Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2021)168 - Amendment of decision 2020/1352 granting temporary support to Belgium to mitigate unemployment risks in the emergency following the COVID-19 outbreak

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dossier COM(2021)168 - Amendment of decision 2020/1352 granting temporary support to Belgium to mitigate unemployment risks in the emergency ...
source COM(2021)168 EN
date 29-03-2021


1. CONTEXTOFTHE PROPOSAL

• Reasons for and objectives of the proposal

Council Regulation (EU) 2020/672 (“SURE Regulation”) lays down the legal framework for providing Union financial assistance to Member States, which are experiencing, or are seriously threatened with, a severe economic disturbance caused by the COVID-19 outbreak. Support under SURE serves for the financing, primarily, of short-time work schemes or similar measures aimed at protecting employees and the self‐ employed and thus reducing the incidence of unemployment and loss of income, as well as for the financing, as an ancillary, of some health-related measures, in particular in the workplace.

On 25 September 2020, the Council granted financial assistance to Belgium with a view to complementing its national efforts to address the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak and respond to the socioeconomic consequences of the outbreak for workers and the self-employed.

On 11 March 2021, Belgium made a new request for Union financial assistance under the SURE Regulation.

In accordance with Article 6(2) of the SURE Regulation, the Commission has consulted the Belgian authorities to verify the sudden and severe increase in actual and planned expenditure directly related to Belgian labour market measures and health-related measures and caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, the increased expenditure for which additional financial assistance is requested pertain to a combination of a new measure and existing measures referred to in Council Implementing Decision (EU) 2020/1342:

a number of regional and community income support schemes provide income support to the self-employed, one-person companies and other types of employees, who do not qualify for other kinds of income support. In particular, the compensation premia for companies and for entrepreneurs and a new measure consisting of emergency support to entrepreneurs and one person companies for the Brussels Capital Region, the nuisance, compensation and support premia (and its three subsequent extensions) for the Flemish Region and the Flemish Community and the compensation premium for business closure (and its two extensions) for the Walloon Region provide generalised one-off and sector specific support for companies and self-employed that needed to close their activities due to COVID-19 or faced a substantial reduction in turnover. Other measures (the compensation premium for intermittent workers in the Brussels Capital Region, the nurseries subvention and the cultural operators subvention in the French Community, the training activities in Wallonia) target the self-employed and workers with no access to the temporary unemployment scheme in specific sectors (cultural and care sector, training activities).

Belgium provided the Commission with the relevant information.

Taking into account the available evidence, the Commission proposes to the Council to adopt an Implementing Decision to grant financial assistance to Belgium under the SURE Regulation in support of the measures above.

• Consistency with existing policy provisions in the policy area

The present proposal is fully consistent with Council Regulation (EU) 2020/672, under which the proposal is made.

The present proposal comes in addition to another Union law instrument to provide support to Member States in case of emergencies, namely Council Regulation (EC) No 2012/2002 of 11 November 2002 establishing the European Union Solidarity Fund (EUSF) (“Regulation (EC) No 2012/2002”). Regulation (EU) 2020/461 of the European Parliament and of the Council, which amends that instrument to extend its scope to cover major public health emergencies and to define specific operations eligible for financing, was adopted on 30 March.

• Consistency with other Union policies

The proposal is part of a range of measures developed in response to the current COVID-19 pandemic such as the “Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative”, and it complements other instruments that support employment such as the European Social Fund and the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI)/InvestEU. By making use of borrowing and lending in this particular case of the COVID-19 outbreak for supporting Member States, this proposal acts as a second line of defence to finance short-time work schemes and similar measures, helping protect jobs and thus employees and self-employed against the risk of unemployment.

2. LEGALBASIS, SUBSIDIARITYAND PROPORTIONALITY

• Legal basis

The legal basis for this instrument is Council Regulation (EU) 2020/672.

• Subsidiarity (for non-exclusive competence)

The proposal follows a Member State request and shows European solidarity by providing Union financial assistance in the form of temporary loans to a Member State affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. As a second line of defence, such financial assistance supports the government’s increased public expenditure on a temporary basis in respect of short-time work schemes and similar measures to help them protect jobs and thus employees and self-employed against the risk of unemployment and loss of income.

Such support will help the population affected and helps to mitigate the direct societal and economic impact caused by the present COVID-19 crisis.

• Proportionality

The proposal respects the proportionality principle. It does not go beyond what is necessary to achieve the objectives sought by the instrument.

3. RESULTS        OF        EX-POST        EVALUATIONS,        STAKEHOLDER CONSULTATIONSANDIMPACTASSESSMENTS

Stakeholder

consultations

Due to the urgency to prepare the proposal so that it can be adopted in a timely manner by the Council, a stakeholder consultation could not be carried out.

• Impact assessment

Due to the urgent nature of the proposal, no impact assessment was carried out.


4. BUDGETARY IMPLICATIONS

The Commission should be able to contract borrowings on the financial markets with the purpose of on -l e nding them to the Member State requesting financial assistance under the SURE instrument.

In addition to the provision of Member State guarantees, other safeguards are built into the framework in order to ensure the financia solidity of the scheme:

• A rigorous and conservative approach to financial management;

• A construction of the portfolio of loans that limits concentration risk, annual exposure and excessive exposure to individual Member States whilst ensuring sufficient resources could be granted to Member States most in need; and

• Possibilities to roll over debt.