Reorientation support for Swedish companies

Priority question for written answer  P-000966/2021
to the Commission
Rule 138
Jörgen Warborn (PPE)

The Swedish Government has introduced reorientation support for companies whose turnover has fallen as a result of the pandemic. As the support qualifies as State aid under the EU’s rules, the Swedish Government had to ask the Commission to approve it before it could start to be paid out.

The Commission has now approved the Swedish Government’s proposal to extend reorientation support for August 2020–February 2021. The Swedish Government decided in November 2020 – because it wanted to wait for the second wave of the pandemic – to apply for new reorientation support. In the eyes of those in Sweden’s hotel and restaurant industry, among others, that decision came far too late, as they had received no support since July 2020.

In the light of the foregoing:

If the Swedish Government applied in November 2020, how is it that, in the midst of a pandemic, the Commission only took a decision on the support in February 2021?