Answer given by Executive Vice-President Vestager on behalf of the European Commission

The Commission adopted the Temporary Framework[1] in March 2020 and has revised it five times to-date to enable Member States to grant aid to undertakings, including self-employed persons, who suffered a liquidity shortage during the COVID-19 outbreak. Indeed, the Temporary Framework contains measures that specifically refer to self-employed individuals, such as aid in form of deferrals of tax and/or of social security contributions and aid for the income of self-employed individuals for whom the adoption of national measures in response to the COVID-19 outbreak resulted in the suspension or reduction of their business activity.

At the same time, the decision to grant state aid lies with the relevant Member State. The Commission has approved the notified aid scheme[2], referred to by the Honourable Members, in line with the conditions of the Temporary Framework. It is a competence of the Member State to define the eligible beneficiaries under the notified aid scheme.

An updated list of Commission decisions approving Member State support measures can be found on the Commission’s website[3].

• [1] Communication from the Commission — Temporary framework for state aid measures to support the economy in the current COVID-19 outbreak, (OJ C 91I, 20.3.2020, p. 1), as amended by Commission Communications C(2020) 2215 (OJ C 112I, 4.4.2020, p. 1), C(2020) 3156 (OJ C 164, 13.5.2020, p. 3), C(2020) 4509 (OJ C 218, 2.7.2020, p. 3), C(2020) 7127 (OJ C 340I, 13.10.2020, p. 1) and C(2021) 564 (OJ C 34, 1.2.2021, p. 6).
• [2] SA.59758 Modification of the state aid scheme SA.56996 (2020/N) — Poland COVID-19: repayable advance scheme for micro, small and mediumsized enterprises
• [3] https://ec.europa.eu/competition/state_aid/what_is_new/State_aid_decisions_TF_and_107_2b_107_3b_107_3c.pdf