Press Release: State aid: Commission approves first real economy crisis measures

The European Commission approved, under EC Treaty state aid rules, two German real economy crisis measures. The first measure, a EUR 15 billion German loan programme ('KfW-Sonderprogramm 2009') which was intended to provide liquidity for undertakings affected by the current credit squeeze, provided for interest rate reductions on loans to finance investments and working capital of up to EUR 50 million to be granted to undertakings with a turnover of less than EUR 500 million. The programme will be administered by the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), the main public development bank in Germany, in close cooperation with the undertakings' own bankers. The second measure, a Federal framework scheme ('Bundesregelung Kleinbeihilfen') allowed economic policy actors at Federal, regional, and local level to provide aid of up to EUR 500.000 per undertaking to firms in need. These were the first cases to be approved under the Commission's new temporary framework providing Member States with additional possibilities to tackle the effects of the credit squeeze on the real economy.