The ESPA "Extroversion of Small and Medium Enterprises" has been pre-published
On Monday, January 20, 2025, the new action of the ESPA titled "Outward-looking Small and Medium Enterprises" of the "Competitiveness" Programme was announced, which encourages investment plans aiming at the exploitation and development of modern technologies, the upgrading of products or services provided, and generally their activities with the aim of improving the competitiveness and outward orientation of businesses, their integration into international value chains, and strengthening the international presence of their products, through participation in trade fairs organized abroad within the EU and in third countries.
The budget for this action amounts to €200,000,000, while the minimum budget for each investment plan is set at €80,000. The total grantable budget of the investment plan cannot exceed the highest turnover achieved in one of the three (or fewer if the business has not completed three) financial years preceding the submission of the funding application, with a maximum grant ceiling of €200,000.
Participation Conditions
The basic participation conditions for potentially beneficiary businesses are as follows:
- To carry out the investment exclusively in one Region.
- To have at least two (2) complete closed financial years before the electronic submission date of the funding application
- To operate substantially (Main KAD or KAD with higher revenues) in one (1) eligible KAD activity, before the electronic submission date of the funding application which relates to products the business wishes to promote through participation in trade fairs.
- To have the eligible KAD for investment of this call before the electronic submission of the funding application.
- To already develop export activity with at least 2% of the annual turnover coming from exports of products they produce/process or intend to develop export activity within the implementation period of the plan.
- To have at least one (1) FTE in the calendar year preceding the submission of the funding application.
- To operate legally.
- No commencement of works for the investment plan before the submission of the funding application.
- To operate exclusively as companies of corporate/commercial nature.
- To meet the conditions for applying Regulation (EU) 2023/2831 (OJ EL L 15.12.2023) of the European Commission dated December 13, 2023 (De Minimis).
It is noted that the eligible categories of business activities (KAD) and the full set of participation conditions will be defined in the Detailed Call for Proposals of the Action.
Grant Rates
Grants under this Action will be provided under the framework of the De Minimis Regulation.
| Grant Intensity Based on EU Regulation 2023/2831 (De Minimis) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| For all Regions of the Country | (1) Public Grant for Small, Very Small and Medium-sized Enterprises | (2) Private Contribution (%) of column (1) | (3) Additional Public Grant Percentage (20%), of column (with an export increase of at least 20%) | (4) Private Contribution (%) of column (3) |
| 40% | 60% | 60% | 40% | |
The grant percentage can receive a graduated increase up to 20% upon inclusion of the investment plan, which will be allocated at each stage of certification of the physical and financial object, depending on the export target the company commits to.
The increase is confirmed if the increase in exports is realized and certified during the final verification stage, and in any case, the maximum grant limit cannot exceed €200,000.
Eligible Expenses
| A/A | EXPENSE CATEGORY | INDICATIVE MAXIMUM LIMIT |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | PERSONNEL EXPENSES | |
| Salary cost of newly hired staff (up to 1 FTE) | Up to €17,000 With the use of common support (Article 25 EU REG 1060/) | |
| 2 | EQUIPMENT EXPENSES | |
| Production & Mechanical Equipment | From 20%-50% of the grantable budget | |
| Environmental Protection and Energy Saving Equipment | Up to 20% of the grantable budget | |
| Office Digital Equipment | ||
| 3 | SERVICE PROVISION EXPENSES | |
| Cost of consultancy services provided by external advisors (e.g., market research for identifying opportunities in foreign markets) | Up to 3% of the grantable budget | |
| Services for the procurement/use of Software under "Software as a Service", "cloud computing" or similar | Up to 20% of the grantable budget | |
| Expenses for providing product or process development studies | Up to 40% of the grantable budget | |
| Certification of services & processes according to national, harmonized, as well as other European and international standards | Up to 3 certificates and up to €3,000 per certificate | |
| Packaging Design – Label – Branding Services | Up to 10% of the grantable budget | |
| Intellectual Property – Patents – Technology Transfer | Up to 40% of the grantable budget | |
| 4 | SOFTWARE EXPENSES | |
| Software for developing an e-shop with international sales capabilities. Integration of electronic payment systems for international transactions. CRM software for managing customer relationships at an international level. Participation in B2B digital platforms and software license rights. | Up to 60% of the grantable budget | |
| 5 | PROMOTION, MARKETING & NETWORKING EXPENSES | Up to 40% of the grantable budget |
| Participation in Trade Fairs in Greece and abroad | Up to €15,000 | |
| Other Promotion – Marketing and Networking Expenses | Up to 10% of the grantable budget | |
| 6 | INDIRECT EXPENSES | MANDATORY CATEGORY |
| Indirect Expenses 7% on eligible direct costs of the investment plan | (Article 54, Reg. 1060/2021) With the use of common support (Article 25 EU REG 1060/2021) |
The eligibility date for expenses starts from the date of submission of the funding application.
Submission & Evaluation of Funding Applications
Funding applications will be submitted through the Integrated Information System for State Aid Management (IISAM).
The deadline and method of submission, required documents, obligations of the beneficiaries, implementation terms, as well as the submission period for funding applications will be specified in the Ministerial Decision of the Detailed Call.
For the evaluation of the Action, Comparative Evaluation will be applied.
Indicatively, they may include:
- the description, clarity, completeness, and sustainability of the investment plan
- the change in Turnover, sales of goods and services abroad, and operational Profitability
- the level of existing international presence/experience
- the adequacy of corporate infrastructures and human resources for serving international sales/activities
- the size of the grantable budget of the proposed investment in relation to the Turnover of the company
- the assurance of Private Contribution with grading of the availability of Partner/Shareholder Capital
- the realism of the implementation timeline.
The maximum implementation duration cannot exceed 24 months, from the date of the Inclusion Decision issuance.
You can see the pre-publication in detail here.
And the action page here.