Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2022)314 - Amendment of Implementing Decision (EU) 2020/1355 granting temporary support to Romania to mitigate unemployment risks in the emergency following the COVID-19 outbreak - Main contents
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| dossier | COM(2022)314 - Amendment of Implementing Decision (EU) 2020/1355 granting temporary support to Romania to mitigate unemployment risks in ... |
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| source | COM(2022)314  |
| date | 20-06-2022 |
1. CONTEXT OF THE 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 7 August 2020, Romania requested financial assistance from the Union and on 25 September 2020, with its Implementing Decision (EU) 2020/1355, the Council granted financial assistance to Romania 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 26 May 2022, Romania requested the Union to extend the list of measures in Council Implementing Decision (EU) 2020/1355.
In accordance with Article 6(2) of the SURE Regulation, the Commission has consulted the Romanian authorities to verify the sudden and severe increase in actual and planned expenditure directly related to Romanian labour market measures and health-related measures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, these measures pertain to a combination of new measures and existing measures referred to in Council Implementing Decision (EU) 2020/1355:
(a)the existing scheme providing benefit to employees of employers that reduce or temporarily interrupt their activity due to the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak. The benefit is capped at 75% of those employees’ basic salary (but no more than 75% of the average gross salary in the economy). This measure was extended for the duration of the state of emergency until March 2022.
(b)the existing short-time work scheme, under which, in the event of a temporary reduction of activity caused by the state of emergency or alert, the employer has the possibility to reduce the working hours of employees by up to 50%. During the period of working time reduction, affected employees benefit from an indemnity of 75% of the difference between the gross salary for normal working time and their actual salary. This measure was extended until June 2022, three months after the end of the state of emergency.
(c)For the self-employed and liberal professions, the existing two measures were extended. For those who stopped work entirely due to the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak, the State provides a benefit of 75% of the average gross salary for the duration of the state of emergency until March 2022. For those who reduce their working hours, the State provides a benefit of up to 41.5% of the average gross salary until June 2022, three months after the end of the state of emergency.
(d)the existing support allowance to daily labourers who stop working as a result of the suspension of business activities due to the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak of 35% of the due remuneration per working day, for a maximum period of three months. This measure was extended until June 2022, three months after the end of the state of emergency.
(e)the existing childcare bonus granted to employees of the national system of defence, penitentiaries, public health units and other categories of the public sector established through ministerial orders. The benefit is conditional on the other parent not benefitting from alternative rights that grant days off to parents for the supervision of children in the event of the temporary closure of educational units. That measure can be considered to be a similar measure to short-time work schemes, as referred to in Regulation (EU) 2020/672, as it provides income support to employees, which will help to cover the costs of childcare during school closures and therefore help parents to continue working, preventing putting the employment relation at risk. This measure was extended until the end of the school year 2021-2022 and broadened to include private sector employees.
(f)the new measure consisting of a sick-leave benefit granted to quarantined persons and persons diagnosed with COVID-19 infection. The leave and the indemnity for quarantine are granted to the insured persons who are forbidden to continue their activity, due to a suspicion of contagious disease, for the duration established by the certificate issued by the public health directorate.
(g)the new measure consisting of a one-time financial support of RON 2 500 to employers for each teleworker for the purchase of packages of technological goods and services necessary for teleworking activities. The measure applies for employers whose employees have teleworked during the state of emergency for at least 15 working days in 2020. That measure can be considered to be a similar measure to short-time work schemes, as referred to in Regulation (EU) 2020/672, due to its intended purpose and economic effect. By facilitating teleworking in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, it helps preserve the employment relationship. It also provides income support to employees, in the form of a fringe benefit, helping to cover the costs of home office expenditure to allow the performance of work during lockdown and subsequent restrictions.
(h)the existing bonus in respect of additional work for the personnel of the specialty structures of the National Public Health Institute and the county public health directorates and/or the public health directorate of Bucharest was extended in 2020, 2021 and 2022. This measure continues to be in force as long as the WHO qualifies COVID-19 as a global pandemic.
(i)the existing bonus in respect of particularly dangerous conditions of up to 30% of the salary of medical personnel that participate in the medical actions against COVID-19. The measure was in force for the period March 2020 to August 2020. The measure was broadened to include the personnel responsible for the enforcement of sanitary measures under the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
(j)the new measure consisting of a bonus between 30% and 40% of the basic salary granted to the personnel of the county public-health directorates and of the public-health directorate of Bucharest.
