MNI POLICY: EU To Set Up Debt Office For Covid Borrowing

The EU Commission has begun setting up its own debt management office to plan and coordinate bond issuance for its Covid-19 emergency relief programmes, it said on Wednesday, confirming an earlier MNI report.

A senior Commission official said the new operation, inside the Budget Directorate-General, would "build on strengths we already have in this domain" and added that the Commission is already "recruiting rather aggressively" to beef up its in-house expertise in borrowing operations.

The office, plans for which were revealed by MNI on Sept. 22, will raise money for the EU's SURE and the RRF/Next Generation programmes.

The confirmation follows news that the Commission's first issuance under the SURE programme was 13 times oversubscribed. Planned borrowing for SURE and Next Generation will make the Commission the world's biggest supranational borrower and the fifth-biggest borrower in the EU after national governments.