Coronavirus - Government measures in key jurisdictions - Flipbook - Page 10
Belgium
Pieter Van den Broeck | Pieter.VandenBroeck@monardlaw.be | +32 (0)3/286 79 40
Ava Tu | ava.tu@monardlaw.be | +32 (0)2/234 67 10
Contributor: Monard Law
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Loans and
financial
support
Has the
government put
in place any new
bank funding
schemes?
2
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Employment
•
In Belgium, the federal and regional governments have put in place numerous
financial support measures. Such measures include one-off compensation to
enterprises which are required to temporarily close down (such as the hotels and
restaurants), deferral payment of bank loans, government guarantees, and other
measures oriented to support specific sectors or SMEs.
•
At the federal level, the federal government decided to allow a deferral of payment for
existing credits, including mortgages for households and corporate loans for viable
non-financial enterprises, SMEs, self-employed persons and non-profit organizations.
The deferral can be requested for a maximum period of 6 months for payments due
(ending on 31 October 2020). In addition, in respect of new loans granted between
1 April 2020 and 30 September 2020 for a maximum term of one year, the federal
government provides guarantees and undertakes sharing of losses with the financial
sector. For more details on this topic, please refer to our Corona Desk website.
•
At the regional level, in Flanders, the coverage of PMV (Flemish corona crisis guarantee)
has been extended. PMV can now also grant medium-term subordinated loans to
healthy SMEs for a term of 3 years. The repayment of following loans: start-up loans
‘startlening’, the so-called ‘Co-financiering’ and ‘Co-financiering +’ can be automatically
deferred for 3 months. In addition, enterprises with government grant can also request
extension of deadlines with VLAIO (the Flanders Innovation and Entrepreneurship).
•
In the Brussels-Capital Region, the enterprises can request loans with reduced interest
rate from Finance and Invest Brussels. Emergency loan start-up investment fund can
provide loans for cultural and creative enterprises. In addition, Brussels Waarborgfonds
(Brussels guarantee fund) also can provide guarantees on bank loans.
•
In the Walloon Region, there are also similar support measures provided by SRIW,
SOWALFIN and Groep SOGEPA (guarantees, loans and deferrals).
•
Employers in non-essential businesses must guarantee teleworking and/or social
distancing for their employees. If this is not possible, the company must close.
In that case, the employees can apply for “temporary unemployment” (“tijdelijke
werkloosheid”/ “chômage temporaire”). Temporary unemployment can also
be invoked, for instance, if the company suddenly has insufficient work for its
employees, if an employee is not able to find childcare for his/her children or if an
employee has been put in quarantine abroad. In addition to a very flexible scope
of application, the Belgian authorities have also significantly eased the application
procedure. The employee will receive an allowance of 70% of his average salary
(capped), and the government will grant a supplement of 5.63 euro per day.
•
Self-employed persons can rely on a “bridging right” (“overbruggingsrecht”, “droit
passerelle”), which has also been made more flexible in the context of the COVID-19
crisis. Are eligible: self-employed who are obliged to cease their activities (in whole
or in part) or self-employed who are practically forced to cease their activities for
at least 7 consecutive calendar days. The monthly allowance amounts to 1,291.69
without family charge and 1,614.10 with family charge. The authorities also provide for
premiums: the “nuisance premium” if the company was obliged to close completely
(one-off 4,000 euro or 5,000 euro and possibly an additional daily premium of 160
euro, depending on the region) or the “compensation premium” (one-off 3,000 euro)
if the company is still active but suffers a heavy loss of turnover. For the relevant
topics, please refer to section Personnel at our Corona Desk website.
What financial
support is the
government
providing to
businesses and
to individuals
on employment
issues?
Government measures in key jurisdictions
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