Brussels, 20/05/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 20 May 2008, the European Commission authorised a €500,000 per year scheme to support newspapers written in Swedish and in minority languages in Finland. Helsinki notified the Commission of the first major changes to this programme since it was launched in 1971. The Commission considers that the scheme will contribute to media pluralism and to the protection of minority languages in Finland, while having a limited negative impact on competition and trade between Member States. The targeted beneficiaries are small circulation newspapers (with a maximum average circulation of up to 15.000 copies) and the subsidies cannot exceed 40% of the newspapers' operating costs. The overall budget of the measure is €500,000 per year. (C.D.)