Webinar on “Covid-19: analysis of the economic measures for businesses in Belgium”
On April 15th, the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce of in Belgium and Luxembourg, organized a webinar on “Covid-19: analysis of the economic measures for businesses in Belgium”, in collaboration with SPF Finance, Flanders Investment & Trade, Brussels Invest & Export, Invest in Wallonia and its member Paterna Professional. The webinar was attended by more than 50 companies.
This webinar was aimed at Spanish companies stablished in Belgium, in order to help them identify the different financial and economic measures they can apply both for the regional (Brussels, Flanders and Wallonie), and federal levels.
The webinar was presented by Juan Rodríguez-Villa, President of the Chamber, who thanked the speakers from the different organisms and all the participants from different companies for their collaboration and mentioned the difficult and unprecedented situation that we are going through that means a great challenge for everyone.
The webinar started with Michela Ritondo, International tax expert from SPF Finance, who explained the measures taken by the Belgian federal authorities in relation to the payment of taxes and detailed other business support measures.
Then Antonia Macías, Enterprise Creator Advisor and Julie Chandellier, Legal Officer in Social Law, of Partena Professional summarized the measures taken at national level to help the self-employed in issues regarding social security. 
Likewise, they also mentioned the different procedures and temporary unemployment benefits for companies and their employees.
After it, the General Secretary of the Chamber, Marta González, introduced the representatives of the organizations of the different regions in Belgium. From the Brussels Region, Ariane Leonard, Economic and comercial Advisor, Representative of the Government of Brussels in Spain, and Aurore Boraczek, Inward Investment, hub.brussels, explained the measures taken in the Brussels Region such as the single bonus of € 4,000 for companies that have had to compulsorily close or the suspension of the so-called “city tax” for hotels. From Flanders Investment & Trade, Peter Verplancken, Deputy Director, Inward Investment & Aftercare, explained, among others, the financial incentives offered by the Flemish government or the postponement for the filing of taxes. Finally, Michel Winniczek, Project 
Manager from Invest in Wallonia (AWEX), informed about the different measures offered by the Walloon region to companies, the procedures for requesting these grants and the postponement of payment of fees.
After the presentation, a round of questions was featured where the participants could ask their doubts about the measures explained.
The Chamber wants to sincerely thank the SPF Finance, Flanders Investment & Trade, Brussels Invest & Export, Invest in Wallonia and Partena Professional for having participated in this initiative.
In collaboration with:
