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“The Bulgarian government has deliberately not taken the opportunity to support the self-employed with European funds.
According to a statement by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), three countries, Bulgaria, Croatia and Cyprus, have not included support for the self-employed in their requests for support under SURE, the European Instrument for Temporary Support for Mitigation the risk of unemployment. of 100 billion euros. And the tool explicitly offers that opportunity.
The self-employed, incl. Small business and family business owners, freelancers, retailers and artisans are among those most affected by the pandemic and the health measures against it. Some countries have included all the self-employed in their plans, others only those directly affected (tourism, restaurants, etc.). However, our government (and not for the first time) ignores this important social group. It was like this in spring, it’s like this now … “
This was written by MEP Radan Kanev today in a post on Facebook.
The message from the CES confirms his words (you can see it HERE). It was published yesterday, December 14.
Today, the Bulgarian government urgently called an extraordinary meeting for SURE. Judging from a press release from the government press service, this was the only item on his agenda, and the decision reads:
We are presenting our decision to the National Assembly as soon as possible so that our country can begin to implement the SURE instrument in a short time. This will complement our national efforts to overcome the pandemic and its socio-economic consequences for workers and the self-employed. This was stated by Prime Minister Boyko Borissov at today’s extraordinary meeting of the government, in which the Council of Ministers adopted a decision proposing to the National Assembly the ratification by law of the Loan Agreement between the European Union as a lender and the Republic of Bulgaria as a borrower.
During the meeting, Finance Minister Kiril Ananiev noted that the European instrument is expected to support an average of 4,500 to 5,000 employers a month to retain about 140,000 employees. The maximum amount of funds that the European Union can grant to Bulgaria under the SURE instrument is 511 million euros, with a maximum average maturity of 15 years. The term of availability of the financial assistance provided is 18 months, starting on September 30, 2020.
The agreement is derived from art. 8 (2) of Council Regulation (EU) 2020/672, of May 19, 2020, which establishes the European Instrument for temporary support to mitigate unemployment risks in exceptional circumstances after the COVID-19 pandemic, known as The SURE Tool. On August 7, the Republic of Bulgaria submitted a formal request for financial assistance under the SURE instrument. The agreement was signed by Finance Minister Kiril Ananiev on 11/26/2020 and by the European Commission on 12/11/2020 “.
