On 3 February 2010, the German Ministry of Agriculture passed a directive on a programme offering subsidised credits for agricultural entreprises aimed at easing the industry's liquidity problems. The state aid will be offered through lowered interest rates for credits from agricultural annuity banks.
The programme was active from March 2010 until the end of 2011 and had a planned annual budget of 25 million EUR.
In the GTA database the determination of whether a policy instrument discriminates against foreign commercial interests turns on whether it creates or alters the relative treatment of domestic firms versus foreign commercial interests. On this metric, the state aid proposed here is discriminatory because the state aid is not available to competing firms outside of the implementing jurisdiction.