Brussels, 30/06/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 30 June, the European Commission decided to extend its authorisation, until 31 December 2010, of the Dutch and Slovenian bank guarantee schemes and the Greek and Polish bank support measures. In the latter two countries, aid for Greece consists of a recapitalisation scheme, a guarantee scheme and a bond loan scheme, and in Poland it involves State Treasury guarantees for the issuance of new senior debt by banks and liquidity support measures in the form of Treasury bonds, either as a loan or to be sold with deferred payment. In all four countries the extended guarantee scheme “is well targeted, proportionate and limited in time and scope”. In the majority of cases, the measures were authorised for the first time by the countries' respective institutions in the final quarter of 2008, then extended in the middle of 2009. The Commission has already given approval, according to the same conditions, to bank guarantee systems in Sweden, Germany, Austria, Latvia, Ireland, Spain and Denmark. In all these countries, the measures were subsequently extended for six months until the end of 2010. (F.G./transl.fl)