The Legal Impacts of COVID-19 in the Travel, Tourism and Hospitality Industry

19 but that “faced difficulties” or “entered into difficulty” as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. The Temporary Framework in its initial form was therefore targeted to companies that were “healthy” before the crisis but had problems as a result of the crisis, and it enabled liquidity help mainly to those affected 62 . This liquidity focus and targeted nature of the Temporary Framework changed to a certain degree when the first amendment 63 to the Temporary Framework was adopted on 3 April 2020. The first amendment allowed aid under the Temporary Framework to all undertakings that had not been in difficulty on 31 December 2019; it was no longer necessary to prove in any form, at least to apply the Temporary Framework, that the undertaking was actually negatively affected by the pandemic-induced crisis. Also, Section 3.1 measures were extended by adding loans, capital and guarantees to the possible forms of aid, giving a lot of flexibility to aid grantors: with the amendment, it was possible to provide loans on any terms or guarantees to loans provided that the loan or the guaranteed loan principal would not exceed the threshold of Section 3.1 aid 64 . The first amendment also brought in five new aid categories. Three were related to the anti-virus efforts: they allowed COVID-19 related research, development, upscaling, testing and production aid (Sections 3.6-3.8 of the Temporary Framework). The last two, Section 3.9 and 3.10, authorised Member States to grant tax deferrals (as non-general measures) and wage subsidies, respectively. The second amendment, adopted on 8 May 2020, 65 was the only amendment deliberated on for a longer period as the first draft had been sent to Member States on 9 April. 66 The novelty of the 8 May amendment was that it meant a manifest departure from liquidity aid approach: by introducing the new aid category, recapitalisation aid (Section 3.11). Based on these developments, the Commission recognized that viable undertakings subject to a temporary liquidity crisis will possibly have to face longer-term solvency 62 Point 4 of the Temporary Framework. 63 Communication from the Commission Amendment to the Temporary Framework for State aid measures to support the economy in the current COVID-19 outbreak, C(2020) 2215 final, 3 April 2020 64 Point 12 of the first amendment. 65 Communication from the Commission Amendment to the Temporary Framework for State aid measures to support the economy in the current COVID-19 outbreak C(2020) 3156 final 8 May 2020 66 https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/STATEMENT_20_610 (accessed: 1 March 2021)