Background information

"IMM Invest" is a governmental program launched back in 2017 through GEO 110/2017 which envisages to assist the small and medium-sized companies (SMEs). The program has been adapted and modified in the context of COVID-19 pandemic, aiming to assist the small and medium-sized companies (SME) affected by the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic in the provision of working and investment capital in the difficult economic context. The program was modified several times in 2020 and 2021. Under the new provisions adopted in response to the pandemic, appr. 40,000 Romanian SMEs would have access to bank loans under preferential conditions to ensure the continuity of the activity and pay the staff employed during the pandemic period. The Government is willing to guarantee loans of up to €3.09 billion within this program. In March 2021 the Government has extended the timeframe of IMM Invest until June 30th 2021 for evaluating the applications/signing contracts, and until the 30th of June 2022 for making the payment of the grants.

Content of measure

Under the IMM Invest program, SMEs have access to:

• state guarantees for loans granted for working and investment capital. The State provides guarantees of up to 80% of the amount of financing and up to 90% for micro companies.
• direct grants to cover interest and fees generated by the loans. The state subsidizes the interest and risk and management fees related to loans for all categories of SMEs at a value of 100 %. SMEs are granted loans guaranteed under the program benefit from a grant up to the sum of the amounts of the risk commission, the administration fee and the interest on the financing provided, but not more than the RON equivalent of €800,000 per enterprise.

SMEs can get two types of loans: for investments and working capital. The credits for investments are up to €2.06 million and can be paid back in 72 months. The working capital loans are up to €1.03 million for medium enterprises and up to €206,000 for small enterprises and can be paid back in 36 months.

Companies eligible for the program: micro-enterprises (up to 9 employees), small enterprises (10-49 employees), medium sized enterprises (50-249 employees). Among the most important eligibility criteria are:

• Beneficiaries should not have not been in financial difficulty at 31 December, 2019 within the meaning of Regulation (EU) no. 651/2014, but have experienced financial difficulties due to COVID-19 pandemic;
• Do not have overdue loans in the last 6 months prior to 31 December, 2019;
• Insolvency proceedings have not been opened against them;
• Have no outstanding fiscal liabilities to the central budget or, in the case they do, they have to commit to pay them out of the credit granted under the program.

In 2021, the GEO no. 16/2021 extends the timeframe of IMM Invest until June 30th 2021 for evaluating the applications/signing contracts, and until the 30th of June 2022 for making the payment of the grant.

Use of measure

As of 5th May 2020, the National SME Credit Guarantee Fund analyzed more than 47,000 applications received from more than 37,000 SMEs registered in the SME “imminvest.ro” platform and sent more than 20,000 applications for financing to the 22 partner banks.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Does not apply to workers	SMEs One person or microenterprises	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government	National funds

Social partners

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:

• Unknown
• Main level of involvement: N/A

Involvement

The role of social partners in designing the measure is unknown. The social partners have no legal role in implementing the measure.

Views and reactions

No public positions have been expressed by social partners regarding the measure.

Sources

• 20 December 2017: ORDONANȚĂ DE URGENȚĂ nr. 110 din 20 decembrie 2017 (legislatie.just.ro)
• 27 May 2020: ORDONANȚĂ DE URGENȚĂ nr. 89 din 27 mai 2020 (legislatie.just.ro)
• 11 June 2020: ORDONANȚĂ DE URGENȚĂ nr. 98 din 11 iunie 2020 (legislatie.just.ro)
• 24 August 2020: ORDONANȚĂ DE URGENȚĂ nr. 143 din 24 august 2020 (legislatie.just.ro)
• 12 March 2021: Ordonanța de urgență nr. 16/2021 (legislatie.just.ro)