Companies and other beneficiaries of the Sea 2020 Operational Programme will be covered by a series of exceptional measures aimed at minimising the economic and financial impacts of the epidemiological situation arising from the novel coronavirus, which is responsible for causing the COVID-19 disease. 

The exceptional measures apply only to investment projects and not to premiums. In the case of the Azores, they may cover beneficiaries of ongoing projects under the support schemes for investments on board, the processing and marketing of fish and aquaculture products, innovation in aquaculture, productive investments in aquaculture and partnerships between scientists and fishers. 

Local Action Fisheries Groups may also benefit from these exceptional measures. 

From now on, whenever it is not possible to validate a payment request within 20 working days from the date of the respective submission by the beneficiary for reasons not attributable to companies and other private entities benefiting from the programme, the request will be processed as advanced payment.

In this context, validated requests are paid up to a maximum of 70% of the corresponding public support on a weekly basis. In addition, it is now possible for the beneficiaries of the Sea 2020 to submit payment requests based on expenses to be billed to the beneficiary, which is considered for advance payments, provided that the sum of advance payments already made and not justified with submitted and validated expenditure does not exceed 50% of the approved public expenditure for each project. 

The projects that, due to the negative impacts resulting from COVID-19, do not reach the approved budget and the full financial implementation provided for in the accomplishment of actions or goals will be not be penalised. Moreover, they can be closed as completed provided they do not jeopardise the achievement of the targets for which the operation was approved. 

In cases when the stipulated period for the completion of the project is due in 2020, this date will be extended to 2021 and in a period compatible with the completion of its material and financial implementation. 

These exceptional measures authorise the submission of more payment requests, beyond the limit established in the flexibility measure already adopted in late 2019, which allows the submission of up to 10 payment requests for each project.