After months of stalemate, the release of the resources allocated by the government in favor of fairs and congresses, two sectors among the most affected by the pandemic, seems to be close. The Minister of Tourism Massimo Garavaglia has in fact signed the ministerial decree which indicates the conditions and requirements necessary to request contributions in favor of the exhibition and congress system, and brings together in a single procedure the allocation of a total of 350 million allocated last year. , as well as 100 million new refreshment points, allocated for 2021.
In the next few days, the Notice will be published containing the methods and deadlines for the submission of grant applications. And also in the next few days, the green light from Brussels to the derogation on state aid is also expected, which to date allows each exhibition operator (organizer company or even owner of the exhibition districts) to receive up to a maximum of 10 million euros of non-repayable compensation to cover losses due to the pandemic.
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Too little for the major players (Milan, Bologna, Rimini-Vicenza and Verona), who together lost more than 400 million euros in revenues in 2020 and have received negligible amounts of compensation to date. Yet, as the operators have been repeating for months, the funds, allocated by the current executive and the previous one, are there and are also conspicuous (about 480 million), but so far it had not been possible to access them, both due to the lack of implementing decrees and for the constraints on state aid imposed by the European Union.
The signing of the decree by Garavaglia certainly marks an important step forward to give substance to the supports, pending the definitive authorization from Brussels, on which there is great confidence on the part of the trade fair world, given that a similar derogation it was already granted to Germany last January.