Brussels, 13/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday, the European Commission initiated the formal examination procedure into the Italian aid scheme for investments in the from of tax credits. End-March 2001, Rome notified changes to the scheme, which has as object to promote investment in depreciable assets in regions eligible for regional aid (Calabria, Basilicata, Compania, Puglia, Sardegna and Sicilia) and covers the period 2000-2006, for a total of some 4.6 billion euro. According to a Commission decision of 13 March, one part of the regions of Abruzzo and Molise is also eligible for this aid scheme, but areas of these regions, excluded from the Italian map for aid of a regional purpose 2000-2006, may not benefit. Yet, one of the changes made by the Italian budgetary law for 2001 extends the benefit of the scheme to the regions of Abruzi and Molise. Other source of perplexity for the Commission: on the question of the investment eligible for aid, the amended scheme does not refer explicitly to the initial investment as described in the guidelines for regional aid. At this stage, the Commission considers that under the scheme as currently defined, replacement investment might be eligible, andthis would be contrary to the guidelines.