New support measures amounting to €125 million to address the effects of the new COVID lockdown on employees and companies were announced by the Minister of Finance Constantinos Petrides  and the Minister of Labor, Welfare and Social Insurance Zeta Emilianidou.

Announcing the measures, the Minister of Finance said that this suspension of business must be the last one, given the acceleration of the vaccination program, which now concerns several younger ages.

He also announced that the one-time sponsorship  for companies and self-employed who suspended their operation during the period 1 to 15 March 2021 will be paid tomorrow, to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries, including self-employed taxi drivers and photographers.
 
A new one-time sponsorship was also announced for companies and self-employed, who, on the basis of decisions of the Cabinet, suspended their operation for the period 26/04/2021 until 9/05/2021.

The Minister of Labor said that last Friday the new Plans for the support of employees were published.
 
She also mentioned that a company was given the right to be able to apply between April 26-30 in order to be eligible for the new one-off. She added that companies participating in the special scheme for the partial suspension of business operations have the opportunity to apply from April 26 to 30 if there is a reduction in their turnover more than 30%.
 
The Minister added that in all the projects and in the one-time sponsorship, the self-employed are also covered. She also said that the special plan to support the unemployed includes the unemployed who have exhausted their unemployment benefit until February, so they can still receive the €500 allowance.
 
She added that the special leave for health reasons will still be in force. Also companies and self-employed can apply for a new plan for child care and concerns children up to 6 years and children up to 12 years who were staying in day-care centres.

The Minister of Finance noted around 15,000 are beneficiaries in the two One-Time Sponsorship Plans. The cost of the measures related to the 5th one-time sponsorship is around € 60-65 million, while the cost of the Employee Support Plan for March, due to the new lockdown, amounts to another € 55 million.  Another €120 million will be paid to beneficiaries for the plans concerning the support of employees in the next two weeks.