In the Official Gazette no. 594 of June 14, 2021, Order no. 991/2021 of the M.E.A.T. for the approval of the Procedure for the implementation of the state aid scheme provided by the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 224/2020 on some measures for providing financial support for enterprises in the field of tourism, public catering and event organization, whose activity was affected in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Procedure – provided in the Annex to Order 991/2021 of the M.E.A.T, published in the Official Gazette no. 594Bis of June 14, 2021 – details the implementation of the scheme, and the granting of state aid will be done only in compliance with the criteria on state aid provided by the Temporary Framework for State aid measures to support the economy in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic with changes and subsequent additions.
The scheme is applied throughout Romania, in all eight development regions.
The objective of the state aid scheme is to provide financial support from national public funds and / or from external funds for enterprises in the field of tourism, catering and event organization, whose activity has been affected in the context of the COVID pandemic 19.
According to the normative act, the budget of the scheme is estimated at 500 million euros, equivalent in lei. The budget allocated for the budget year 2021 is 2.5 billion lei commitment credits. The scheme runs until December 31, 2021, the payment of the corresponding amounts will be made by June 30, 2022 at the latest, within the budget appropriations.
If the total value of the approved financing applications exceeds the value of the commitment or budgetary credits allocated for this purpose, the commitment, respectively the payment to the beneficiary will be made proportionally, by reporting the approved amount for each beneficiary to the total amount of approved financing applications.
The beneficiaries of state aid are: tourist reception structures with classified accommodation functions, food structures, registered for fiscal purposes on the Romanian territory, licensed travel agencies, certified travel guides and event organizers, which carry out their activity on the Romanian territory and who receive state aid, according to this scheme, owned by or organized as enterprises established under the Companies Law no. 31/1990, republished, with subsequent amendments and completions, of Law no. 1/2005 on the organization and functioning of cooperation, republished , with subsequent amendments, of OUG no. 6/2011 for stimulating the establishment and development of micro-enterprises by start-up entrepreneurs in business, approved with amendments by Law no. 301/2011, with the subsequent amendments and completions, of OUG no. 44/2008 regarding the development of economic activities by authorized natural persons, individual enterprises and family enterprises, approved with modifications and completions by Law no. 182/2016.
The beneficiary can be: autonomous enterprise, partner enterprise or related enterprise. An autonomous enterprise is any enterprise that is not classified as a related enterprise or as a partner enterprise. An enterprise is autonomous if it holds less than 25% of the share capital or voting rights (whichever is greater) in one or more enterprises or if one or more enterprises do not hold more than 25% of the capital social or from the voting rights of the enterprise in question.
Partner enterprises are all enterprises that are not classified as related enterprises and between which there is the following relationship: the enterprise (upstream) owns, individually or jointly with one or more related enterprises, 25% or more of the share capital or vote of another enterprise (downstream).
Related companies are companies between which there is any of the following relationships:
(a) an undertaking holds a majority of the voting rights of the shareholders or associates of another undertaking;
(b) an undertaking has the right to appoint or remove a majority of the members of the administrative, management or supervisory body of another undertaking;
(c) an undertaking has the right to exercise a dominant influence over another undertaking under a contract concluded with the undertaking concerned or under a provision of the company contract or its articles of association;
(d) an undertaking which is a shareholder or associate of another undertaking and which alone controls, by agreement with other shareholders or associates of that undertaking, a majority of the voting rights of the shareholders or associates of that undertaking.
Undertakings which maintain, with one or more undertakings, the relationships referred to in points (a) to (d) shall be regarded as related undertakings.
According to Order 991/2021, grants are awarded on the basis of a financing contract concluded with the following categories of beneficiaries:
- enterprises carrying out activities authorized by travel agencies according to CAEN codes Rev 2 7911, 7912, 7990
- enterprises that carry out activities authorized by tourist reception structures with accommodation functions according to CAEN codes Rev 2 5510, 5520, 5530, 5590
- enterprises that carry out activities authorized by food structures / units, according to CAEN codes Rev 2 5610, 5621, 5629, 5630
- enterprises that carry out authorized activities for organizing events according to the CAEN code Rev 2 8230
- enterprises that carry out activities authorized by a tourist guide according to the CAEN code Rev 2 7990, enterprises that are registered / registered for fiscal purposes on the Romanian territory
The activities are eligible if they are carried out on the basis of tourism licenses issued by the central public authority responsible for tourism for travel agencies, classification certificates issued by the central public authority responsible for tourism for accommodation structures, operating permits issued by public authorities local or classification certificates issued by the central public authority responsible in the field of tourism for public catering structures / units, authorizations issued by the sanitary-veterinary directorates for mobile catering units, ascertaining certificates issued by ONRC for event organizers or guide certificates tourism issued by the central public authority responsible for tourism.
In the conditions in which an enterprise has several working points (accommodation structures / food structures / travel agencies), the classification certificates / authorizations / licenses for each working point will be checked / uploaded. The CAEN Rev 2 code (s) for which the applicant requests financing must have been authorized for the period related to the calculation base within this scheme, and in this sense the applicant will upload a finding certificate with a history in the computer application.
