The conditions and procedures for issuing the Emergency Situation Certificate

In the context of the crisis generated by COVID-19, the Minister of Economy, Energy and Business Environment issued the Order no. 791 regarding the granting of emergency situation certificates to economic operators whose activity is affected in the context of SARS-Cov-2 pandemic[1] ("Order no. 791"). According to Order no. 791, granting the emergency situation certificate ("ESC") attests that the company's activity is affected in the context of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and it can be used in relations with public institutions to obtain facilities/ support measures ( e.g. to benefit from the payment of the allowance of 75% of the basic salary, in accordance with GEO 30/2020[2]; for SMEs, to assume the force majeure or to the defer the payment of utilities as well as the deferral of payment of the rent, in accordance with GEO 29/2020[3]) or in commercial relations. Two (2) types of ESC can be issued, depending on the effects that the COVID-19 epidemic has produced on the company, as follows:

» ESC TYPE 1 (BLUE) – it can be requested by those companies that have discontinued their activity in whole or in part, as a result of the decisions issued by the state authorities during the decreed state of emergency;

» ESC TYPE 2 (YELLOW) - it can be requested by those companies, which registered a decrease of the revenues in March 2020 with a percentage of at least 25% compared to the average of the revenues from January to February 2020.

Companies can request the issuance of a single type of ESC, exclusively through electronic means, respectively through the http://prevenire.gov.ro/ platform, which will contain a dedicated section for this purpose. The application must contain the identification data of the company as well as an affidavit given by the legal representative of the company stating that all the information and documents underlying the request for obtaining the ESC are in accordance with the reality and comply with the legislation in force. The legal representative of the company requesting ESC must hold an electronic signature since all the documents uploaded in the electronic application must be electronically signed by him. If he does not hold an electronic signature, he can sign holographic, following that both the ESC release request and the affidavit must be signed electronically by a proxy, who holds such signature.  Subsequent to the issuance of the ESC, within the control and inspection actions that may be carried out by the state authorities (e.g. tax inspections, labor inspectorate inspections), the documents that were underlying the request are checked, and if reasonable suspicion is identified that the situation indicated is not in accordance with the reality, the competent bodies are notified (e.g. the criminal prosecution bodies for committing the crime of forgery or misrepresentation). The Ministry of Economy, Energy and Business Environment issues the ESC only during the emergency period, electronically and automatically, after the system validates the request and is valid without signature and stamp. The ESC verification can be done on the platform http://prevenire.gov.ro/, by series and number, platform that should be available starting with 30.03.2020.

 

[1] Published in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 248 dated 26.03.2020 [2] Government Emergency Ordinance no. 30/2020 on the amendment and completion of a series of normative acts and establishing some measures in the field of social protection in the context of the current epidemic situation determined by the spreading of the coronavirus, published in the Official Gazette no. 231 dated 21.03.2020. [3] Government Emergency Ordinance no. 29/2020 regarding some economic and fiscal-budgetary measures, published in the Official Gazette, Part I no. 230 of March 21st, 2020 and in force from the same date.