European Union Approves Romania’s Plan to Help Hospitality Sector with EUR 500 Million

European Union announced on Thursday, April 15, that Romania’s plan to help hospitality sector was approved.

Is it too late? It is, especially for all those who closed their business or went bankrupt during the pandemic. Yet, we can finally see now it was not the Romanian Government’s delay, but the European Union’s.

Romanian authorities plan on helping the surviving companies in the hospitality sector, namely the hotels, restaurants and travel agencies, with up to 20% of their difference in revenues between 2019 and 2020 when the sector was closed most of the time. Some say it is too little, too late, but at least the owners get some help.

The Romanian Government helped the hospitality companies during the pandemic as well, by paying 75% of the net salaries for the hospitality employees who entered technical unemployment scheme. This was not enough for two reasons: the employees in hospitality live mostly from tips and have their salaries very small. Moreover, apart from the fact that the owners had to cover the remaining 25% of the net salaries, they also had to pay the taxes reported to the net salaries, but also the other taxes which hadn’t been suspended.

On the other hand, the Government increased the fines for those restaurants which doesn’t obey the mandatory rules for prevention. The measures even include closing or removing the license the restaurant for a period of time if the rules are not obeyed accordingly.