Romania to Access EUR 5 Billion from SURE to Mitigate Unemployment Risk

According to the Romanian minister of Finance, Romania is to access EUR 5 billion from SURE, the European instrument proposed by the European Commission.

SURE allows for a financial assistance up to EUR 100 billion in the form of loans from the EU to affected Member States. SURE instrument will act as a second line of defence, supporting short-time work schemes to help Member States protect jobs and thus employees and self-employed against the risk of unemployment and loss of income.

Romania has already registered a decline of the active jobs. In fact, almost 1 million Romanians are, temporarily or for good, out of job. Some 600,000 are on technical unemployment, which means they could get back to work as soon as their employers decide this, but other 400,000 has already lost their jobs, being laid-off by their employers.

As compared to the other European countries, Romanian Government is moving too slowly towards re-starting the economy. On top of that, the ministers are encouraged by the Romanian president in acting so. The Romanian president, Klaus Iohannis, officially stated the Romanian economy doesn’t need to be re-started, as it has never been stopped.

Unfortunately, the reality contradicts the presidential statements. Romania is expected to decline 14% in the Q2 and to register a GDP decline of up to 7-9% at the end of the year.