"The aid is necessary to ensure the viability of Fortis Bank and thereby avoid a serious disturbance in the Belgian economy," the European Union (EU)'s executive arm said in a statement Thursday.

    The Belgian government decided to guarantee short and medium term wholesale funding of Fortis Bank after the bank fell prey to the current financial crisis at the end of September.

    Belgium, together with Luxembourg and the Netherlands, has injected 11.2 billion euros (14 bullion U.S. dollars) into Fortis Bank and decided to sell off part of the bank's operations to France's BNP Paribas.

    The commission said it is assessing the capital injections and sale to BNP Paribas separately.

    "The state guarantee is necessary to restore the access of Fortis Bank to short and medium-term wholesale funding. At the same time it is ring-fenced to avoid abuses," said EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes.