22/05/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 21 May, the European Commission decided not to raise any objections to the financial aid of €35.2 million granted by France to the MaXSSIMM research and development (R&D) programme. MaXSSIMM, which involves a consortium of 10 partners headed by Gemalto, is designed to meet the needs for personal management of multimedia data for the internet and mobile telephony, and the deployment of secure services for digital set-top boxes. EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said, "We are confident that the positive contribution the MaXSSIMM programme will make to research will outweigh any distortion of competition caused by the aid." (O.L.)