68 LEGAL IMPACTS OF COVID-19 IN THE TOURISM INDUSTRY that most businesses would receive the compensation made available by the state147. As a final note to Temporary Framework measures, it should be mentioned that a number of Member States have introduced so-called “umbrella schemes”148, i.e. schemes encompassing only the Temporary Framework rules (often multiple aid categories), with the Member States free to define the exact rules of sub-measures to be applied under such “umbrellas”. Applying these schemes allows Member States to go ahead and react to changes of the economic situation without the need for asking for the Commission’s approval again. In this way, the Commission gave authorisations to a number of Member States to launch aid schemes as they see fit but in line with the Temporary Framework. These general umbrella schemes are typically not limited to particular sectors, but it is possible to limit them to individual industries (e.g. Ireland, as recently as in March 2021, gained Commission approval to an umbrella scheme for tourism149, which is also a sign that the crisis far from over yet if new schemes are still introduced in early 2021). Possibly because of the limited scrutiny of the Commission over umbrellatype schemes, with the fourth amendment150 to the Temporary Framework, the Commission introduced a special reporting obligation according to which Member States will be required to file a separate report on the exact schemes launched under the Temporary Framework decisions, including, of course, umbrellas151. 6.2. Aid Approved Directly under Article 107(3)(b) TFEU The Commission, exceptionally, authorised crisis aid measures that did not perfectly comply with the rules of the Temporary Framework. In these cases, 147 So far, Member States have commonly adopted “umbrella schemes” to apply Section 3.12 aid without restricting them to specific sector. See for example Italy (SA.59827), Spain (SA.59723), Denmark (SA.60094) or Slovakia (SA.59996). 148 See for example Spain’s (SA.56851) or France’s (SA.56985) umbrella schemes, which were later updated to include additional aid instruments. 149 Commission decision C(2021)1622 final of 8 March 2021 (SA.61236 (2021/N) – Ireland COVID-19: Tourism Business Continuity Scheme). 150 Point 43 of the fourth amendment. 151 This reporting obligation is defined in point 90 of the Temporary Framework as effective from 28 January 2021.
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