The European Commission approved, on Friday 15 October, a €31.9 billion Italian scheme to support companies affected by the coronavirus outbreak. The scheme was approved under the State aid Temporary Framework.
Italy notified a scheme consisting of two measures: - limited amounts of aid; - support for uncovered fixed costs incurred in the period between March 2020 and December 2021 or parts of that period.
The aid will be open to all companies, regardless of their size and sector of activity, with the exception of those in the financial sector.
Limited amounts of aid will take the form of tax exemptions and reductions, tax credits and direct grants.
Given that most of the aid will be granted automatically and the aid ceilings will apply to the direct beneficiary and its affiliates, eligible beneficiaries will have to indicate, in an ex-ante self-declaration, the amount of limited amounts of aid and support for uncovered fixed costs applied for.
This should also allow the Italian authorities to better monitor compliance with the temporary framework, in particular for companies in the same group. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)