Action 1 ‘Green Transformation of SMEs’

The Action promotes investment projects aimed at the utilisation and development of modern technologies, the upgrading of the products and/or services and their activities, by subsidising actions that utilise modern technologies, infrastructure, and best practices in energy upgrading and circular economy.

Application opening date: Wednesday 22/03/2023 at 12:00

Minimum/maximum subsidised budge: €200,001 to €1,000,000

Action Budget: €300,000,000

Public Expenditure is co-funded by the EU’s European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and national funds. For reasons of greater complementarity, financing is achieved using the Joint Support (Article 25 Regulation (EU) 2021/1060) for the financing of interventions that fall within the scope of ESF+ aid.

Budget allocation per regional category:

• €66,000,000 for transition regions: Attica and South Aegean
• €234,000,000 for less developed regions: North Aegean, Eastern Macedonia – Thrace, Central Macedonia, Epirus, Thessaly, Western Greece, Crete, Western Macedonia, Ionian Islands, Central Greece, Peloponnese

Beneficiaries: Existing micro, small and medium-sized enterprises which, prior to the electronic submission of the funding application, must meet the following conditions:

• Have at least one (1) fully-closed financial year,
• Substantially operate (main activity code or activity code with a greater revenue) in one (1) eligible activity code included in Annex III AID ELIGIBLE ACTIVITY CODES under REGULATION EU 1407/2013 (DE MINIMIS) or AID ELIGIBLE ACTIVITY CODES under REGULATION EU 651/2014,
• Have the eligible investment activity code(s) of Annex III AID ELIGIBLE ACTIVITY CODES under REGULATION EU 1407/2013 (DE MINIMIS) or AID ELIGIBLE ACTIVITY CODES under REGULATION EU 651/2014.
• Have at least three (3) annual work units (AWU) of dependent work in the calendar year preceding the submission of the funding application,

In addition, work on the investment plan should not have commenced prior to the submission of the funding application.

All the requirements for beneficiary participation are presented in detail in the Action Call.

Eligible Expenditure

• Buildings, facilities and surrounding areas
• Machinery – Equipment (contractual expenditure)
• Equipment (GREEN)
• Product Certification – Services – Procedures
• Packaging – Label – Branding Design Services
• Promotion and Extroversion Expenditure
• Participation in trade fairs
• Technical Studies & Consulting Services
• Means of Transport (GREEN) – Mandatory electric
• Payroll cost of new employees – (new personnel from 1 to 3 AWUs)
• Indirect expenditure

The eligible expenditure commencement date is defined as the electronic submission date of the funding application.

Application Submission Procedure

The funding application is electronically submitted by potential beneficiaries via the Integrated State Aid Management Information System (OPSKE), by using the standard OPSKE Funding Application Form (ANNEX ΙΙ FUNDING APPLICATION FORM TEMPLATE).

A funding application can be submitted for only one of the actions Action 1 ‘Green Transformation of SMEs’ and Action 2 ‘Green Productive Investment of SMEs’.

Beneficiaries who have already submitted a funding application for Action 2 ‘Green Productive Investment of SMEs’ or whose application has already been approved for that action are not entitled to submit an application for the current Action. Beneficiaries acquire the right to submit a funding application for this action in the event that the application that they lodged for the other Action is rejected or voluntarily withdrawn and they have not lodged an appeal or have voluntarily withdrawn the submitted appeal.

Every funding application will be evaluated in order of priority, pursuant to the date/time of the (final) electronic submission to OPSKE.

The Action Call will remain open for the submission of application until the budget per category of the region is exhausted, provided the relevant state aid regulations (651/2014, 1407/2013) remain in effect, incremented by 20% per category of the region.

Call for funding proposal