Brussels, 27/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - Commissioner Mario Monti held a meeting last Thursday in Berlin with Germany's Finance Minister Hans Eichel, to discuss the monitoring of state aid schemes. The two officials reviewed the problem of aid to German public banks, on which an arrangement satisfactory to all parties was reached recently (see EUROPE of 2 March, p.11). They also agreed that it is indispensable to maintain a credible state aid policy in the Community and that close cooperation among Member States is extremely useful in attaining this goal. Enlargement of the EU is a major challenge for state aid policy, strict monitoring of which is in the interest of both applicant States and current Member States, they acknowledged. A week earlier, addressing the EP, Commissioner Monti had pointed out that the Commission was keeping up its vigilance on state aid policy in the applicant countries, which are inclined to provide economically useless aid to lame undertakings, and that they must put an end to such subsidies and comply with Community rules in this area and others.