Poland, following other Member States, has adopted a scheme to support the national economy in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak. The so-called Financial Shield aimed at ensuring liquidity to micro-enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises was approved by the European Commission (case number SA.56996) and triggered heated discussions not only among entrepreneurs, but also among Polish practitioners dealing with State aid law. The European Commission Decision specified that the beneficiaries of the measure are SMEs in the meaning of the Polish law which does not take the relationships between the enterprises being a fundamental issue for SME status verification under EU law into account. The presented paper aims at making a contribution to this debate, focusing on whether the beneficiaries of the Financial Shield are indeed limited only to SMEs in the meaning of the Polish law and what the legal consequences resulting thereof may be.
Keywords: SME, COVID-19, Financial Shield, Polish Development Fund, Poland