The SURE Instrument: an updated assessment

This section provides an updated state-of-play on the use of the financial assistance granted under the SURE instrument, as well as a thorough assessment of its impact. SURE’s implementation has continued successfully in 2021 and 2022, with over EUR 94 billion in financial assistance now granted to 19 Member States, through 26 Council Implementing Decisions based on proposals by the Commission. Public expenditure under SURE has broadly mirrored the epidemiological situation and almost all of the total planned expenditure had been implemented by the end of 2021, with many measures now phased out in some Member States. SURE has produced two tangible effects on the labour market. Firstly, in 2020, when the EU economy was at risk of melting down following the COVID-19 outbreak and ensuing containment measures, SURE had a major positive effect on job retention. SURE is estimated to have helped prevent almost 1½ million people from becoming unemployed in 2020. Indeed the disparity of unemployment rates, bothe among SURE beneficiary Member States and between SURE beneficiary and non-beneficiaries, was substantially smaller than during previous crises, meaning that SURE was instrumental in containing labour market inequality in the EU due to COVID-19. Secondly, SURE supported the rapid rebound that occurred in the second half of 2021 by keeping workers connected to firms and boosting the confidence of businesses, households and financial markets. This appears to have outweighed any potential risk of impairing labour mobility, in particular as measures supported by SURE were scaled back quickly as the recovery took hold in mid-2021. The section concludes by highlighting the three crucial reasons for SURE’s success, namely its social and economic purpose, its solidarity-based governance and its financial construction