At its meeting on Tuesday, August 13, the government got around to addressing the issue so now LIAA can again consider the applications of start-ups in an accelerated manner.
From July 1, the updated EU "de minimis" regulation came into force, which allows providing small-scale state aid to small companies without needing to notify the European Commission (EC). As of that date, transitional provisions became invalid, bringing a guillotine down on new applications because the Economics Ministry had not got around to taking the necessary action.
As a result, start-ups have been without access to this source of funding for more than a month.
On Tuesday, the government decided to correct this error by amending the relevant regulations and clarifying other norms related to the administration of state aid. This decision also increased the total amount of support, which will reach 300,000 euros instead of the previous 200,000 euros.
With the changes adopted by the government, LIAA will be able to resume paying support to start-ups.
So far this year, LIAA has approved 20 companies' applications for start-up support. Eight companies approached the agency during the period when the aid was not available, but now those applications can be considered again with Tuesday's changes to the regulations.
