Chamber’s Work Victory: General Conditions for Assistance Granted from the Recovery Facility to Become More Entrepreneur-Friendly

At the end of October, the Chamber sent to the Ministry of Finance 11 proposals regarding the draft regulation that establishes the general conditions for granting supports based on the recovery and resilience facility. By today, the Ministry of Finance has taken into account several proposals of the Chamber of Commerce.

Provision related to recovery of assistance removed from the draft
The initial version of the draft stated that if the state withdraws from implementing a reform or investment agreed on in the recovery plan, the state will request recovery of the assistance allocated to an entrepreneur’s project. Thus, an entrepreneur would have had to pay the assistance back even if they had not violated any of the conditions for assistance related to them. For example, if the state would have established an assistance measure in support of green transformation and an entrepreneur would have received assistance for implementing green transformation, the stat would have had the right to request recovery of the assistance if Estonia had changed their mind about carrying out green transformation.

With a proposal from the Chamber of Commerce, the Ministry of Finance left this provision out of the draft act. The Ministry agreed with the criticism of the Chamber and found that as reverting reforms and results is a political decision, which may arise either from the Government or the Parliament, the recipient of the assistance cannot be held responsible for repaying the assistance.

Requirements for economic activities and accessibility have become more accurate
Earlier, the Chamber of Commerce asked the Ministry to explain if the claim set out in the explanatory memorandum according to which the assistance can be requested only by the entrepreneurs whose information is included in the register of economic activities, is true. The Ministry of Finance has added an explanation that the requirement for economic activities will be appliable only if assistance is granted to an entrepreneur whose principal or additional activities require permits for operating in the respective field of activity. Thus, the assistance can be requested by all entrepreneurs.

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. We received an answer from the Ministry according to which the accessibility requirement will not be applied for the supported activities for which the applicable law does not foreseen special requirements or standards or where applying accessibility requirements would not be relevant.

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, which among other things is aimed at carrying out green and digital transformation. 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.

The Chamber of Commerce submitted 11 proposals regarding the initial version of the draft, which can be read about HERE.

The latest version of the draft regulation Organisation of the Implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility and General Conditions for Granting Assistance is available HERE. The draft is currently awaiting approval from the Government.