Romania's Government published in the Official Gazette the emergency ordinance (OUG) 174/2020, which amends the procedures and criteria for extending grants totaling almost EUR 1 billion from European Union's budget and the national budget.

The new OUG changes the scoring grid for the EUR 50,000-200,000 investment grants (the third measure of the program) for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The Government will distribute some EUR 550 million (including the companies' contribution) under this measure.

Among the amendments that entrepreneurs were expecting, but the Government didn't approve, was removing the EUR 5,000 minimum turnover in 2019 to qualify for the EUR 2,000 micro-grants. Thus, only companies with a turnover higher than EUR 5,000 will get micro-grants (measure 1).

The Government didn't add new activities (CAEN) to extend the beneficiaries of working capital grants (measure 2) and investment grants (measure 3).

Sources from the Ministry of European Funds told StartupCafe.ro that a reason for not extending the list of potential beneficiaries of the state aid scheme was that it would have required a new opinion from the European Commission, which would have further delayed the application of financing measures.

andrei@romania-insider.com

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