Covid-19: The Consequences for SME in Bulgaria, Hungary and Bosnia and Herzegovina

The coronavirus pandemic is proving to be a disaster for small and medium-sized enterprises across Europe, particularly for those in the south and east of the bloc and their non-EU neighbours.

Most EU countries have taken some form of measure to protect businesses from the effects of the coronavirus crisis.

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The most widely used is the deferral or reduction of tax and social security contributions and earlier repayments of tax refunds.

But the exact application of these measures varies, as demonstrated by the cases of Hungary, Bulgaria and nearby Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The Bulgarian chapter

Bulgaria is one of the poorest member states of the European Union.

Almost all employers in the country have been obliged to introduce teleworking for their employees due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

c.Where this is not possible, employers have to toughen anti-epidemic measures to be taken in the workplace.

Boyan Banov is one of ten employees working for an advertising company. Usually, the team is busy with putting on billboards inviting fellow Bulgarians to buy fast cars or take out a bank loan.

"Of course I am worried. It's impossible not to be worried. I hope it will soon get better," says Banov, but "we are in free fall".

International advertisers have put on the emergency brake and almost all campaigns have been cancelled until September, says manager of Outdoor Network, Maya Solakova.

Her company is trying to keep all their employees in work by renegotiating billboard rents with the municipality to cut costs. But other small enterprises have had to lay off workers.

"A law was passed () and...