Portugal gets over 2.4-bln-euro EU support for jobs

Portugal received on Tuesday over 2.41 billion euros (2.96 billion dollars) from the European Union (EU)'s SURE program, a temporary support to mitigate unemployment risks in an emergency following the COVID-19 outbreak.

This is the second payment of this mechanism of solidarity. Portugal had received the first installment of 3 billion euros in December 2020.

In total, the Portuguese will receive 5.9 billion euros from SURE out of a total of 14.137 billion euros distributed by the European Commission among 12 member states of the EU.

According to the European Commission, the EU's executive body, these amounts are loans to help countries "cover costs directly related to financing" of measures taken to keep workers on reduced working hours or lay-offs during the pandemic.

Last week, the Portuguese government announced new measures to encourage the "normalization of business activity," as well as support for micro-companies with an aim at "maintaining jobs." (1 euro = 1.23 U.S. dollars) Enditem