On Wednesday, 2 March, the European Commission approved a €2 billion Hungarian investment support scheme to foster a sustainable recovery. The scheme was approved under the State aid Temporary Framework.
This support will help Hungary “overcome the investment gap left behind by the crisis and set the path for a faster and more sustainable recovery”, according to Margrethe Vestager, the executive vice-president in charge of competition policy.
The support will take the form of subsidised loans for small, medium, and large enterprises to finance sustainable investments in tangible and intangible assets in compliance with environmental objectives established at the EU and national levels.
The measure will be open to companies in all sectors, with the exception of credit and financial institutions, companies in the real estate sector, and companies that perform certain activities that are considered to be potentially harmful to the environment, such as exploration, production or use of fossil fuels for energy production, destruction of forests, or endangerment of biodiversity.
Anywhere from 500 to 1,000 companies are expected to benefit from the scheme.
The public support will be subject to conditions so as to limit any undue distortion of competition, including safeguards to limit the risk of possible indirect aid in favour of the financial intermediaries channelling the support. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)