Order of the Ministry of Economy (ME) no.1371 approving the Applicant’s Guide for the establishment of the de minimis aid scheme ”Support granted for the implementation of the Programme for increasing the competitiveness of industrial products” was published in the Official Gazette (Part I) no.1008 of 18 October 2022.
Objective of the de minimis aid scheme:
The objective èis to support the sustainable development of enterprises whose main activity is the manufacturing industry, in sectors falling under CAEN codes 1310-3320 and/or 3831-3832. The scheme was established in compliance with the relevant European regulations, namely Commission Regulation (EU) No 1407/2013 of 18 December 2013 on the application of Articles 107 and 108 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union to de minimis aid, as amended and supplemented, hereinafter referred to as the Regulation.
Please note that de minimis aid is granted in the form of a grant, from budgetary funds, through the budget of the Ministry of Economy.
This de minimis scheme finances the following activities:
a) implementation and certification of quality management systems and/or environmental management systems and/or environmental management and audit scheme – EMAS;
b) implementation and certification of occupational health and safety management systems, social responsibility and food hygiene management systems and/or information security management systems;
c) equipping and/or upgrading existing testing and calibration laboratories and their accreditation, where appropriate;
d) voluntary product certification and/or eco-labelling of products;
e) the assimilation of new technologies and products that are carried out by economic operators for the exploitation of research results obtained within the framework of research and development programmes financed from public funds and the application of inventions of Romanian authors protected by the State Office for Inventions and Trademarks;
f) to carry out benchmarking analyses for activities in the manufacturing industry with a view to the realization of restructuring-development-viabilization plans, whose implementation will be monitored;
g) organising and setting up exhibitions and/or stands for the presentation of industrial products within the premises of economic operators, in existing spaces;
h) registration and protection of Romanian trademarks, designs and industrial models on the foreign market.
Attention!
The beneficiaries of the activities mentioned above are the following:
a) for activities under a) and d) – large enterprises and cooperative societies;
b) for activities under points b), e), g) and h) – micro, small, medium-sized and large enterprises and cooperative societies;
c) for activities under c) – large enterprises, large cooperative societies and entities in the industrial product conformity infrastructure;
d) for activities under point f) – all the beneficiaries mentioned under points a) to c), as well as professional associations or employers’ associations in the sector.
Budget of the de minimis aid scheme:
total estimated budget of the de minimis aid scheme is 30.000.000 lei.
The maximum amount granted to a beneficiary from the budget of the scheme is equal to the equivalent in lei of the amount of 200.000 euro, and the payment will be made in instalments, based on the supporting documents, provided for in chapter II point 5 of this guide.
The minimum amount allocated from the budget of the scheme for a project is equal to the equivalent in RON of 5.000 euro.
The exchange rate established by the National Bank of Romania, valid on the date of signing the financing contract, is used to verify the maximum level of de minimis aid expressed in euro.
Period of validity of the de minimis aid scheme
This de minimis aid scheme enters into force on 27 September 2022 and applies until 31 December 2023, within the allocated budget.
The de minimis aid will be paid during the period 2022-2027 within the budget allocated to the scheme.
It is important to underline that, given that the Regulation applies until 31 December 2023, according to Article 15 of the de minimis aid scheme, financing contracts can be concluded until 31.12.2023, with payments for concluded contracts being made in the period 2022-2027.
Eligible sectors of activity:
This de minimis aid scheme is addressed to enterprises, including cooperative societies, operating in the manufacturing and materials recovery sectors, according to section C items 1310-3320, or/and materials recovery, according to section E items 3831-3832 of the Classification of Activities in the National Economy (CAEN), as well as entities in the infrastructure for conformity assessment of industrial products, professional associations and employers’ associations.
The maximum intensity of de minimis aid granted under this scheme is:
a) 50% from the state budget, of the expenses incurred by the beneficiaries, for the types of projects that fall under the activities mentioned in point 1(a)-(f);
b) 30% from the state budget, of the expenditure incurred by the beneficiaries, for the types of projects falling under the activity provided for in point 1(g);
c) 45% from the State budget, of the expenditure incurred by the beneficiaries, for the types of projects falling under the activity provided for in point 1(h), irrespective of the beneficiary.
The total amount of de minimis aid received by the single enterprise over a period of three fiscal years, including the current fiscal year, either from State or local authority sources or from Community sources, shall not exceed the equivalent in RON of EUR 200,000 and EUR 100,000 for beneficiaries carrying out goods transport activities on behalf of third parties or for remuneration
Please note that according to the recently approved Guide, the single enterprise – includes all enterprises between which there is at least one of the following relationships:
1. an enterprise holds a majority of the voting rights of the shareholders or associates of another enterprise;
2. an undertaking has the right to appoint or remove a majority of the members of the administrative, management or supervisory bodies of another undertaking;
3. an enterprise has the right to exercise a dominant influence over another enterprise by virtue of a contract concluded with the enterprise in question or by virtue of a provision in the company contract or in its statutes;
4. an enterprise which is a shareholder or associate of another enterprise and which alone controls, under an agreement with other shareholders or associates of that enterprise, a majority of the voting rights of the shareholders or associates of that enterprise
It is important to mention that de minimis aid shall not be cumulated with other State aid for the same eligible expenses or with State aid granted for the same risk capital financing measure, if such cumulation would exceed the relevant maximum aid intensity or amount laid down for the specific conditions of each case by a regulation or block exemption decision adopted by the European Commission.
De minimis aid which is not granted for or linked to specific eligible costs may be cumulated with other State aid granted on the basis of a block exemption regulation or decision adopted by the European Commission.
