One of the measures provided for by the adoption of the Legislative Decree of 30.3.2020 entitled "Measures to address the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic and other urgent provisions" is the Temporary State aid measure as a repayable advance provided for in Article 3 of that PDO. στις πληττόμενες από την έξαρση της νόσου COVID-19 επιχειρήσεις.

This article provides that:

"1. Undertakings that have suffered financially as a result of the emergence and spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus may be granted aid which is repayable, in whole or in part, in the form of a "repayable advance".

2. The aid shall be granted in accordance with the provisions of C(2020) 1863/19.3.2020 Communication from the European Commission "Temporary Framework for State aid measures to support the economy in the current COVID-19 outbreak" and upon approval of a relevant aid scheme by the Commission.

3. By joint decision of the Ministers of Finance and Development and Investment, the beneficiaries, the amount of the aid, the conditions for granting and refunding it, the procedure for submitting an application, the required information, the method of payment and reimbursement of the aid, the obligations of the beneficiaries and any other details for the implementation of the present shall be determined.

4. Aid in the form of a "repayable advance" shall be non-deductible, tax-free and shall not be set off against any debt.";

Κατηγορία μέτρου: Κρατική ενίσχυση

This measure falls into the more general category of State aid to undertakings. As a preliminary point, it should be pointed out that the European institutional framework governing State aid provides for a very specific procedure for the granting of state aid to companies. However, the current state of emergency justifies the introduction of an exception to this classic procedure. That is, as provided in the dated 19.3.2020 and No. 1863 Communication from the Commission entitled 'Temporary framework for State aid measures to support the economy during the current outbreak of COVID-19', the aid granted in this exceptional situation by Member States to businesses, channelled through banks as financial intermediaries, directly benefits those businesses.

MyBusinessSupport for repayable advance - Application process

Premiere today for the online platform of ADDE, "MyBusinessSupport", which will submit applications to small and medium-sized businesses to receive in April the refundable advance of one billion. euro. This is one of the favourable low-interest financing measures included in the framework of support announced by the government to support small and medium-sized enterprises. The deadline for submitting applications is 10 April, so that the aid can be paid to beneficiaries in April. Key features of this initiative are:

• concerns businesses with between 1 and 500 employees
• The business should respond to the specific issues of accessibility to finance and credit profile that many small and medium-sized enterprises have, which are obviously getting worse at this stage
• the funding will be given directly by the state, through Taxis Net
• is characterized as a repayable advance because, either all or part of it, depending on the viability of the business, will be returned to the state within the next few years, at an extremely low interest rate
• The funding is five years, with the first year being a grace period and there is no obligation to repay an aid instalment, while the remaining 4 years are the repayment period in equal monthly instalments
• The eligibility of the business will be determined by the course of its turnover in relation to the past in combination with other additional data (through a standardized, automated mechanism) such as tax data and other financial indicators. The amount of aid will be non-deductible, tax-free and non-compensable.

Important notes

No priority number. On the contrary, all applications will be evaluated one by one and based on the algorithm that has been created. On 11 April, one day after the completion of the application process, it will be announced how the funds will be distributed and the amount will be credited to the beneficiaries' accounts before the end of April. The arrangement will provide for a maximum amount per company. As for the eligibility criteria, at this stage they are unknown, as the individualization will take place in the course of the process. They will be announced after the application period closes and before the results are announced which will be obtained on the basis of an automated system of standardized criteria. The "hidden" criteria are chosen in order not to attempt to alter the data on the part of the applicants.

It is noted that in this case too, the non-dismissal clause applies to those companies that make use of the measure.