBS

As the second wave of the pandemic continues, jobs and businesses across Europe are being hit hard. However many have been cushioned from the worst of the economic fallout by government job retention schemes to keep people in work, according to a Euronews feature story.

Although unemployment is set to rise to 9.4% in 2021 in the eurozone area, an increase of 1.9% from the 2019 pre-pandemic level of 7.5% , it has stayed relatively low when compared to the drop in economic activity.

We'll take a look at some of the short-time work and furlough solutions in use across the continent that are being supported by a European Commission scheme known as SURE (Support to mitigate Unemployment Risks in an Emergency).

European governments have been subsidising wages and keeping workers on the payroll during the coronavirus pandemic through short-time work and furlough schemes.

SURE acts as a second line of defence for these schemes, in particular for the self-employed, by providing emergency financial assistance of 90.3 billion euros in loans to 18 EU countries

How does it work?

The European Commission is borrowing up to 100 billion euros on capital markets by issuing bonds with low-interest rates that benefit from the EU’s solid credit rating. It then lends the proceeds to Member States under the same conditions the money was received. All bonds issued in 2020 are due for repayment anywhere between 2025 and 2051.

The SURE bonds are ‘social bonds’, meaning the funds serve a truly social objective.

Already almost 40 billion euros has been raised on the markets by the social bonds since October last year.

Euronews reporter, Fanny Gauret, went to Lithuania to find out how the self-employed and small businesses are being helped.

Who gets the help?

Kristina and Dovile are sisters who opened a plant shop in Vilnius in September 2019. Just a few months later, the first lockdown happened and they had to temporarily close their shop.

Thanks to government financial support, they were able to pay their employee and have help to pay their rent. Around 90% of their employee's salary is covered by the Lithuanian government scheme. Kristina describes the help as "a chance to survive."

Despite making only half of what they hoped last year, the sisters have managed to open another shop, and hire three more people.

The spread of the virus means they have now had to close their shops again. They have now gone online and are continuing to sell their plants. The one inconvenience of the scheme, they say, is "quite a lot of paperwork".

As public expenses increase to protect workers from losing their jobs and to support businesses like Kristina and Dovile's, Lithuania is being supported by the EU SURE initiative in the form of a low-interest loan of around 600 million euros.

Thanks to this help, Lithuania is planning to spend almost 900 million euros in 2021 to finance benefits and wage subsidies. They will be organised and distributed by the Public Employment Services.

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