August 25 (SeeNews) - The European Commission said on Thursday that it proposed to the Council to provide an additional 460 million euro ($459.5 million) in financial support to Bulgaria under the SURE instrument to help address the knock-on effects of the coronavirus pandemic on jobs and workers.
The move would bring to a total of 971 million euro the total financing to Bulgaria under the European instrument for temporary support to mitigate unemployment risks in an emergency, the EC said in a press release.
"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 EC noted.
Upon Council approval, the sum will be disbursed in the form of loans on favourable terms.
Bulgaria is the eighth EU member state, alongside Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta and Hungary, to seek additional support on top of that which the Council approved in 2020.
The overall financial support granted to 19 EU member states under the SURE instrument amounts to 91.8 billion euro so far, with another 6.2 billion euro in total available for possible future requests.
Bulgaria requested the additional funding in April, so as to support the implementation of the country's job retention scheme known as the '60-40 measure', which was introduced in April 2020 to alleviate the impact of the coronavirus crisis on employment. The deadline for employer applications under the 60-40 measure was June 30.
Bulgaria's registered unemployment rate in July stagnated at June's level of 4.2%, which was the lowest-recorded figure to date, the Employment Agency said last week.
($1 = 1.00115 euro)