Press Release: State aid: the Commission approves continuation of guarantees schemes for working capital loans in Eastern Germany

The European Commission authorised, under the EC Treaty’s rules on state aid, the continuation of guarantee schemes in the German Länder Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Sachsen-Anhalt and Thüringen, after some amendments introduced by Germany. Under EU Treaty state aid rules, the granting of operating aid is strictly limited to the less developed regions of the EU and can only be used to solve temporary bottlenecks in economic development. As the guarantee schemes in question have been amended to be better targeted to firms having real difficulties to finance their working capital requirements, the Commission decided to endorse their prolongation until 2013.