The new ESPA "Extroversion of Small and Medium Enterprises" opens

Start Date: 17/07/2025
End Date: 09/10/2025

The action “Extroversion of Small and Medium Enterprises” aims to support and strengthen the export orientation of the country’s SMEs. It involves supporting investment plans that focus on leveraging and developing modern technologies, upgrading products and/or services, and enhancing overall activities to improve business competitiveness and extroversion. The objective is to integrate them into international value chains and strengthen the global presence of their products, including through participation in trade fairs organized outside the Greek territory, within the EU and in third countries.

Eligible Beneficiaries

Within the framework of this Action, eligible for aid are existing Small, Very Small, and Medium Enterprises, as defined by Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC, which, before the electronic submission date of the funding application:

1. Have completed at least one (1) full (i.e., continuous twelve-month) fiscal year.
2. Are substantially active (Main Activity Code or Activity Code with the highest revenue) at the date of application submission in an eligible activity code (KAD).
3. Possess the eligible investment activity code(s).
4. Employ at least one (1) Annual Work Unit (AWU) of salaried employment during the calendar year preceding the funding application.

Terms and Conditions

1. Only one funding application may be submitted per Tax Identification Number (TIN) for this Action.
2. The enterprise must designate only one category of Region for implementation of the activities. The region where the investment will take place is specified in the application. The business may implement expenses at its headquarters and/or branches, provided all locations fall within the same category of region.
3. The business must operate exclusively in one of the following corporate/commercial legal forms [S.A., Single-Member S.A., Ltd., Single-Member Ltd., General Partnership, Limited Partnership, P.C., Single-Member P.C., Sole Proprietorship, Profit-Oriented Civil Company, Social Cooperative Enterprise under Law 4430/2016 as applicable, Cooperative], and keep single-entry or double-entry accounting records according to Law 4308/2014.
4. Proof of securing at least 25% own contribution for the proposed investment budget must be provided, according to Appendix I: REQUIRED SUBMISSION/APPROVAL DOCUMENTS.
5. The enterprise must commit that the expenses included in this funding application have not been funded, included, or submitted for funding approval under any other program funded by national or EU resources.
6. The physical scope of the investment must not be completed or fully implemented before the application submission.

At the time of submission, it must be proven that at least 25% of the proposed private contribution is covered by own funds.

Achieving an increase in exports is mandatory for the aided business [(compared to the export volume during the base year – tax year 2024)] by an amount at least equal to 70% of the public expenditure for project completion. This export increase must be achieved within three years from project completion at the latest.

Funding Rates

The total Public Expenditure budget of the Call amounts to €200,000,000.

Funding rates for applications are uniform across all eligible investment expenses and range from 40% to 50% of the subsidized budget of each application, depending on the Region Category where implementation takes place.

Eligible Expenses

• Procurement of equipment necessary for the operation and business activity, including environmental protection and energy-saving equipment
• Expenses for services such as certifications, acquisition of know-how, packaging design, etc.
• Software expenses
• Promotion, marketing, and networking expenses through participation in professional trade fairs

Implementation Period

The implementation period of the funded investments is set at eighteen (18) months from the date of electronic notification of final approval of the funding application.

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