The Programul Tranziție Justă (Just Transition Program) has relaunched the call for the development of SMEs in the Jiu Valley, with grants between 300,000 and 5 million euros and no co-financing obligation for the non-reimbursable component. The session closed on February 28, 2026.
The call was one of the few in recent years in which a company could obtain full financing without putting money out of pocket for the grant portion. The explanation lies in the logic of the Just Transition Fund: the six mining towns in the Jiu Valley are considered areas with severe structural handicaps, where private investment does not occur naturally.
The call budget was 14.8 million euros, and the grant per project varied between 300,000 and 5 million euros. SMEs from Petroșani, Vulcan, Lupeni, Petrila, Aninoasa, and Uricani were eligible. The restricted geographical coverage was, in fact, the main filter: a company from Deva or Hunedoara did not qualify.
Submission took place between November 1, 2025, 11:00 AM, and February 28, 2026, 11:30 PM, through ADR Vest, which manages the regional component of the program. The fact that it was a relaunch shows that the first session did not attract enough quality projects, a recurring problem in areas with low administrative and entrepreneurial capacity.
For companies that missed this window, Programul Tranziție Justă remains active with other components for the six counties: Gorj, Hunedoara, Dolj, Galați, Prahova, and Mureș. The call for social enterprises is open until October 2026, and the micro-enterprise development component could be relaunched.
The financing model is also worth monitoring: to the extent that the allocation from the Just Transition Fund is not consumed by the deadlines imposed by the European Commission, the probability of new relaunches with advantageous conditions increases.
One element worth noting from the construction of this call is the minimum threshold of 300,000 euros. In an area with a fragile economy, where most companies are micro-enterprises, the requirement for the project to exceed this value severely limited the number of applicants capable of building a credible file. It is a recurring tension in funds for disadvantaged areas: the money is available, but dimensioned for larger companies than those that actually exist in the territory.
For entrepreneurs in the Jiu Valley, the practical alternative remains combining sources. A project can use guarantee instruments for the credit portion, regional grants for equipment, and national schemes for the personnel component. However, this approach requires attention to cumulation rules, as de minimis aid is summed over three fiscal years, and exceeding the ceiling leads to the recovery of financing.
What you need to know
- Call budget: 14.8 million EUR
- Grant: 300,000 - 5,000,000 EUR, 100% non-reimbursable for the financed component
- Eligible: SMEs from Petroșani, Vulcan, Lupeni, Petrila, Aninoasa, Uricani
- Period: November 1, 2025 - February 28, 2026. Session closed
Source: