The latest Real Economy episode on Euronews examines some of the short-time work and furlough solutions in use across the continent that are being supported by a European Commission scheme known as SURE (Support to mitigate Unemployment Risks in an Emergency). SURE acts as a second line of defence for short-time work and furlough schemes, in particular for the self-employed, by providing emergency financial assistance of 90.3 billion euros in loans to 18 EU countries. The European Commission is borrowing up to 100 billion euros on capital markets by issuing bonds with low-interest rates that benefit from the EU’s solid credit rating. It then lends the proceeds to Member States under the same conditions as the money was received. The SURE bonds are ‘social bonds’, meaning the funds serve a truly social objective. Almost €40 billion has already been raised on the markets by the social bonds since October of last year. EU Economy Commissioner, Paolo Gentiloni, who was closely involved in designing and putting in place SURE, believes that these schemes stopped unemployment in the EU from surging to dangerous levels. According to Commissioner Gentiloni, even if the schemes are just delaying redundancies it’s the right thing to do because “When you are in such a crisis, you have to react, you have to build a common response. You need a strategy to aid economic recovery, but in the first period of the crisis, you have to save jobs.”