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Law360 (March 30, 2020, 6:27 PM EDT) -- Europe's antitrust watchdog has given France the go-ahead on a €1.2 billion ($1.3 billion) aid plan to help small businesses and the self-employed stay afloat as the novel coronavirus pandemic hammers the country's economy.
The funds will go toward helping small business and "micro-enterprises" defray the cost of operation while business is hurting, which the European Commission lauded Monday as "yet another example of our close cooperation with member states to ensure effective and timely support to the economy in these difficult times."
The grants will go out to companies with no more than 10 employees and annual gross revenues not exceeding €1 million, the commission said. Eligible businesses will have been shuttered by a government decision or have seen at least a 70% dip in revenue this month compared to the same period the year before.
More than 3,000 people in France have died from COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University, which has been tracking the global spread of the pandemic. As of Monday afternoon, France had confirmed more than 45,000 cases of the disease.
France wasn't the only country to get an aid scheme approved by the commission Monday. The competition enforcer also blessed Denmark's plan to put €130 million ($143 million) toward small- and medium-sized business support during the outbreak.
The French and Danish plans are the latest in a slew of aid schemes to be approved by the commission as countries try to slow the economic free fall brought on by the health crisis. Other approvals include funds to help companies in hard-hit Italy manufacture ventilators and other needed medical supplies, and economic support measures in Portugal and Germany.
Nearly 400,000 people across the continent have been stricken with the disease, now more than half of the total cases worldwide, and more than 25,000 people have died.
With businesses across Europe shuttered as countries work to keep the populace at home, the European Commission recently unveiled a temporary framework aimed at making it easier for member states to prop up their economies as they work to prevent the new coronavirus from further spreading in their states.
Noting that the "entire EU economy is experiencing a serious disturbance," the commission said the new framework will allow states to "use the full flexibility foreseen under state aid rules to support the economy in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak."
The framework creates an outline for several types of state aid, including state-guaranteed business loans, subsidized loans that see the government take on part of the interest, direct grants and tax advantages, that the commission hopes will keep member state economies afloat.
"In particular, they can adopt measures that fall outside the scope of state aid control, such as national funds granted to health services or other public services to tackle ... COVID-19," the commission said.
--Editing by Bruce Goldman.
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