Background information

In order to cushion the impact for companies and self-employed persons the different regions have taken several measures that support them to pay back loans as well as extending the deadlines to apply for certain subsidies.

In addition there is support provided to improve contacts with the financial sector so that companies can apply for exception measures.

The regions also provide funding themselves in order to provide guarantees for companies with loans that are at risk of being unable to pay them back. All of this to reduce the economic repercussions during and after the current crisis.

Content of measure

Flanders: €100 million is earmarked for crisis guarantees. In this way, companies and self-employed persons can have a bridging loan guaranteed by the Participatiemaatschappij Vlaanderen (Participation Society Flanders) during this crisis period. This measure is in addition to existing guarantees for investment credits and working capital. With this, 1,000 loans of €100,000 can be guaranteed that can be placed under the 75% regional guarantee.

Companies that are experiencing difficulties due to the crisis to meet the deadlines foreseen for certain subsidies from Flanders Innovation & Enterpreneurship, can consult with the agency about the possibility of extending these deadlines.

Flanders facilitates contacts between business organizations and the financial sector to make agreements about the impact of the crisis on the liquidity and repayment capacity of companies, individuals and families.

Brussels: The creation of a delegated assignment to Finance & Invest.brussels, including: Access to loans with a reduced interest rate for key suppliers of the HORECA sector allowing them to offer deferred payments for the hospitality sector; Access to loans with a reduced interest rate for hospitality businesses employing more than 50 people.

A moratorium on capital reimbursement on loans granted by finance & invest.brussels to companies in the impacted sectors.

Wallonia: Emergency loan through the St'art investment fund for cultural enterprises: The "Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles" (FWB) has approved an emergency loan from the St'art investment fund to support the cash flow of cultural and creative enterprises in sectors that aim at the creation, development, production, reproduction, promotion, distribution or sale of goods, services and activities with a cultural, artistic and/or historical content.

This loan would be available for a period of 6 months (extendable by 6 months if necessary) for an amount of between €20,000 and €100 000 at a fixed rate of 2%. An individual analysis will be carried out to verify the repayment capacity, but also to check whether other aid measures (federal, regional, community) have been activated.

Use of measure

Difficult to estimate the uptake of the measure as it involves many different measures in different regions.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Does not apply to workers	Applies to all businesses	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
Local / regional government	Regional funds

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	No involvement	No involvement
Form	Not applicable	Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• Unknown
• Main level of involvement: Unknown

Involvement

Unknown

Views and reactions

The extent of their involvement is unknown.

Sources

• 13 March 2020: Flanders: additional measures to support companies (www.vlaio.be)
• 26 March 2020: 1819 Brussels (1819.brussels)
• 01 April 2020: Walloon fund COVID-19: Corporate compensation (www.1890.be)
• 04 May 2020: Deloitte: Fiscal support measures (www2.deloitte.com)