In May 2005, the Commission started, on the basis of a complaint, a formal investigation procedure to verify whether a loan from BNG and a loan from several municipalities had been granted on market terms and did not include state aid elements.

7. Recognises the ongoing review of IMF conditionalities attached to its loans to low income countries; recommends that the review makes priority reference to poverty reduction as a key priority of all IMF lending to low-income countries; urges European members of the IMF Executive Board to make sure that remaining conditionalities do not drive low income countries to unilaterally open their markets outside the framework of WTO negotiations or restrict their freedom to negotiate on their own terms in the framework of WTO negotiations the degree of market opening that they are willing to commit to.

B. whereas on 19 April 1994 a cooperation agreement was drawn up between the Commission and the EIB which sets out a number of provisions including those regarding the definition of the subsidised SME loans, agents and intermediaries, conditions for granting interest subsidies, cost and expenses incurred, as well as records and reporting; notes that provisions should have been clearer, especially those regarding management and control issues,

The Lisbon Summit stressed the need to encourage an entrepreneurial spirit in the European Union, but in contrast to the USA, where banks give loans on the basis of the merit of the project concerned, in the EU the project’s merit is merely a necessary but insufficient precondition, and banks provide loans only against the personal guarantee of the entrepreneurs themselves.

Again taking account of the timing differences, the aid element of the soft loan represents 17 % of eligible expenditure (GGE).

Assistance under this scheme can include: - grant aid to meet the interest payments on commercial funding for specific periods, and guarantee for commercial funding to commercial landlords; - various forms of business consultancy including the preparation of business plans and consultancy for research/marketing or technical aspects of production; - payment of rent (up to 3 years)/provision of land or premises; - support for the costs of the recruitment and training of personnel as part of a total package of support made available to an investment project.