(k)the new measure consisting of a secondment allowance amounting to 50% and a per diem bonus of 2% of the basic salary for medical specialists, paramedical and auxiliary personnel in the public system. The allowance is granted to the personnel seconded, in situations of epidemiological or biological risk for a term of 30 days, to health units with shortages of personnel and responsible for limiting and preventing the spread of COVID-19.
(l)the new measure consisting of temporarily financing salary costs related to the opening of 2 000 new positions to reinforce the health directorates and the public ambulance services (1 000 in each), to counteract the spread of COVID-19.
(m)the new measure consisting of the granting of a bonus between 75% and 85% of the basic salary for the specialty medical personnel and auxiliary medical personnel from public health units or the structures thereof and for the specialty personnel from the paraclinical medical structures directly involved in the transport, equipment, assessment, diagnostic and treatment of patients diagnosed with COVID-19.
(n)the new measure consisting of a payment of the medical-sanitary personnel and of the registrars that carry out their activity within the COVID-19 vaccination centres organised in other locations than those within the health units. The measure also financed current and capital expenditures to make the vaccination centres (organised in locations other than health facilities) operational.
(o)the new measure consisting of a payment of the medical-sanitary personnel and the medical registrars that carry out their activity within the COVID-19 vaccination centres organised in health units, as well as the payment of family doctors for the activities provided for this purpose.
(p)the new measure consisting of financing the purchase of COVID-19 vaccine doses in 2021.
(q)the new measure consisting of general allowances (such as food, accommodation, transport, medicines) for the quarantine of people in designated areas with a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19, people in the list established by the COVID-19 Surveillance Methodology and medical staff as diagnosed with COVID-19 who do not require hospitalisation or staff that interacted with patients and choose to stay away from their home.
(r)two new measures consisting of the purchase of medication for COVID-19 treatment (Remdesivir and monoclonal antibodies medicine that contains Casirivimab and Imdevimab).
(s) the new measure consisting of the purchase of medications for the treatment of COVID-19 infected patients (Tocilizumabum).
(t)the new measure consisting of the provision of incentives (in the form of meal vouchers in the amount of RON 100) to persons vaccinated with the complete scheme.
(u)the new measure consisting of a temporary increase of 30% of the basic salary for the staff of the prefect’s institutions involved in preventing and fighting the effects of COVID-19 for the period from August 2020 to February 2021.
(v)the new measure consisting of the expenditures to cover 200 additional resident doctors needed further to the pandemic.
(w)the new measure consisting of the purchase of medical products and personal protective equipment for the fight against the pandemic (e.g., protective footwear, gloves, masks, ventilators, stretchers, etc.) to establish and consolidate emergency medical stocks.
(x)the new measure consisting of the purchase of sanitary protection materials for the employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
(y)the new measure consisting of the payments to volunteer medicine students who worked for hospitals/health care institutions to provide emergency support.
(z)two new measures consisting of the purchase of pharmaceutical products to be used for the treatment of COVID-19 patients with acute symptoms (ANAKINRA, MOLNUPIRAVIR).
(aa)the new measure consisting of financing the costs related to COVID-19 testing. RT-PCR laboratory testing services financed under the National Program for Surveillance and Control of Priority Communicable Diseases are performed on categories of individuals established by the new COVID-19 Acute Respiratory Syndrome Surveillance Methodology or by order of the Minister of Health.
(bb)the new measure consisting of financing COVID-19 testing by family doctors for the detection of COVID-19 infection. The testing work carried out by family doctors is financed by transfers from the State budget, through the Ministry of Health’s budget to the budget of the Single national Health Insurance Fund.
Romania 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 extend the list of measures for which the Council already granted financial assistance in Council Implementing Decision (EU) 2020/1355.
The new measure on sick-leave granted to quarantined persons and persons diagnosed with COVID-19 infection is considered as similar to short-time work schemes, because of its effects, in terms of protecting the employment contract, providing income support, and being related to COVID-19 pandemic.
Health-related measures, as requested by Romania, including the additional health-related measures requested on 26 May 2022, amount to EUR 2 141 579 582. Given the need to ensure the ancillary nature of this category of measures, the amount of the financial assistance in support of health-related measures needs to be reduced as it should represent less than half of the total financial assistance planned to be spent on all eligible measures.
Moreover, following the request of Romania, the financial assistance granted by Implementing Decision (EU) 2020/1355 is reduced from EUR 4 099 244 587 to EUR 3 000 000 000. Romania remains committed to fully absorb the financial assistance granted and should identify further eligible measures in case the existing measures included in this proposal prove insufficient.
• 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 2020.
• 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. LEGAL BASIS, SUBSIDIARITY AND 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 CONSULTATIONS AND IMPACT ASSESSMENTS
• 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-lending 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 financial 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.