NSRF 2021-2027: €1 billion will “fall” for SMEs in the next two months

1 billion euros for small and medium-sized enterprises from new money NSRF 2021-2027 announced by the Deputy Minister of Development and Investment, Yannis Tsakiris.

These are the first two measures that will be implemented over the next two months, as announced by J. Tsakiris during the Board of Directors of the Chamber of Commerce in Athens.

In total, through the new NSRF, about 4 billion euros are expected to be allocated to small and medium-sized enterprises, 3 billion euros through actions and 1 billion euros through financial instruments.

Chamber of Industry President: “Targeting, Planning and Efficiency Required” for the new NSRF

For his part, BEA President Pavlos Ravanes noted that the new NSRP is a valuable tool, which can breathe life into the business and mobilize the shift to a new production model.

“The Chamber has repeatedly indicated the need to provide solutions to the problem of liquidity. Without conditions of adequate financing for the business, there can be no new initiatives and investments. The new NSRF must be based on a clear strategy, which will direct resources to entrepreneurship, investments and extroversion. We can no longer afford Windows projects costs, and we do not waste resources on fragmented and unwise actions. Now, there is a need for targeting, planning and efficiency,” Mr. Ravanes noted.

The two operations of the “Competitiveness” program

According to the BEA, the two actions of the Competitiveness Program will be implemented as follows:

– The first action relates to the “Digital Transformation of Small and Medium Enterprises”, with the first cycle of advertisements including resources of 300 million euros. Submissions will start at the end of October and will be related to funding the business plans of companies with low digital readiness.

The second measure concerns the “Green Transformation of Small and Medium Enterprises”, which includes resources worth 700 million euros. Applications will start at the end of November and are related to modernizing the production function of small and medium-sized companies through the use of environmentally friendly solutions that make companies more competitive. In the context of this call, in addition to supporting production assets, the installation of solar panels in SMEs will also be supported to produce electricity for personal consumption, but not for “net metering”. The objective of this measure is to further reduce the operating costs of SMEs.

Investment projects that will be included in the above actions will receive assistance in the form of a grant and the projects will be submitted by interested parties electronically in the State Aid Information System (PSKE). They will be evaluated through the FIFO (first in, first out) process. Thus, it is possible that the first payments will be disbursed even before the end of the year.

Mr. Tsakiris noted that a mature investment listing could be approved even within just one month of the application being submitted.