EU Borrowing for Recovery

Starting January 2023, the Commission – on behalf of the EU - will be issuing single branded EU-Bonds to finance different policy programmes under a unified funding approach.

On December 19th, the European Commission released the first EU funding plan under the new unified funding approach. This funding plan covers the first half of 2023. Under the new approach, the Commission will issue single branded EU-Bonds instead of separate bonds related to the different policies they are financing. This will avoid the fragmentation of EU issuances and support a more homogenous secondary market for EU-Bonds.

2022 proved a challenging year for all issuers, as persistent inflation, global interest rate increases and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine made for a continuously uncertain economic environment.

In line with the EU’s commitment to provide stable, regular and predictable financial assistance support to Ukraine, the European Commission – on behalf of the EU – will support Ukraine in 2023 with up to €18 billion in highly concessional loans under a new Macro-Financial Assistance + (MFA+) programme. The Commission expects to carry out the first disbursement under the programme early in 2023.

One year after issuing the first NextGenerationEU Green Bond, the European Commission has published its first NextGenerationEU Green Bond allocation report.

On 7th December, the Commission issued its last bonds under the SURE programme, raising €6.55 billion through a 15-year SURE social bond. The transaction brought the total funding raised under the programme to €98.4 billion, out of a maximum envelope of €100 billion loans by end 2022 . With this in mind, we take a moment to look back on what SURE delivered as a programme and how it impacted the Commission as an issuer.

The Borrowing and Lending team of the European Commission wishes you a joyful and restful end of year break.