Press Release: State aid: Commission temporarily authorises the Netherlands to grant limited amounts of aid of up to €15,000 to farmers

The European Commission has authorised a Dutch scheme with a budget of €2.81 million which aims at supporting farmers who encounter difficulties as a result of the current economic crisis. Aid under this scheme can be granted until 31 December 2010 and will take the form of State guarantees on working capital loans. The Dutch scheme is a further application of the Commission's Temporary framework for State aid measures to support access to finance in the current financial and economic crisis, as amended at the end of October 2009 in order to allow Member States to grant limited amounts of aid to primary agricultural producers.