The new Action: the Competitiveness Toolbox for Small and Micro Enterprises is expected to be launched in December 2018. The Action will be a financing tool for the modernisation of small and micro enterprises.

The aim is to upgrade and improve their competitive position in the internal and external market by investing in their modernisation to enhance their competitiveness. Businesses will be able to receive a grant of between €10,000 and €112,500, with the amount of investment projects submitted to this programme ranging from €20,000 to €150,000.

The budget of the programme (public expenditure), which is expected to be officially announced by the end of October and activated in mid-November, amounts to up to 400 million euros And it is estimated that through it about 7,000 companies will be supported (the average subsidy is estimated at 55,000 - 60,000 euros) in order to increase their competitiveness and turn to international markets.

Moreover, for this reason, exporting companies receive an aid bonus, as the subsidy rate can reach up to 75% of the eligible investment project for certain costs.

Both in terms of budget and grant amount, the "Competitiveness Toolbox for Small and Micro Enterprises" programme is so far the largest financial action activating the Ministry of Economy and Development under the Operational Programme Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation ( EPANEK ).

Apart from the size of the programme, an essential innovation is the application process and their evaluation. The procedure to be followed is that of immediate evaluation in order of priority, with the result that applications are evaluated upon submission and if the conditions are met they will be immediately included for payment.

That is, there will be no time limit for the submission of applications, so that these (applications) are evaluated massively and comparatively and in the end the runners-up will be announced. The programme will be open until the budget is exhausted and anyone who qualifies will join immediately.

However, this does not mean that the first to apply will be judged positively, but only if they score above 50 for all the objective criteria.

It should be noted that this procedure will be only the third time it has been put in place. With the same system, applications for the "We Venture Outside" and "Quality Modernization" programs are submitted and evaluated.

Competitiveness Toolkit - Eligible costs

Under the programme, specific categories of expenditure will be financed. In other words, the costs that are characterized as eligible are the following:

• Costs for the purchase of machinery and equipment
• Expenditure on energy-saving interventions
• Expenditure on certification - quality management systems, design, standardisation and product certification
• Costs of engineering studies
• Costs of wage costs of employees (new staff) with support from the ESF (use of flexibility clause, Article 98 CAN EU 1303/2014 and Article 2 par. 3 of the ANCED).

It should be noted that each category of eligible costs is subsidised at a different rate. In any event, the subsidy rate may not be less than 50%.

The programme also aims to give priority support to enterprises with export potential.. For this reason, the highest rates of aid are linked to export performance (it can reach up to 75%), while in the context of incentivizing enterprises to seek new markets, the highest rates of aid concern the category of expenditure on certification - quality management systems, design, standardization and certification of products, which can also reach 75%.Particular emphasis is also placed on the creation of new jobs as the subsidy of wage costs in case of hiring a new employee can be up to 75%.

Priority areas

In addition to the criteria and eligible costs, it should be clarified that the programme concerns enterprises active - as a matter of priority - in the nine priority areas of EPANEK. In particular, they should be active in the areas of:

• Agri-food/Food Industry
• Energy
• Supply Chain
• Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI)
• Environment
• Tourism (only SMR 55.10 and 55.20 are eligible)
• Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)
• Health
• Materials-Constructions

See detailed information about the Action here.