Eurofound's EU PolicyWatch collates information on the responses of government and social partners to the COVID-19 crisis, the war in Ukraine, rising inflation, as well as gathering examples of company practices aimed at mitigating the social and economic impacts.
Factsheet for measure BE-2021-23/1917 – measures in Belgium
Country |
Belgium
, applies regionally
|
Time period | Temporary, 31 May 2021 – 31 December 2021 |
Context | COVID-19 |
Type | Legislations or other statutory regulations |
Category |
Supporting businesses to stay afloat
– Access to finance |
Author | Dries Van Herreweghe (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) and Eurofound |
Measure added | 16 June 2021 (updated 03 March 2023) |
Due to the COVID-19 epidemic and accompanying lockdown measures, approximately one in four businesses needs additional capital or credit. The situation is even more difficult within the hotel and catering industry, where even half of the businesses needs additional capital. Hospitality operators have to buy raw materials to be able to start up. Another example is the fashion sector? For which the situation has become very difficult due to the weak. Thirdly, caterers or entrepreneurs in the event sector have no stocks left due to the long standstill.
Now that all these sectors are gradually being allowed to reopen, companies need to stock up on (fresh) products in order to be able to restart or buy new collections. Suppliers are less inclined to grant payment extensions and banks are also cautious.
To aid in this matter, the Flemish government has decided to create a restart loan possible for companies in all sectors. The restart loan is a loan at a limited interest rate of 1% with a term of 24 or 36 months. Repayment starts from the 12th month in instalments per quarter.
The loan is applicable to all sectors in need and has a fixed interest rate of 1%. Depending on the amount that was borrowed the repayment term can vary from 2 to 3 years and starts from the 12th month onwards.
The loan has a minimum of €10,000. For loans up to €50,000, the amount to be borrowed can be up to 80% of the purchases for restarting and the term is 24 months for loans of more than €50,000, the amount to be borrowed can be up to half of the purchases for restarting and the term is 36 months.
There are still a number of conditions attached, for example, only companies that were intrinsically healthy before the crisis are eligible.
The measure has just launched so no data available.
Workers | Businesses | Citizens |
---|---|---|
Does not apply to workers | Applies to all businesses | Does not apply to citizens |
Actors | Funding |
---|---|
Local / regional government
|
Regional funds
|
Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:
Trade unions | Employers' organisations | |
---|---|---|
Role | Unknown | Unknown |
Form | Not applicable | Not applicable |
Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:
No information available on social partner involvement.
No public statements of social partners on the specific measure but EO's like UNIZO and Horeca Vlaanderen promote and inform their members on it.
Citation
Eurofound (2021), Restart loans, measure BE-2021-23/1917 (measures in Belgium), EU PolicyWatch, Dublin, https://static.eurofound.europa.eu/covid19db/cases/BE-2021-23_1917.html
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