The destabilisation of the hitherto functioning of economies and societies worldwide, including of course in the Member States of the European Union, ongoing since the global COVID-19 outbreak in February/March 2020, is bringing knock-on changes in social policy as well. At present, in many countries solutions are being introduced towards the most urgent objective of limiting the rise in unemployment. The European Union has also reacted quickly to this new situation, as already on 19th May 2020 the EU Council adopted the regulation 2020/672 on the establishment of a European instrument for temporary support to mitigate unemployment risks in an emergency (SURE) following the COVID-19 outbreak. The objective of this text is therefore to concisely analyse this regulation, with the hitherto approach of the European Union to the issue of unemployment insurance described in general in the background. The questions whether the implementation of the regulation in question will actually bring the results intended, and whether this temporary solution will not become more permanent, remain open at this time.