Brussels, 14/11/2005 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission on Thursday authorised a German aid scheme fostering innovation in German enterprises. The scheme will finance pre-competitive development activities of small, medium-sized and certain large enterprises through the provision of loans. The measure forms part of the ERP Innovation Programme 2005 and is administered by the German public development bank Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau GmbH (KfW). The approved scheme, amending an existing scheme, provides enterprises with an integrated financial package usually consisting of a combined classical loan (debt tranche) and subordinated loan (subordinated tranche). The maximum loan for any company is € 5 mil over ten years.