Iulian Sorescu, Noerr: “The authorities should launch a dedicated state aid scheme for the R&D industry”

“In addition to obtaining state aid for companies, our role is also to educate the business environment; to explain these state aid schemes to everyone. The most important thing is not to miss opportunities, to know what state aid schemes exist now and what will be in the future, so that when you have investment projects you can receive funding for them.

We are right at the end of a cycle that ended last year and the beginning of a new state aid cycle. Some schemes have already started to be prepared, others are mature, they are ready.

We have a state aid scheme for investors in the production side, so any company carrying out productive activities can apply, and the window opens on July 29,” Iulian Sorescu, Partner and state aid expert, Noerr said at Automotive R&D Power Breakfast organized by Automotive Today.

“Until last year there was also the 332 scheme for job creation. These companies or companies that had labour intensive projects, that produced a lot of jobs, they could receive 50-60 percent of salary costs for 2 years. We are also looking forward to this state aid scheme being available, precisely to be able to support companies.

In addition to the schemes discussed, there is also the scheme from the Ministry of Economy, which is a draft, for which certain fields of activity are financed. There are green energy financing schemes, so financing the installation of photovoltaic panels on production halls. There are recycling schemes, there is a lot of money available, but it is important to know that this money exists.

That IPCEI project, of strategic European interest, will contribute to the progress of research and development in Romania.

Through such projects Romania takes a very important step towards research and development.

Indeed, these projects put the authorities in difficulty because it is a new field, because you have to explain to them what research and development means, you have to prepare new state aid schemes, you have to prepare technical guides to suit these projects.

Even if the projects have been approved by the European Union, they must be financed through the PNRR. And it is complicated to explain to the authorities to understand the rules and come up with some state aid schemes to exactly fit the project, but we are very close to having these projects approved and we want such funding schemes to be extended to various other areas. We would like a dedicated state aid scheme for the R&D industry. A scheme that will remain valid in the future, a scheme that will have a much larger budget. We would like these budgets to be adapted to the investment level of 2024 and for the following years, respectively the ceilings of 150 million euros to be notified to the Commission and to be increased so that players from the automotive industry and other industries can have access to such financings.”