Brussels, 29/03/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission approved the regional aid map 2000-2006 for Sweden. Ten northern counties are concerned, representing 15.9% of the Swedish population (or 1.4 million people), in accordance with the rate of cover defined by the Commission for this country. This map will enable the Swedish authorities to grant national aid to companies according to a rate "gross grant equivalent" of the total cost of the investment: i) 37% in the most remote and most sparsely populated part of the eligible region, ii) 20% in the rest of the eligible region for the large firms and 30% for the SME. After the expiry of the previous maps for 1999, the European Commission already approved the 2000-2006 aid maps admissible according to European competition rules for seven Member States (Germany, Denmark, Greece, Ireland, Finland, France and Sweden) and a part for the Italian and Portuguese maps. The other maps are still being looked into.