Chamber Made 11 Proposals Related to The Draft Act On the General Conditions for Assistance from The Recovery Instrument

The Ministry of Finance has prepared a draft regulation establishing the general conditions for assistance paid on the basis of the European Union recovery and resilience facility. The Chamber asked the Ministry to elaborate more clearly for entrepreneurs several of the articles of the general conditions.

Volume of assistance is ca 900 million euros
Estonia will receive ca 900 million euros from the European Union recovery and resilience facility for the period 2021-2026. Estonia wishes to direct 220 million euros of this into green transition. For example, the state is planning to allocate 100 million euros for the green fund and 38 million euros for the introduction of resource-efficient green technologies.

116 million euros are foreseen for supporting digital transformation of companies. For example, there would be 73 million euros for the digital transformation of economy and 33 million euros to support competitiveness of companies on foreign markets.

Additionally, according to the plan 336 million euros will be directed to healthcare and social protection, 122 million euros in support of the digital state, 92 million euros for energetics and energy efficiency and 96 million euros for sustainable transport.

The main aim of the new regulation Organisation of the Implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility and General Conditions for Granting Assistance is to establish general conditions for using assistance granted for reforms and investments from the recovery facility and the requirements for the beneficiaries. The state will draw up separate conditions for granting the assistance for each specific assistance measure, but they must be in accordance with the general conditions. Thus, this draft regulation concerns all entrepreneurs who would like to apply for the support that Estonia is paying from the recovery and resilience facility.

Proposal related to payment of the assistance
The Chamber has submitted to the Ministry of Finance 11 proposals to make the draft regulation on the general conditions clearer for entrepreneurs. For example, we asked the Ministry to clarify one of the articles related to paying the assistance. For example, the draft act states that the state may suspend or refuse the payment or advance payment if the European Commission has made a decision to suspend payment of the assistance or refuse to pay the assistance.

In the Chamber’s opinion, there may be, at least theoretically, a situation where Estonia foresees a support measure for supporting green transformation, a company applies for assistance and meets all the requirements, but the state will refuse to pay the assistance later, because Estonia or the European Union make the decision not to carry out green transformation with the help of the recovery facility or Estonia fails to meet the investment results. The Chamber made a proposal to establish a principle for such situations that in such cases Estonia should pay assistance from the state budget at least to those applicants who have already made expenses and met other conditions for receiving the assistance.

Requirements for economic activities and accessibility require clarification
The Chamber of Commerce asked the Ministry to clarify if the claims set out in the explanatory memorandum is true that the assistance can be requested only by the companies that have their information in the register of economic activities. The Chamber proposed that the assistance could be applied for all operating companies.

Furthermore, the Chamber asked to clarify, which accessibility requirements should be followed if the supported activity is not related to structures, civil engineering works or e-environments. For example, companies may have a question that if the state finances a project related to research and development or innovation, which are the accessibility requirements in this field. Currently, the draft act states that objects financed from the assistance should be ensured with accessibility according to the special requirements or standards applicable for the object, irrespective of the goal and manner of the supported activity.

The draft regulation Organisation of the Implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility and General Conditions for Granting Assistance is available HERE.