The Action Subsidy of interest on existing loans concerns the support of businesses affected by the pandemic in the form of covering the interest on their existing business loan obligations, from 1/1/2021 and for a period of 3 months.

Public funding shall cover the contractual interest on loans to eligible undertakings:

• fixed-term business loans
• bond loans
• Credit agreements (open mutual accounts) as well as the corresponding contribution of Law 128/75

Interest on late payments and other costs shall not be covered.

The action is included in the list of measures to the EU until 31/12/2021. Specifically under schemes approved under the Commission Communication of 19.3.2020/C(2020) 1863 on the Temporary Framework for State aid measures to support the economy during the current COVID-19 outbreak (the EU scheme approved by SA.61802/19.2.2021).

Budget of the Action

The co-financed (where co-financed public expenditure is the eligible public expenditure from the OP for the calculation of Community assistance) public expenditure available for the inclusion of operations under this call amounts to EUR 64 000 000,000.

The total amount of co-financed public expenditure that each undertaking may receive from the action concerned may not exceed 200.000,00 euro. For those cases of eligible funding applications where the total eligible public funding exceeds 200.000,00 euros, the beneficiary may assume the responsibilities of an Intermediate Body, in accordance with the Decision of the Monitoring Committee of the EPANEK through the 71st written procedure.

Beneficiaries

The final beneficiaries are very small, small and medium-sized businesses, regardless of their legal form, legally operating in the country, whose Activity Code Numbers (ACNs) are included in the list of those affected by the COVID19 pandemic and whose turnover for the year 2020 has decreased by at least 20% compared to the turnover of 2019.

Beneficiaries

The Beneficiary, in the context of its obligations:

• arrange for the transfer of the necessary resources to the relevant Financial Institutions
• has the general supervision and responsibility of the administrative support of the project
• is responsible for confirming compliance with the obligations of the aid recipients;
• collects the supporting documents for the implementation of the action and keeps the relevant documents
• provides clarifications to all stakeholders for the implementation of this action
• sends to the EYKE, in order to publish on the comprehensive State aid website, relevant information on each individual aid granted under the relevant Communication exceeding EUR 100 000, within 12 months of the granting, in accordance with the form in Annex VIII to this Decision (point 88 of the Communication)
• submits the planned annual reports to the JPSG for submission to the Commission (Communication item 89)
• keep for 10 years detailed records of the granting of this aid. They must contain all the information necessary to certify compliance with the necessary conditions of the Communication. This is so that they can be forwarded to the Commission, if a request is made.
• proceeds to any other action arising from its role as "Beneficiary" of the action, within the framework of the obligations set out in n. 4314/2014 and the Management and Control System of the Programming 2014-2020 and as described in the relevant integration decision. It will also provide the Competent Managing Authority and the Certifying Authority with all the necessary information to ensure an adequate audit trail.

Financial institutions

In order to ensure equal treatment of potential aid recipients, the participation in this action of all Financial Institutions legally active in Greece is mandatory. The Financial Institutions involved undertake:

• apply the procedure for the evaluation and approval of operations and the payment of the grant, confirming that the aid recipients comply with the necessary conditions;
• transmit to the BENEFICIARY the anticipated details of the loans,
• to keep, as far as their involvement and competence are concerned, records, for 10 years, of the granting of this Agreement concerning them, which must contain all the information necessary to certify compliance with the conditions necessary for the Communication to be fulfilled so that they may be forwarded to the Commission if so requested.

Eligibility

• The deadline for eligibility of expenditure in proposed operations is 31/12/2023. The proposed operations should be completed by that date.
• Operations that have been physically completed or fully executed are not eligible, regardless of whether or not the relevant payments have been made.
• The rules on the eligibility of expenditure of co-financed operations are set out in protocol number 137675/EYTHY 1016/19-12-2018 (Government Gazette B'5968)Ministerial Decision "National Rules for the Eligibility of Expenditure for NSRF 2014-2020 Programs – Checks on the legality of public contracts of co-financed NSRF 2014-2020 operations – Appeals procedure on the results of the evaluation of operations" (EKED).

Deadline

The deadline for the submission of applications for the interest subsidy on existing loans is 15/4/2022 at 16:00.