On 1 April 2019, the Greek Parliament passed a new bill (Law 4605/2019 ) which includes amendments to Law 89/1967 on the establishment of branches in Greece by foreign companies, including in relation to allowed business activities and incentives on state aid.
With respect to state aid the new Law includes amendments for the introduction of new aid for qualifying branches that will be provided as cash grants, including support for research and development projects equal to:
- 50% of eligible expenditure for industrial research, limited to EUR 20 million per project;
- 25% of eligible expenditure for experimental development, limited to EUR 15 million per project;
- 50% of eligible expenditure for feasibility studies, with a maximum of € 7.5 million per study; and
- Aid for the purchase of IT equipment and software amounting to 50% of the eligible expenditure, which can be limited to EUR 200,000 over a three-year period
Accordingly, the aid funding shall be granted annually for a period of five years from the date of the decision to grant the aid. Existing branches of foreign and Greek companies operating under Law 89/1967 may also qualify for the aid if they develop a new activity which was not carried out in Greece for two years before the application for aid was granted Activity creates a minimum number of new jobs.
However, an application for aid must be submitted by 28 June 2019. It is possible that an existing branch developed the new activity before the application, but not before 1 January 2019.
