EUR 935 million are available until October 30th, 2020 as state aid in the form of micro-grants, working capital grants and investment grants that can be accessed by the approximately 725,000 SMEs operating in Romania.
At the end of last week, the state aid scheme “Support for SMEs”, related to the Operational Program Competitiveness (POC 2014-2020), was published, in order to overcome the economic crisis generated by the Covid-19 pandemic. This aims to support SMEs in overcoming the economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and is financed by non-reimbursable external funds.
In Romania there is a number of approximately 725,000 SMEs that meet the conditions provided by law. They employ around 2.5 million people, so supporting them is essential for the economy.
State aid totaling EUR 935 million may take the following forms:
- micro-grants, for which a budget of EUR 100 million is available,
- working capital grants, for which a budget of EUR 307.5 million is allocated, or
- investment grants, for which EUR 478 million are available.
The application for funding must be submitted by October 30th, 2020 and the signing of the financing agreement must take place by December 31st, 2020 at the latest.