30/04/2018 (Agence Europe) – On Monday 30 April, the European Commission approved the seventh extension of the Irish scheme for restructuring credit unions until 31 October 2018. The measure involves merging establishments experiencing difficulties with healthy establishments and, if necessary, injecting fresh capital in order to make up for the lack of funding of the cooperatives, in accordance with capital reserve requirements. The Commission believes that aid measures would allow beneficiaries to become viable over the longer term via restructuring or mergers and would contribute to the cost of restructuring. In addition, as the scheme has little impact on competition, the institution considers that extension of the scheme is compatible with EU law regarding state aid. The last extension had been approved on 25 October 2017 (see EUROPE 11891). (LT)