Background information

This instrument is available to companies and cooperatives that are unable to access funding to curtail negative trends in their business performance, and which would, without intervention, jeopardise the existence of the company or cooperative.

Companies eligible are those which play a systemic role in the development of a country, region or sector. Rescue aid is granted with a view to ensuring their long-term viability on the market and for a limited period during the preparation of the firm's restructuring programme. It supports and assists the implementation of the restructuring programme. Rescue and restructuring aid is exceptional when major economic crises or difficulties arise in individual firms.

Content of measure

A company or cooperative in difficulty that wishes to get state aid must prepare a restructuring strategy. The strategy must include a programme to address the needs of employees facing redundancy and retraining programme for employees, provided by the employer. The provided state aid can take different forms: a loan, a subsidy, an interest rate subsidy, a guarantee, a financial investment or a deferral of taxes or contribution payments.

The programme for rescuing and restructuring of companies and cooperatives in difficulty is implemented by the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology, Department for Entrepreneurship, Competitiveness and Technology. Its main task is to decide on allocating state aids to companies and cooperatives in difficulty.

Use of measure

The latest published Ministry of Finance report for 2017-2020 shows a significant fall in rescue and restructuring aid. The state approved a small grant in 2020, none in 2019, and, in 2018, the support of €0.56 million for two companies, Arosa Mobilia and Semenarna Ljubljana. All beneficiaries gained soft loans.

Over the last ten years, 23 firms in difficulty received rescue and restructuring aid. The total amount was €202.39 million, of which the three largest recipients – Cimos (€131.9 million), Adria Airways (€50 million) and Mariborska livarna Maribor (€10.2 million) – obtained €192.1 million, or 92% of the total aid.

The Ministry of Finance report also gives data on the long-term effectiveness of state aid for rescuing and restructuring from 2004–2018. Five years after the restructuring, half of the companies were still active, giving employment to 47% of their workforce before restructuring. Ten years later, the share was even much lower: a quarter of companies were still alive with a fifth of their previous staff. For the daily Delo, the economist Matjaž Koman commented on the results that state aid usually comes too late when companies are already on the brink of collapse.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Does not apply to workers		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

Unknown

Views and reactions

Unknown

Sources

• 18 February 2022: Act Governing Rescue and Restructuring Aid for Companies and Cooperatives in Difficulty (ZPRPGDZT) (www.pisrs.si)
• 25 May 2022: Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Slovenia, Twenty-first annual report on state aids for years 2017, 2018, 2019 and 202 (www.gov.si)