EU clears German export-credit insurance scheme

BRUSSELS Aug 5 (Reuters) - The European Commission approved on Wednesday a short-term export-credit insurance scheme adopted by the German government to limit the impact of the financial crisis on export companies.

The scheme would provide short-term export-credit insurance to companies in Germany and tackles the problem of the current unavailability of the short-term export credit insurance cover in the private market," the EU executive said in a statement.

"The German short-term export credit insurance scheme allows supporting exporters in areas where the market is temporarily not functioning properly," EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said.

The German state export credit insurance scheme would be managed by a consortium that includes PricewaterhouseCoopers and exporters would retain have a considerable proportion of the risk to benefit from the insurance, the Commission said. (Reporting by Bate Felix, editing by Jeremy Smith)