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Details of Austria's support measures to help citizens and companies during the significant economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Commission has adopted support measures under the state aid Temporary Framework and EU state aid rules. These measures aim to help citizens and companies and mitigate the significant economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic:

  • on 14 January 2022, the Commission approved a €60 million wage subsidy scheme to support seasonal businesses affected by the coronavirus pandemic and the mandatory closure measures imposed to prevent the spread of the virus. This public support aims to help seasonal businesses cover their wage costs, resume their activities and avoid lay-offs.

  • on 3 September 2021, the Commission approved a €1.6 million scheme to support publicly owned micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises in the Salzburg region active in the pool and wellness sectors affected by the restrictive measures implemented to limit the spread of the coronavirus. Under the scheme, the aid, in the form of direct grants, aims to mitigate the sudden liquidity shortages the companies are facing due to the coronavirus outbreak.

  • on 5 July 2021, the Commission approved a scheme to compensate events organisers that had to cancel or restrict  events scheduled to take place between 1 July 2021 and 31 December 2022 due to the measures implemented to limit the spread of the virus. The support is open to businesses of all sizes active in Austria.

  • on 3 June 2021, the Commission approved a €95 million wage subsidy scheme to support companies affected by the coronavirus outbreak. Under the state aid Temporary Framework, the public support, in the form of a bonus, is open to companies in sectors particularly affected by the restrictive measures imposed by the government to limit the spread of the virus, such as hospitality. The aim of the scheme is to support employees and help preserve jobs.

  • on 5 February 2021, the Commission approved, under EU state aid rules, a €300 million Austrian scheme for package travel organisers and facilitators in the context of the coronavirus outbreak. The aid, in the form of state guarantees, covers 100% of the beneficiaries' liability for travel services that could not be provided entirely or partially due to the coronavirus outbreak, in the specific instance when the beneficiaries become insolvent.

  • on 19 January 2021, under EU state aid rules, a €300 million Austrian scheme to support event organisers affected by the coronavirus outbreak. Under the state aid Temporary Framework, the scheme aims to provide economic assistance to all undertakings (including the self-employed, associations and institutions) whose activities will be cancelled or restricted until December 2022 due to the coronavirus outbreak. The measure aims to encourage operators to restart their planning and organising activities.

  • on 26 November, under EU State aid rules, three Austrian measuressupporting the rail freight and passenger sectors, in the context of the coronavirus outbreak. Two measures supporting the rail freight sector are to ensure increased public support, to further encourage the shift of freight traffic from road to rail, and the third measure introduces temporary relief for rail operators providing passenger services on a commercial basis. These measures are expected to contribute to rail transport operators maintaining their competitiveness compared to other transport modes, and benefit the environment while decreasing congestion.

  • on 23 November, the second phase of an Austrian scheme to support the uncovered fixed costs of companies affected by the coronavirus outbreak. Under the state aid Temporary Framework, the aid, in the form of direct grants, aims to provide economic assistance to all businesses, self-employed individuals, associations and institutions, to keep them solvent and bridge liquidity shortages related to the coronavirus outbreak. The measure is a country-wide scheme and, together with the first phase of the scheme already approved by the Commission in May 2020 (SA.57291), has a total estimated budget of around €12 billion.

  • on  18 September 2020, certain amendments to a previously approved Austrian liquidity assistance scheme to support Austrian enterprises affected by the coronavirus outbreak to be in line with the State aid Temporary Framework. The original scheme was approved on 8 April 2020 under case number SA.56840, and provides for temporary limited amounts of aid in the form of (i) direct grants, (ii) guarantees on loans and repayable advances, and (iii) guarantees on loans and subsidised interest rates on loans. The aim of the original scheme was to enable enterprises affected by the coronavirus outbreak to cover their short-term liabilities, despite the current loss of revenues caused by the pandemic. Austria notified certain modifications to the original scheme, in particular: (i)micro or small enterprises can now benefit from the measure even if they were considered in difficulty on 31 December 2019, under certain conditions; and (ii)an increase of €4 billion in the total budget of the scheme, from €15 billion to €19 billion.

  • on 10 September 2020, a €120 million Austrian scheme to support companies in Lower Austria affected by the coronavirus outbreak. The scheme will provide public support in  the form of direct grants, guarantees and subordinated loans with subsidised interest rates. The measure is open to companies of all sizes active in all sectors, except the financial, agriculture, fishery and aquaculture sectors. The aim of the measure is to facilitate access to external financing by the beneficiaries and to mitigate the sudden liquidity shortages.

