Romania will receive on December 1 the first tranche of EUR 3 billion, out of the EUR 4.1 bln soft loans under the European Union’s SURE program, after the European Commission issued EUR 8.5 bln social bonds on November 25, Profit.ro reported.

This was the third bond issuance this year under the program.

The bond was priced at a negative yield of -0.102%. Romania will pay the EC an interest rate equal to the Commission’s borrowing cost, which means that it will pay back a little less than it borrowed.

Romania should repay the money within 14.5 years.

Romania will use the money to finance measures for supporting the labor market, including technical unemployment subsidies, kurzarbeit, and other incentives paid to firms for maintaining their workforce.

The Commission has so far proposed under SURE to make EUR 90.3 bln in financial support available to 18 Member States.

So far, the Commission has disbursed a total of EUR 31 bln to 10 EU Member States following two EU SURE issuances.

The countries that have already benefited from SURE loans are Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovenia, and Spain.

(Photo: Marian Vejcik/ Dreamstime)

andrei@romania-insider.com