Press Release: State aid: Commission prohibits Hungarian export-credit guarantee scheme

The European Commission decided that a planned scheme for providing short-term export credit guarantees to Hungarian exporting SMEs and their foreign clients is incompatible with EC Treaty state aid rules. Following an in-depth investigation, opened in July 2007, the Commission concluded that the proposed guarantee scheme would not meet the conditions of EU state aid rules on export credit insurance, as the risks to be covered were too wide. Therefore, the measure would constitute illegal export aid, which would distort trade within the EU's Single Market by giving Hungarian exporters an unfair competitive advantage compared to companies in other Member States.

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