De minimis aid granted under this measure may be cumulated with de minimis aid granted in accordance with Commission Regulation (EU) No 360/2012 of 25 April 2012 on the application of Articles 107 and 108 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union to de minimis aid granted to undertakings providing services of general economic interest, subject to the ceiling laid down in that Regulation.
Eligibility conditions of the applicant:
In order to benefit from de minimis aid, applicants must cumulatively fulfil the following conditions:
a) be legal entities with registered office in Romania, registered in the Trade Register as companies or as cooperative societies operating in Romania;
b) they must make a profit from their operating activity, according to the last annual financial statement submitted and registered with the territorial administration of the Ministry of Finance;
c) they are not in a state of insolvency, their business is not administered by a syndic judge, no restriction has been imposed on their commercial activity, they are not subject to arrangements between creditors or are in any other situation similar to those mentioned above, regulated by law;
d) they do not have outstanding debts to the state budget, respectively local budgets, certified by tax certificates; an exception is made for economic operators who benefit from relief for the payment of outstanding obligations to the state budget, granted by agreements and/or orders according to legal provisions, and respect the payment terms, certified by tax certificates;
e) the legal representative has not been subject to a conviction in the last 3 years by any court of law for professional or ethical reasons;
f) they are not in difficulty within the meaning of Article 2(18) of Commission Regulation (EU) No 651/2014 of 17 June 2014 declaring certain categories of aid compatible with the internal market in application of Articles 107 and 108 of the Treaty, as amended and supplemented;
g) the single enterprise must not have benefited in the last 2 fiscal years and in the current fiscal year, either from state or local authority budget sources or from Community sources, from de minimis aid which, when cumulated with the amount requested in the project, exceeds the equivalent in RON of 200.000 euro and 100.000 euro for beneficiaries carrying out goods transport activities on behalf of third parties or against payment;
h) it has not been the subject of a decision by the European Commission or the Competition Council to recover a State aid/de minimis aid or, if it has been the subject of such a decision, it has already been executed and the debt has been fully recovered, with interest and penalties;
i) have the financial resources necessary to secure co-financing for the implementation of the project;
j) to produce processed products for which there is an assured market;
k) to have a specialised organisational structure for the implementation of the project, for the categories of activities mentioned in point 1 a)-c) of these guidelines;
l) to submit a summary of the research results and, where appropriate, a copy of the patent issued by the State Office for Inventions and Trademarks and to demonstrate the advantages of their industrial application, for the activities referred to in point 1(e) of these guidelines;
m) to present the certificate of registration of trademarks, designs and industrial models from the State Office for Inventions and Trademarks and to demonstrate the advantages of their registration on foreign markets for the projects related to the activity referred to in point 1 letter h) of these Guidelines.
Project eligibility criteria:
To be eligible under this de minimis aid scheme, a project must cumulatively meet the following criteria:
a) fall within the categories of activities set out in point 1;
b) contain the stages of the project and the financing structure by stage;
c) ensure the implementation of the project within a maximum of 24 months from the conclusion of the financing contract;
d) present the elements that substantiate the expected results on completion of the project;
e) the size of the funding requested, for the activities mentioned in point 1, must be within the following limits, of the total eligible expenditure, respectively:
50% of the eligible expenses incurred by the beneficiaries from the state budget and 50% co-financing from the beneficiaries’ own sources, for the types of projects that fall under the activities mentioned in point 1 letter a)-f);
30% of eligible expenditure incurred by beneficiaries from the state budget and 70% co-financing from the beneficiaries’ own sources, for types of projects falling under the activity referred to in point 1(g);
45% of eligible expenditure incurred by beneficiaries from the state budget and 55% co-financing from the beneficiaries’ own sources, for the types of projects falling under the activity referred to in point 1(h).
How the de minimis aid scheme works:
The administrator of the de minimis aid scheme is the Ministry of Economy, through the Directorate for Industrial Policies and Competitiveness, for the management of the funds for the Programme to increase the competitiveness of industrial products..
The procedure for implementing and running the de minimis aid scheme is as follows:
a) launch of the call for proposals for projects;
b) receipt and registration of applications for funding;
c) administrative verification, i.e. conformity of applications and accompanying documents;
d) checking the eligibility of beneficiaries and projects, in the order of their registration at the Ministry of Economy’s registry;
e) selection of projects by the Commission;
f) informing the beneficiary enterprises in writing about the amount of de minimis aid granted and its de minimis character, on the basis of this de minimis aid scheme, drawn up in accordance with the provisions of the Regulation;
g) drawing up and signing financing contracts;
h) starting the implementation of projects;
i) submission of the application/claims for reimbursement, accompanied by the supporting documents for the stage/s carried out;
j) granting of non-reimbursable funding – by the Directorate for Industrial Policies and Competitiveness and the Economic Directorate, only on the basis of supporting documents and after verification of expenditure;
k) monitoring of the implementation of the projects according to the contractual provisions;
l) verification of the implementation of the projects at the beneficiaries, according to the signed financing contracts.
Granting of de minimis aid:
The opening of the session and the period for submission of applications will be announced on the website of the Ministry of Economy.
In order to obtain funding, applicants must submit the application for funding to the Ministry of Economy together with the documents specified in point 10 of Chapter I of these guidelines.
Please note that the Applicant’s Guide, at the end, contains the following 6 annexes:
ANNEX No.1:Application for funding
ANNEX No.2:Declaration on de minimis aid
ANNEX No.3:Project milestones
ANNEX No.4:Request for reimbursement of expenditure
ANNEX No 5: Technical and financial report (interim/final)
ANNEX No 6:Invoice centraliser
Legal basis:
ME Order no.1371/2022 approving the Applicant’s Guide for the establishment of the de minimis aid scheme ”Support granted for the implementation of the Programme to increase the competitiveness of industrial products”.