Brussels, 13/07/2011 (Agence Europe) - On 13 July, the European Commission made a number of decisions regarding state aid to different member states. Therefore, in the: - United Kingdom it has authorised the creation by the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) of the Northwest Urban Investment Fund (NWUIF), a £100 million holding fund which will be managed by the EIB. The NWUIF will receive £50 million funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the equivalent match funding of £50 million from the NWDA. The NWUIF will be managed by the EIB and will provide capital to private promoters and investors to promote urban renewal projects and sustainable development in urban areas in the north west of England. - In Romania, the European Commission has approved Romania's “green certificate scheme” a market mechanism aimed at supporting energy production from renewable sources. The state provides certificates to electricity producers for each MWh produced from renewables. These producers can sell these certificates on a specific market for electricity suppliers, which are (subject to a fine) obliged to purchase a certain number of the certificate each year. This scheme complies with 2008 guidelines on state aid for environmental protection and is aimed at helping countries achieve the 2020 objectives on renewables included in European legislation. - In Germany: (1) regional aid has been authorised worth €219 million to support an investment project of around €2 billion for the Globalfoundries company (electronics) in the region of Dresden in Saxony, in an effort to rehaul its installations. (2) Regional aid of €700,000 has been authorised for waste recycling plants belonging to the CRS Reprocessing Germany GmbH & Co KG company in Iena, Thuringia. The Commission decided that these projects respect regional aid criteria. The Commission, however, has opened formal examination procedures concerning: (1) aid of €46 million to an investment project worth €368 million to the BMW car manufacturer at its Leipzig factory in Saxony, where electronic cars are made. Whilst acknowledging the importance of the project from an environmental and energy point of view, it would like to examine whether it is respecting EU provisions on major investment projects. (2) With regard to a subsidy of €83.7 million in support of a €700 million investment project to help Vokswagen Sachsen GmbH (a car subsidiary group of Volkswagen) for the car production process at its factory in Zwickau (Chemnitz, Saxony), the Commission would like to clarify the incentive effect and the positive and negative fallout of this aid. (F.G./transl.fl)