  • on 6 August 2020, a €665 million Austrian scheme to support non-profit organisations (NPOs) and their related entities in the context of the coronavirus outbreak. The support will be granted by a fund established by the Austrian Government for this specific purpose and will be available to all types and sizes of non-profit organisations, with a few exceptions (e.g. financial sector and political parties). Under the scheme, aid will take the form of direct grants to non-profit organisations and their related entities, with the aim of providing the liquidity support necessary to preserve their activities.

  • on 6 July 2020, an Austrian €150 million subordinated loan (convertible into a grant) in favour of Austrian Airlines AG to be in line with EU State aid rules. The measure aims at partly compensating the airline for the damages suffered due to the coronavirus outbreak. Austrian Airlines, which is part of the Lufthansa Group, is a major network airline operating in Austria. With a fleet of over 82 planes, Austrian Airlines served 130 destinations all over the world in 2019, carrying about 14.7 million passengers from its main hub, Vienna, and other airports to various international destinations. Since the start of the coronavirus outbreak, Austrian Airlines has suffered a significant reduction of its services, resulting in high operating losses.

  • on 6 July 2020, under the Temporary Framework, two Austrian individual aid measures to support two coronavirus-relevant research and development (R&D) projects by micro biotech companies, Apeptico and Panoptes. The aid will take the form of (i) a direct grant of approximately €840,000 to Apeptico and (ii) a direct grant of €1.2 million to Panoptes. It will support two R&D projects aiming at assessing the therapeutic potential of two medicinal products developed by Apeptico and Panoptes for the treatment of coronavirus patients. The aim of the measures is therefore to enhance and accelerate the development of coronavirus treatments.

  • an €8 billion Austrian scheme to compensate companies for damages related to the coronavirus outbreak to be in line with EU State aid rules. Under the scheme, undertakings will be entitled to compensation for certain damages suffered as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. As notified by Austria, the compensation, in the form of direct grants, can cover a maximum of 75% of fixed costs incurred during a limited period of three months, with a maximum amount of €90 million per group. The Commission assessed the measure under Article 107(2)(b) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), which enables the Commission to approve State aid measures granted by Member States to compensate specific companies or sectors for damage directly caused by exceptional occurrences.

  • several regional aid schemes by the Austrian States (Länder) of Carinthia, Styria, Tyrol, Upper Austria and Vienna to (i) support companies in the context of the coronavirus outbreak and/or (ii) support investment in research and development (R&D), testing and production of products that are relevant to the coronavirus outbreak, including vaccines, ventilators and personal protective equipment. The measures were approved under the State aid Temporary Framework adopted by the Commission on 19 March 2020, as amended on 3 April and 8 May 2020. Under the schemes notified by Austria, the support will take the form of direct grants, equity contributions and advance payments. The purpose of the schemes is to help companies tackle the liquidity shortages they face as a result of the outbreak. Furthermore, some of the measures aim at enhancing and accelerating both the development and the production of products directly relevant to the coronavirus outbreak.

  • on 17 April Austrian guarantee schemes to support Austrian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the context of the coronavirus outbreak. The schemes will provide guarantees on working capital loans that will enable those SMEs to cover their short-term liabilities, despite the current loss of revenues caused by the pandemic. The schemes complement the €15 billion Austrian liquidity scheme that the Commission approved on 8 April 2020. The schemes will provide 100% guarantees for underlying loans up to an amount of €500,000 (except for the agricultural and the fisheries and aquaculture sectors, where the 100% guarantees are limited to underlying loans up to an amount of €100,000 and €120,000, respectively). For loans above those thresholds, the schemes will provide 90% guarantees for underlying loans up of €25 million. The schemes were approved under the State aid Temporary Framework adopted by the Commission on 19 March 2020, as amended on 3 April 2020.

  • 9 April, under the Temporary Framework, an Austrian liquidity scheme to support the economy in the context of the coronavirus outbreak. The scheme is Austria-wide, targeted at all companies, and allows for the provision of aid in the form of: (i) Direct grants, repayable advances and guarantees with a maximum of €800 000; (ii) State guarantees for loans subject to safeguards for banks to channel State aid to the real economy; (iii) Subsidised public loans to companies, with favourable interest rates. The measure allows aid to be granted by COFAG (COVID-19 Finanzierungsagentur des Bundes GmbH), which is a special purpose vehicle to grant liquidity assistance measures. Aid is granted under the measure either directly or, if it concerns guarantees on loans or subsidised public loans, through credit institutions and other financial institutions as financial intermediaries.