Brussels, 06/12/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 6 December, the European Commission announced that it had recently authorised a Slovenian scheme with a budget of approximately €3.8 million which seeks to help farmers in Slovenia 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 direct grants. The scheme is open to farmers in all sub-sectors of primary agricultural production, provided they were not already in difficulty on 1 July 2008, that is to say, before the start of the crisis. It 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. (O.L./transl.rt)