EU and national funding

Who it is for

Small and medium-sized companies in Bistrița-Năsăud county with an investment in mind and no clear view of whether public money can reach it. Also companies that have already been rejected once and do not know why.

We work with national programmes, the regional programme for the North-West region, and European programmes managed directly by the Commission.

How it works

1. Eligibility check half a working day, before anything else [?]

   Six checks that decide everything else: whether the activity code is authorised at the location concerned, whether there is a completed financial year, whether there was an operating profit in the reference year, whether there are arrears to the state or local budget, whether the company qualifies as an undertaking in difficulty, and how much de minimis headroom is left. The last one is checked in the Romanian State Aid Register, not from memory.

2. Matching one to two working days [?]

   We compare the planned investment against the calls that are open or announced. The output is short: which calls the company fits, which it does not, and what would have to change for it to fit.

3. The decision one meeting

   Whether to submit or not. We say no when the answer is no. A rejected file costs the company weeks of work and the accountant's time, and it costs us the relationship.

4. The application file depends on the call

   Writing the application, assembling the supporting documents, and submission in the electronic system used by the programme. We tell you at the start which documents only you can obtain, so that they are not the reason the deadline is missed.

5. After submission until contracting

   Answering clarification requests, which arrive with short deadlines, and the documents required at contracting stage.

What it does not include

• Any guarantee that the application will be approved. Nobody can offer that, and an adviser who does is telling you something else as well.
• Accounting services or the preparation of financial statements.
• Implementation of the investment once financed.
• Procurement carried out on your behalf during implementation.

What it is based on

On the applicant's guide of each call, which always takes precedence, and on the general rules that apply across calls. The most important of those general rules is the de minimis ceiling.

A single undertaking may not receive more than 300,000 euro in de minimis aid over any three-year period. Two details matter more than the figure. "Single undertaking" covers linked companies, so a group of small companies under the same control shares one ceiling. And the three-year period is rolling, assessed continuously, not counted in completed financial years, which is the assumption that causes most surprises.

Calls are published by the Ministry of European Investment and Projects, by the North-West Regional Development Agency for the regional programme, and on the European Commission's Funding and Tenders portal for programmes managed directly. We do not keep a calendar of calls on this site, because it would be out of date within weeks.