Brussels, 22/06/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 19 June, the European Commission approved a budget increase of €10 billion for the Austrian scheme to grant temporary aid to help businesses to deal with the current economic crisis initially approved on 20 March 2009. Austria sought the amendment in order to be allowed to grant public guarantees to large enterprises on the basis of the national legal measure “Unternehmensliquidätsstärkungs-gesetz”. The underlying framework scheme, “Österreichregelung Kleinbeihilfen”, was approved by the Commission on 20 March 2009. It was designed to comply with the Temporary Framework for state aid measures and includes the granting of public guarantees to all kinds of companies. The total budget of the scheme was estimated to be up to €500 million. The Commission says in a press release that the budget increase is in line with the Commission's Temporary Framework for state aid measures to support access to finance in the current financial and economic crisis, because the measure is limited in time and only applies to companies that were not in difficulties on 1 July 2008. It is therefore compatible with Article 87(3)(b) of the EC Treaty, which permits aid to remedy a serious disturbance in the economy of a member state. (O.L./transl.rt)