New EU funds 2020: €2-6 million each for Romanian firms through POR 2.2-SME. Official draft of the guide

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from various sectors will be able to obtain new EU funds of €2-6 million per project from a new POR 2.2-SME funding line, due to be launched this year in almost the whole country. The allocated budget will be 150 million euro, with the possibility of extension to 550 million euro, according to the Ministry of Public Works, Development and Administration.

The official draft Applicant's Guide has been released for public consultation – Specific conditions for accessing funds under investment priority 2.2 Supporting the creation and extension of advanced production capacities and the development of services – a new call for proposals.

The public consultation will run for 15 calendar days, starting from the date the working version of the guide is published on the inforegio.ro website.

Comments and proposals can be sent by e-mail to info@mdrap.ro, by 29 May 2020.

The new EU funds will be available for investments in almost the whole country, except Bucharest and Ilfov county.

The 150 million euro will be distributed as follows:

• North-East (Bacău, Botoșani, Iași, Neamț, Suceava and Vaslui counties): 26.265 million euro
• South-East (Brăila, Buzău, Constanța, Galați, Tulcea, Vrancea): 22.29 million euro
• South-Muntenia (Argeș, Prahova, Dâmbovița, Teleorman, Giurgiu, Ialomița and Călărași counties): 23.610 million euro
• South-West Oltenia (Dolj, Gorj, Mehedinți, Olt and Vâlcea): 17.955 million euro
• West (Timiș, Arad, Caraș-Severin and Hunedoara): 17.955 million euro
• North-West (Bihor, Bistrița-Năsăud, Cluj, Maramureș, Satu Mare, Sălaj counties): 21.495 million euro,
• Centre (Alba, Brașov, Covasna, Harghita, Mureș and Sibiu): 20.73 million euro.

From this money, regional state aid of between 2 million euro and 6 million euro per project will be granted.

On top of these amounts, the beneficiary's contribution to eligible costs ranges from a minimum of 30% for small enterprises to a minimum of 55% for medium-sized firms, depending also on the development region.

Investments eligible for co-financing through regional state aid include:

• Construction or extension of production/service premises;
• Purchase of tangible and intangible assets.

Modernisation works can be considered eligible only insofar as they relate to an initial investment.

The project proposed in the funding application must necessarily include investments in tangible assets (construction/extension/equipping with tangible assets). Including investments in intangible assets in the project is optional. See the detailed project eligibility conditions.