The European Commission said on August 25 that it has proposed for Bulgaria to be allocated a further EUR 460 million under the EU’s SURE instrument, in what would be the second allocation of funding to Bulgaria using the programme.
Set up in 2020, the temporary Support to mitigate Unemployment Risks in an Emergency (SURE) mechanism is meant to protect jobs and workers affected by Covid-19, providing loans on favourable terms from the EU to member states.
“These loans will help Bulgaria cover the costs related to the continuation of a wage subsidy scheme, introduced in response to the coronavirus pandemic, and thereby tackle the continued severe socio-economic impact of the Covid-19 crisis,” the Commission said in a statement.
Bulgaria is the eighth EU member state – alongside Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, and Hungary – to ask for additional support on top of the support that the European Council had already approved in 2020, the EC said.
Bulgaria was also allocated EUR 511 million under the SURE mechanism in 2021.
If approved by the Council of the EU, the Commission’s latest funding proposal would bring the overall financial support granted under SURE to a total of EUR 93.8 billion, with EUR 6.2 billion still available for possible future requests, the EC said.