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 meeting and events industry specifically.

Content of measure

The measure helps organizers of events (conferences, concerts, fairs and the like) with the partial reimbursement of expenses due to cancellation or limited realization of events. Events should be planned for the period between 1 August and 31 December 2021. Their total costs should be at least €10,000 worth.

Organizers are entitled to 80% reimbursement of costs in case of cancellation and 60% in case of limited realization of events. Only expenses incurred from 13 March 2020 onwards and directly connected to the organization of the event are eligible.

Beneficiaries must comply with the following rules:

• Company was registered in the Slovenian Business Register on the day it submits a request for partial reimbursement of costs.
• Company carries out activities in one of the following sectors: hotels and similar accommodation, travel agency activities, tour operator activities, other reservation service and related activities, organisation of conventions and trade shows, support activities to performing arts, activities of sports clubs, and other sports 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.

The measure excludes national and international champions leagues, political, school, and private events. It also excludes events not taking into account restriction measures when they were planned.

Companies meet the definition of a ‘limited realization’ when, due to confinement measures, they had less than 50% of attendants or had to organize events virtually.

Use of measure

The Ministry of Economic Development and Technology administers the measure. Companies must send requests to the Ministry of Economy for each event separately.

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)