Grant information

Various subsidies are available from the Province of North Holland at several policy levels. Think of water recreation, innovation for cultural and heritage organisations or making more sustainable use of monuments. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate has also created a subsidy scheme for events that cannot go ahead.

Herewith the links to the grants:

• Water recreation: sustainability and innovation subsdie Water recreation: Sustainability and Innovation, grant - North Holland Province
• Water recreation: small facilities and services North Holland Water recreation: Small Facilities and Services North Holland, grant - North Holland province
• Impulse innovation culture and heritage organisations North Holland Impulse innovation culture and heritage organisations North Holland, grant - Province of North Holland
• Research sustainable use of monuments North Holland Research sustainable use of monuments North Holland, grant - Province of North Holland
• Expansion of walking network and TOP Groen Noord-Holland (Meadow bird biotopes, Expansion of walking network & Tourist Transfer Points), grant - Province of Noord-Holland

07-03-2022

Minister Adriaansens of Economic Affairs and Climate (EZK) has informed the House of Representatives by letter about the Event Guarantee Subsidy Scheme 2022 (SEG22).

This planned new scheme combines the Temporary Scheme for Supplementary COVID-19 Event Subsidies (ATE) and the Temporary Scheme for COVID-19 Event Subsidies (TRSEC). Back in December 2021, the government announced that it would extend the ATE and the TRSEC until the end of the third quarter of 2022. In the letter to Parliament now published, Adriaansens provides further clarity on the new events scheme that the government is currently putting in place.

Given that the ATE and the TRSEC logically complement one another from the market’s perspective – the ATE is effectively a safety net for events that do not qualify for the TRSEC – the government considers it more efficient for both event organisers and the body administering the schemes, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), to merge the ATE and TRSEC into a single scheme, which will therefore be known as the 2022 Event Guarantee Subsidy Scheme, or SEG22.

Through the SEG22, the government aims to assist event organisers who, due to a possible ban on events resulting from the coronavirus situation, will be forced to cancel an event between 1 January 2022 and 1 October 2022. Despite the similarities between the ATE and the TRSEC, a key difference is that the TRSEC includes a guarantee element. Event organisers could submit an application prior to the event to obtain clarity in advance as to whether they would be eligible for a TRSEC grant in the event of an event ban imposed by the central government. The ATE, on the other hand, provides for retrospective reimbursement of costs incurred.

In the SEG22, the guarantee element has become the basis for the entire combined scheme. This means that all organisers, large or small, professional or otherwise, who wish to be eligible for a grant in the event of an event ban, must submit a grant application to RVO in advance. As the scheme will apply to events from 1 January 2022, retrospective applications will also be possible under this scheme for the period from 1 January 2022 until the scheme comes into force.

Key conditions
The following are the main proposed conditions for eligibility under the SEG22 scheme:

- it concerns an event banned by the central government on corona grounds;

- it concerns an event that would have taken place in the Netherlands or in the Caribbean Netherlands;

- the event was notified to the municipality or had received a permit from the municipality;

- the planned date of the event is demonstrably at the time of an event ban (or within three weeks of the end of a ban);

- there must be an event open to the public (free or via ticket sales). Closed events are thus excluded;

- there must be a minimum of €2,500 of (eligible) costs incurred: these costs must be actual and demonstrable;

- only the central organiser of the event can apply, not suppliers.

A number of changes have also been made compared with previous schemes to ensure that all organisers have an equal opportunity to participate in the scheme. One important change is that the TRSEC requirement stipulating that a previously insured edition of an event must have taken place has been removed.

Cancellation period
The government’s aim is to provide clarity on whether or not events can go ahead no later than three weeks in advance. The government is aware that, in practice, this target is often not met. The government therefore intends that, during a period in which an events ban is in force and where an event is scheduled to take place after the end of that ban, organisers may cancel the event from three weeks before the scheduled date of the event. In other words: even if it is not yet certain whether the ban on events will still be in force on the event’s scheduled date.

This will prevent unnecessarily high costs during the final three expensive weeks of organisation, meaning that these costs will not need to be subsidised via the SEG22 either. Under the ATE and TRSEC schemes, an organiser could not make this decision themselves, but could only cancel once an events ban was in force prior to the planned date of the event. This proposal is subject to approval by the European Commission.

Reimbursement rates
In the first quarter of 2022, a subsidy rate of 90 per cent applies, and in the second and third quarters of 2022, a subsidy rate of 80 per cent of the costs incurred. A subsidy can therefore be obtained for the majority of the costs incurred. For the remaining 10 per cent in the first quarter and 20 per cent in the second and third quarters of 2022 – the excess – a loan can be taken out from RVO under this scheme; this is subject to a repayment obligation at an interest rate of 2 per cent per annum over a five-year term. The SEG22 budget amounts to €475 million, according to Adriaansens.

Further information
For further information, please visit: https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/documenten/kamerstukken/2022/03/04/tijdelijke-subsidieregeling-evenementengarantie-2022