site.btaEuropean Commission Offers to Provide Extra EUR 460 Mln to Bulgaria under SURE 

The European Commission (EC) said Thursday it has presented a proposal to the Council for a decision to grant an additional EUR 460 million in financial support to Bulgaria under the temporary Support to mitigate Unemployment Risks in an Emergency (SURE), bringing the total support to the country to EUR 971 million. Once the Council approves this proposal, the financial support will be provided in the form of soft-term loans.

These loans will help Bulgaria cover the costs for extending a wage subsidy scheme, introduced in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Bulgaria is the 8th Member State, together with Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, and Hungary, to ask for additional support on top of the support that the Council had already approved in 2020, the EC says.

SURE is a crucial element of the EU's comprehensive strategy to protect jobs and workers in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the EC says. The Thursday proposal, if adopted, would bring the overall financial support granted under SURE to a total of EUR 93.8 billion. The Commission has already disbursed 91.8 billion to 19 Member States under SURE, and it expects to undertake the remaining borrowing operations in the coming months. EUR 6.2 billion are still available under SURE for possible future requests.