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After disagreements with the EU Commission on the extension and expansion of the fixed-cost subsidy, the Minister of Finance and the main candidate of the ÖVP for the Vienna elections, Gernot Blümel, was invited to a meeting with the representative of the Commission from the EU in Vienna, Martin Selmayr. This was due to a legally incorrect notification request from Blümels. Today is the last day for an application.
“If the notification is done today as suggested by Ms. (Economic Commissioner Margrethe, note) Vestager last Friday, then it will be done tomorrow,” Selmayr said. A corresponding request was made “if three smart people get together in half an hour.” It is up to the Ministry of Finance and the Commission “to do that this afternoon.” There are three possible solutions, including “if it was pretty tight last day.”
The EU Commission representative literally tore up Blümel’s original request, which Blümel, and also Tourism Minister Elisabeth Köstinger (ÖVP), who was also present, did not like it at all. The notification should have been “more differentiated” and should not have been based on comparability with a natural disaster, as was still possible with the first application during the blackout period.
Argument from a severe economic crisis rather than a natural disaster
“We no longer have a confinement,” argued Selmayr. For now, the vast majority of sectors have sales again. The basis of the request must be the argument of a serious economic crisis: “Then the Commission can approve immediately. The point is: Can we approve the temporary aid in a legally reliable way.” Selmayr made Köstinger and Blümel shake their heads saying that it is better to write it in advance to be correct.
“I regret that the commission no longer fits,” Blümel said quite warmly. It is “absurd” not being able to pay for hotels with mini-sales, such as congress organizers that currently have no sales. “I ask you to stop with these paragraphs; I know that you have to pay attention to the legal issues,” said Blümel. “This is Austrian tax money, not European, that should be used.” The finance minister speculated that they always tried to reduce the planned aid. “In this situation, he should be grateful that countries can and want to help their companies.”
“We fully understand that Austria wants to help its companies,” Selmayr replied, again demanding a legally adequate application. “The basic idea has to be that we come together, we have to work together.”
Several representatives of the company gave their opinion during the conversation …
As one of several representatives of the tourism and leisure industry, bus entrepreneur Paul Blaguss said that the entire industry in Vienna organizes 120,000 bus trips in a normal year. His company normally makes 50,000, “it won’t even be 500 this year.”
Susanne Baumann-Söllner from the Austria Center Vienna (ACV) explained in relation to all companies participating in congresses that the waiting time for such events is usually three to five years. However, there are currently no inquiries for new congresses and it can also be seen that congresses will be postponed next year. “You can’t just turn it off and say that the supplier is no longer cooking. It is important to help all the companies involved so they can get through the tough times.”
“The entire tourism industry is partially threatened by the pandemic,” argued Köstinger. “Forecasts say it will take months, if not years, for tourism to fully recover.” Additionally, there are a “very worrying” number of infections. “We want to fulfill our responsibility (towards the economy, note) and ask that the EU be compliant,” Köstinger appealed.
Blümel and some entrepreneurs are also upset about a cap on the fixed-cost allocation of € 800,000, which Selmayr mentioned. Selmayr said the cap was not provided to companies that were in such a situation as a lockdown. You just have to request it correctly. Selmayr also agreed with all the business arguments that they were conclusive and that they had a right to help. “It is not that the Commission is blocking. We are on their side. We just have to work properly,” said the EU representative.
These arguments are “creepy,” Köstinger told “Martin”, that is, Selmayr. “We expect a maximum concession from the EU Commission, even for small companies, fast help and without bureaucracy,” he alluded to billions in aid for large companies. “We are fed up with mounting paragraphs.”
… Selmayr only at the end
The scenario surprised some of the journalists who attended the conversation, and Selmayr also emphasized several times that there is no negotiation, but exchanges, “here are representatives of the media.” Blümel and Köstinger formed the head of the many meters long table as a broad front. Hanging from him, with a distance from Corona, sat the businessmen and alone facing Selmayr from the EU Commission at the other end, somehow alone in the wide hallway.
It has been proven several times that the mood between Blümel and Selmayr is not the best. In between, Selmayr was bothered by the fact that her turn should only be her last. “I have my doubts about it,” he said once in the course of the conversation in response to Blümel’s statement that “a solution has been sought since August 5.”
“Thanks for coming,” Blümel said, making the farewell brief. (apa)