Eligible beneficiaries must also meet the following cumulative conditions:
- a) are not enterprises in difficulty, within the meaning of the definition in art. 2 point 18 of Regulation (EU) no. 651/2014 of the Commission of 17 June 2014 declaring certain categories of aid compatible with the internal market in application of art. 107 and 108 and / or were not in difficulty on December 31, 2019, but who faced difficulties or entered into difficulty later, due to the COVID-19 epidemic.
In the sense of the definition from art. 2 point 18 of Regulation (EU) no. 651/2014 of the Commission of 17 June 2014 declaring certain categories of aid compatible with the internal market in application of art. 107 and 108, enterprises in difficulty are those enterprises that are in at least one of the following situations:
- in the case of a limited liability company, regulated by the Companies Law no.31/1990, republished, with subsequent amendments and completions, other than an SME that has existed for less than 3 years or, in the sense of eligibility for aid for risk financing, an SME 7 years after its first commercial sale thatqualifies for investments for risk financing following a due diligence process performed by a selected financial intermediary, when more than half of its subscribed share capital has disappeared due to accumulated losses.This situation occurs when the deduction of accumulated losses from reserves and from all other elements generally considered to be part of the company’s own funds leads to a negative result that exceeds half of the subscribed share capital;
- in the case of a company regulated by Law no.31/1990, republished, with subsequent amendments and completions, in which at least some of the partners have unlimited liability for the company’s receivables, other than an SME that has existed for less than 3 years or, in the sense of eligibility for aid for risk financing,an SME 7 years after its first commercial sale that qualifies for investments for risk financing following a due diligence process performed by a selected financial intermediary, when more than half of the equity, as shown by the company’s accounts, disappeared due to accumulated losses.For the purposes of this provision, “a company in which at least some of the partners have unlimited liability for the company’s claims” refers in particular to those types of companies mentioned in Annex II to Directive no.2013/34 / EU;
- when the enterprise is the subject of a collective insolvency procedure or meets the criteria provided in domestic law for a collective insolvency procedure to be opened at the request of its creditors;
- when the company has received rescue aid and has not yet repaid the loan or has not terminated the guarantee or has received restructuring aid and is still subject to a restructuring plan;
- in the case of an enterprise that is not an SME, when, in the last two years: the debt / equity ratio of the enterprise is higher than 7.5 and the interest coverage capacity calculated on the basis of EBITDA is below 1
By way of exception, aid may be granted to micro or small enterprises within the meaning of Annex I to the General Block Exemption Regulation, Regulation (EU) No 182/2011. 651/2014 of the Commission of 17 June 2014 declaring certain categories of aid compatible with the internal market in application of art. 107 and 108 of the Treaty, which were already in difficulty on 31 December 2019, provided that they were not the subject of a collective insolvency procedure under national law and had not received rescue aid or restructuring aid.
In order to be eligible for aid, it is necessary that, at the time of granting the aid under OUG no. 224/2020, with subsequent amendments and completions, the economic operators provided above who received rescue aid have repaid the loan or the guarantee has ceased, and economic operators that have received restructuring aid should no longer be subject to a restructuring plan.
- a) do not exceed the ceiling of 1,800,000 Euro according to section 3.1. from the Communication from the European Commission – Temporary framework for state aid measures to support the economy in the context of the current COVID-19 epidemic [C (2020) 1863], as subsequently amended and supplemented;
- b) are not the subject of a decision issued by the European Commission / other State aid provider / Competition Council for the recovery of State / de minimis aid or, if they have been the subject of such a decision, it has already been executed and the debt fully recovered, with the related interests.
- c) is not insolvent at the time of enrollment in the state aid scheme.
- d) maintain their activity for which they obtained financing for at least 6 months from the date of the first payment of the state aid for the value of the grant less than or equal to the RON equivalent of the amount of 200,000 euros, or 12 months from the date of the first payment of the state aid, in case the value of the grant is higher than the equivalent in lei of the amount of 200,000 euros, if by normative acts no restrictions are established to impose the suspension or interruption of the commercial activity. The period of suspension or interruption of the commercial activity is not taken into account when determining the term of 6 months, respectively 12 months.
- e) have submitted the annual financial statements related to the last two financial years concluded (2019 and 2020),
- f) for which the legal term for submission has been fulfilled, provided in art. 36 para. (1) of Law no. 82/1991, republished, with the subsequent modifications and completions, if they have the obligation to draw up such situations.
Legal basis:
– MEAT Order no. 991/2021 for the approval of the Procedure for implementing the state aid scheme provided by the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 224/2020 on some measures for providing financial support for enterprises in the field of tourism, public catering and event organization, whose activity was affected in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic;
– Fiscal Procedure Code (approved by Law no. 207/2015, published in the Official Gazette no. 547 of 23.07.2015), with subsequent amendments and completions;