Background information

On 7 July 2021, the Parliament adopted the ninth COVID-19 law (ZIUPGT). It aims at supporting the economy affected by the pandemic due to confinement measures that prevented companies from operating their economic activity or a specific and severable part of their activity. Apart from a set of measures to sustain the sectors most hit by the pandemic – read more on the Eurofound website, Case SI-2020-18/908 –, this measure addresses the film and audiovisual industry specifically.

Content of measure

The measure gives special support to film and audiovisual producers. Reimbursements may cover 25% of direct costs for film production incurred between July and December 2021. However, not eligible are expenses for legal help, representation, producer’s provision and purchase of basic equipment. The measure also excludes marketing and economic propaganda.

Beneficiaries must comply with the following rules:

• Company was registered in the Slovenian Business Register in motion picture, video and television programme production (and postproduction) activities.
• Company is not a 'firm in difficulty', as defined in Regulation (EU) No 651/2014 and related documents (excluded are micro and small companies).
• Company is not partially or predominantly financed by the state budget.
• Applicant has no fine for a serious tax offence or criminal record (with the exemption of suspended sentence but not the sentence due to negligence).
• Company is not in an insolvency procedure or compulsory settlement.
• Company has no outstanding debt with the Financial Administration higher than €50.

Funding decisions must be made for each film or audiovisual work separately.

Use of measure

The Ministry of Culture administers the measure and is assigned the task to issue detailed rules on eligibility criteria and eligible costs. Funds will be distributed via a public call taking into account the ‘cultural meaning’ of the work ‘for Slovenia or the other EU Member States,’ participation of Slovenian creators and the utilization of Slovenian production and postproduction facilities.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Does not apply to workers	Sector specific set of companies	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government	European Funds National funds

Social partners

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

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	No involvement	Consulted
Form	Not applicable	Direct consultation outside a formal body

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

• No involvement
• Main level of involvement: Peak or cross-sectoral level

Involvement

The ninth COVID-19 law was adopted without the Economic and Social Council (ESS) involvement. Trade unions left ESS on 14 May 2021, accusing the government of breaching the rules on tripartite social dialogue and sending laws to the parliament without prior negotiations in ESS. Apart from procedural breaches, tax reform was one of the content-related issues which drove trade unions into conflict with the government. They oppose the introduction of the social security cap and other ‘tax gifts’ on the ground that tax cuts would generate a hole in tax revenues and jeopardize social services. They announced the escalation of social conflicts in the following months.

Views and reactions

Employer organizations proposed a one-time grant for all companies, partially or fully prevented from operating their economic activities due to confinement measures. Their proposal was not accepted. Not accepted were also their proposals to extent temporary layoff scheme (see [Eurofound website, Case SI-2020-11/436] (https://static.eurofound.europa.eu/covid19db/cases/SI-2020-11_436.html)) and a €50 reimbursement of the minimum wage (see [Eurofound website, Case SI-2021-1/1781] (https://static.eurofound.europa.eu/covid19db/cases/SI-2021-1_1781.html) until 31 December 2021.

Sectors and occupations

This case is not occupation-specific.

Sources

• 01 July 2021: Representative employer organizations, Press Releas (www.zds.si)
• 07 July 2021: Zakon o interventnih ukrepih za pomoč gospodarstvu in turizmu pri omilitvi posledic epidemije COVID-19 (Act Determining Intervention Measures to Assist Economy and Tourism in Mitigating the Consequences of the COVID-19 Epidemic, ZIUPGT (www.iusinfo.si)