Poland notified to the Commission its plan to adopt a €21 million (PLN 100 million) scheme to compensate the tourism sector for the losses incurred between September 2021 and June 2022.

Under the scheme, the aid will take the form of direct grants. The scheme will be open to companies in the tourism sector active in the restricted area, including hotels, restaurants and tour operators.

Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President in charge of competition policy said: „This €21 million scheme enables Poland to ensure a fair compensation of the damages suffered by the tourism sector at the Polish-Belarusian border. The measure approved today will support the companies affected by this exceptional situation, while limiting potential distortions of competition”.

In order to qualify for the aid, beneficiaries must show that their sales decreased by at least 25 % compared those achieved between September 2018 and June 2019. The compensation will cover a fraction of the beneficiary's costs (i.e. all costs minus depreciation and amortisation costs) corresponding to its loss of turnover. The aid will be capped at 65% of the beneficiary's average monthly profit calculated over the three months preceding the prohibition for tourists.

Poland expects that up to 100 companies will benefit from the scheme.

On 2 September 2021, Poland declared the state of emergency in a part of the Podlaskie and Lubelskie provinces, covering a strip of around 3 kilometre length along the EU's external border with Belarus. In this context, Poland adopted a set of restrictive measures, including the prohibition for tourists to stay in the restricted area. These measures were taken in response to the exceptional situation triggered by the Lukashenko regime to undermine the EU's security. His targeted actions at EU's external borders included attempts to provoke an increase in irregular migration towards the EU. The prohibition for tourists to stay in the restricted area was in place until the end of June 2022.

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