The Council of Ministers, at its meeting on May 10, 2022, adopted an Agreement that establishes the terms and conditions of the first tranche of the line of guarantees for financing granted to companies and self-employed workers established by the  Royal Decree-Law 6/2022, of March 29, which adopts urgent measures within the framework of the National Plan to respond to the economic and social consequences of the war in Ukraine.

This resolution was published on May 11 in the BOE to guarantee companies affected by the increase in energy costs or raw materials, access to liquidity that helps them face these increases that have occurred with sufficient solvency.

This resolution responds to the new temporary framework for European aid, aimed at supporting the productive fabric and the economy that has derived from the conflict in Ukraine.

A first installment of €5,000 million has been approved that will go to all  self-employed  and  companies  to  exception of the financial and insurance sector, will be managed by the Official Credit Institute (ICO).

The guarantees will cover the principal capital that is unpaid by the client in each financial transaction, and ordinary interest, late payment interest, position of debtor claims and all other concepts will be excluded.

They can be requested until  December 1, 2022, with access to them by companies and self-employed persons who are not in default or in any bankruptcy proceedings at the date of signing the operation, nor those who are subject to sanctions by the European Union (EU), nor who have any guarantee execution process managed by the ICO at the time of requesting the guarantee. The submission period may be extended by Agreement of the Council of Ministers.

This guarantee guarantees up to 80% of new loans for operations requested with a maximum amount of up to €400,000 in general or €35,000 for companies belonging to the primary sector, aquaculture or fishing, in one or several loan operations. In this case, the guarantee will have a validity equal to that of the loan granted, being  10 years maximum term.

For loans of a larger volume, the guarantee can guarantee up to 80% of the amount of the loan for the self-employed and SMEs, up to 70% for other companies as long as the total amount of the loan does not exceed the highest of:

• 15% of the total average annual turnover of the beneficiary during the last three closed years. If the beneficiary has two closed fiscal years, 15% of the average annual turnover of those two fiscal years will be applied. If the beneficiary only has one closed financial year, 15% of the turnover for that financial year will be applied. For these purposes, annual business volume will be understood as that reflected in the audited annual accounts or the annual volume of operations declared or verified by the Administration in the annual fiscal model corresponding to the Value Added Tax or equivalent tax. If it has not been in operation for a full year, 15% of the turnover corresponding to the time it has been active will be applied, annualized linearly. For these purposes, the quarterly volume of operations declared or verified by the Administration will be taken as business volume.

• 50% of the energy costs in the twelve months prior to the month in which the application for assistance is submitted to the bank, costs that must be accredited by an independent energy or technical services provider.

A period of  lack initial 12 months for the amortization installments of the principal of the operation and a  amortization period of the operation of  8 years.

All operations will have, at the request of the debtor, a period of lack initial 12-month principal amount and financial institutions must keep their clients' cash lines open until December 31, 2022.