(i) extension of lifetime as expressed through: minimum guaranteed lifetime, minimum time for availability of spare parts, modularity, upgradeability, reparability.

extension of lifetime as expressed through: minimum guaranteed lifetime, minimum time for availability of spare parts, modularity, upgradeability, reparability.

The following four extensions to the Growth and Employment Initiative could, however, usefully be considered: (i) a guarantee scheme for micro-credits, which encourage commercial banks and others to be more active in this area; (ii) equity guarantees for investments in early stage companies, which could help to attract otherwise hesitant investors into the funding of venture capital companies; (iii) guarantees to underpin the financing of internet and e-commerce applications by smaller companies and (iv) investment in business incub ...[+++]ators and associated mentoring services;

Earlier this year the Commission opened and extended infringement procedures under Article 88 of the ECSC Treaty against the Italian authorities for granting illegal aids in the form of debt extensions and guarantees to Finsider.

- State aid N 81/93 - Programme for direct Federal guarantees in the new Länder and East Berlin - Germany Under the state aid rules, the Commission has authorized the extension of a Federal guarantee programme, approved in 1991, to include investment projects in the new Länder and East Berlin in cases where guarantees are necessary for the implementation of projects to restructure firms in the former GDR which have been seriously affected by the decline of eastern bloc trade and are located in regions with particularly high unemployme ...[+++]nt.

Following the specific amendments agreed by the Commission, the proposal now: - makes clear that a credit institution that also acted as an investment firm could belong to a single compensation scheme as long as the scheme met the requirements of both the deposit-guarantee Directive and the investor compensation Directive - incorporates equivalent clauses to the bank deposit-guarantee Directive concerning the possibility for branches to opt-in to higher levels of compensation in the host country ('top-up'), the regime for branches of firms with their head office in a non-EU country (Member States must ensure home countries schemes offer equivalent cover or oblige branches to join the host country scheme) and the principle that schemes shoul ...[+++]d be financed by investment firms themselves - includes revised definitions of "investment firm" and "branch" which refer to the definitions in the Investment Services Directive and a new definition of "joint investment" - clarifies that authorisation for investment firms is based on the principle of home country control and that no investment firm (other than credit institutions exempted under the deposit-guarantee Directive) could operate unless it participated in an investor compensation scheme - simplifies the definition of when and how the amount of an investor's claim should be determined - makes a specific reference to the exclusion from compensation of any transaction in connection with which there has been a conviction for money-laundering as defined by the Directive on the issue (91/308/EEC) - includes a requirement for continued coverage by the compensation scheme even when a firm's authorisation to operate has been withdrawn (in case it should subsequently transpire that the firm was unable to meet its commitments to investors) - requires the Commission to report on the Directive's operation three years after it is due to be implemented (31.12.96) rather than five years after.