New EU funding programmes favour SMEs

Viktor Zoltán Kovács, the head of K&H’s SME marketing division told Trade magazine that in the new budgetary period (2014-2020) SMEs can profit the most from European Union funding programmes. From the Economic Development and Innovation Operative Programme (GINOP) mainly complex projects – R&D activity, job creation, renewable energy use – will be financed. He added that because of the Partnership Agreement Hungary had signed combined loans (EU funding + loan) will be most widely available to SMEs in the current cycle. However, in the programmes announced the previous week there are still non-refundable funding opportunities. The most important ones for the sector are available from 9 July: they can be used for capacity expansion; funding intensity is 35-50 percent.