448 COMPETITION LAW IN TOURISM One of the many challenges that Portugal and the EU now face in the short term is how to balance competition and the revival of the domestic economies , especially those mainly dependent on tourism, when trying to control the pandemic with vaccination. E.2. State support for tourism and state aid E.2.1. Support at EU level As referred above, since the beginning of the confinement period in March 2020, the EU has made efforts to adopt measures to support members States, their businesses and citizens, so as to counter the economic impact. Such measures involve the use of several tools and have contributed, inter alia, to maintain economies, to repatriate EU citizens, to develop research and innovation, to encourage the protection of critical European assets and technology and to support the EU healthcare sector. Below we will focus on the measure with the most relevant impact in companies and maintaining jobs, for our present purposes. Therefore, the EU has incentivised Member States to use their budgets and to design and to take the measures deemed necessary swiftly, such as wage subsidies, suspensionof the payment of corporate andvalue added taxes or social contributions. As referred above, on 13 March 2020, the Commission presented a coordinated response to counter the impact of COVID-19 and Member States were very incentivised to take recourse of the existing State aid instruments, so as to adopt selective measures to provide support to specific undertakings, sectors and/or regions without needing the prior approval of the Commission (such as the Block Exemption Regulations) while promising a special framework to address these exceptional circumstances86. Also, on 20 March 2020, the European Commission proposed the activation of the fiscal framework’s general escape clause, included on the Stability and Growth Pact to respond to the pandemic. This measure allows “Members States to undertake measures to deal adequately with the crisis, while departing from the budgetary requirements that would normally apply under the European fiscal framework”87. On 6 April 2020, the Commission also unlocked 1 billion euros from the European Fund for Strategic Investments as a guarantee to the European 86 See above note 66. 87
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