Mobilisation of SURE funding for Portugal – workers (I)

Subject: Mobilisation of SURE funding for Portugal – workers (I)

The Commission President announced in her ‘State of the Union Address’ that the temporary Support to mitigate Unemployment Risks in an Emergency (SURE) programme had assisted over 31 million workers and 2.5 million companies across the European Union. According to the SURE website1 only EUR 5.41 billion of Portugal’s budgetary envelope of EUR 5.934 billion has been used (only two other Member States have failed to mobilise their entire allocation, while all the other 16 have mobilised the full amount allocated to them).

1. How many workers have received SURE support in Portugal?

2. Was SURE support in Portugal provided only to workers who had been laid off?

3. If so, please provide a breakdown of the amount of support provided in situations in which lay- offs caused workers to lose wages and those in which their wages were paid in full.

1 https://ec.europa.eu/info/business-economy-euro/economic-and-fiscal-policy-coordination/financial-

assistance-eu/funding-mechanisms-and-facilities/sure_en

Answer given by Mr Gentiloni on behalf of the European Commission

(15 December 2021)

The Commission’s second bi-annual report on temporary Support to mitigate Unemployment Risks in an Emergency (SURE) (2) highlights that approximately 31 million people were supported by SURE in 2020.

The report shows that over one quarter of total employment was supported across beneficiary Member States on aggregate, with over one fifth covered in Portugal. This corresponds to close to 1¼ million employees and self-employed covered in Portugal. These figures are based on Member States’ reporting.

The purpose of SURE is to protect employees and the self-employed and reduce the incidence of unemployment and loss of income, primarily through short-time work schemes and similar measures. SURE does not provide support for measures where the employment contract is not maintained, e.g. unemployment benefit.

The list of measures that Portugal can finance under SURE is provided in Article 3 of the Council Implementing Decision (EU) 2020/1354 of 25 September 2020 (3) granting support to Portugal. Requests for information on support provided to workers who were laid off should be directed to the competent national authorities (i.e. Ministry of Finance).

⋅1∙ https://ec.europa.eu/info/business-economy-euro/economic-and-fiscal-policy-coordination/financial-assistance-eu/funding-mechanisms-and-facilities/sure_en

⋅2∙ COM(2021) 596 final.

⋅3∙ https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32020D1354