Annex A: country profiles

• Author: Michie, Rona; Wishlade, Fiona; Mendez, Carlos
• Pages: 43-241

Fact-finding study on the GBER transparency re quirement

43

ANNEX A: COUNTRY PROFILES

1. BELGIUM

KEY DIMENSIONS

MAIN CHARACTERISTICS

Legal

• GBER is directly applicable; there is no domestic State aid

law

• The four State aid units have a training and information

function, but no enforcement role

• Separate arrangements apply for agriculture, forestry and

fisheries and are the responsibility of the regional

ministries for agriculture, where relevant

Organisational

• State aid coordination is highly decentralised:

o

Brussels Capital Region: Economy and

Employment, Service Public Régionale de Bruxelles

o

Flanders: Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Agency, VLAIO

o

Wallonia: Directorate for Economy, Labour and

Research

o Federal level: Permanent Representation to the EU

• Awarding bodies are responsible for State aid compliance

Operational and technical

• Awarding bodies input to TAM directly

• No central (or regional) State aid register

• No de minimis register

Other points to note

• The four State aid coordinating bodies collaborate closely

but are institutionally separate

• Brussels Capital Region is planning a ‘catalogue of services’

to include all State support, including de minimis

1.1. Summary

Responsibility for implementing the transparency requirements in Belgium is highly decentralised,

reflecting the federal nature of the country. At regional level, certain units or officials within the

Flanders, Walloon and Brussels Capital governments play a coordination and advisory role for

awarding bodies within their jurisdictions; the federal government has a similar role for

nationwide measures. The approach in all four cases (three regional, one national) is broadly

similar insofar as the State aid coordinators provide a support network for awarding bodies

and/or their parent ministries, but have no jurisdiction over them and the latter are formally

responsible for reporting under the transparency requireme nts.

Introduction of the transparency requirements in 2016 did not re quire specific legislative action

as the GBER is directly applicable. Instead, the main shift has been in providing information and

advice to awarding bodies regarding transparency reporting. This has involved upgrading the

guidance provided, specific seminars/webinars, networking and other training and information

activities.

Prior to the introduction of the TAM, there was no centralised system of award reporting in

Belgium.

Formal responsibility for compliance with the transparency requirements rests with the awarding

bodies. The State aid coordinators for the four jurisdictions have information and advisory roles

and have been involved in training awarding bodies on encoding and other aspects of the TAM;

however, they have no direct role in inputting the data. In practical terms, awarding bodies apply

for TAM login details through the Belgian Permanent Representation and organise the reporting

of awards under the transparency requirement as each sees fit.

Arrangements for ABER and FIBER are separate, but similar. In Flanders (the only region with a

coastal maritime sector) responsibility lies with the regional ministerial agencies in the agriculture

and fisheries policy domain. In Wallonia, formal responsibility lies with the Department for

Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment. The Brussels Capital Region does not

provide aid under ABER or FIBER.

The overall system is similar for the four jurisdictions: State aid coordinators in each provide

advice, training and support, but awarding bodies are responsible for transparency reporting.

1.2. Legal arrangements

1.2.1. Legal basis

Introduction of the transparency requirements in 2016 did not require specific legislative action

as the GBER is directly applicable.

Nevertheless, in Flanders, the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Agency (VLAIO), of which the

State aid coordinator is a part, has added an updated State aid compliance article (referring,

among other things, to the scope of the GBER, the Deggendorf principle, undertakings in difficulty

and the transparency requirements) to the legal basis for all its schemes. The terms and

conditions of the VLAIO aid scheme now contain a specific provision outlining the transparency

requirements, and other Flanders agencies have been encouraged to do the same.

Elsewhere there has been no explicit legislative change because the GBER is directly applicable.

Prior to the introduction of the TAM, there was no centralised system of award reporting in

Belgium. However, within Flanders, some information on large awards was centrally collated as

part of a long-term strategy of increasing awareness of State aid and large amounts of aid, but

these were not systematically published. The Brussels Capital Region operated a system of

ordonnances on publishing awards to Brussels businesses, which facilitated access to information

and likely made implementation of the transparency requirements easier in some respects.

1.2.2. Substantive provisions

To the extent that domestic provisions have been introduced (i.e. only in Flanders), these

replicate the EU transparency requirements and do not go beyond them.

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1.2.3. Enforcement

The State aid coordinators at regional and federal level do not have an enforcement role with

respect to State aid transparency requirements, nor indeed regarding State aid compliance more

generally.

Awarding bodies and their parent administrations in all four jurisdictions are ultimately

responsible for compliance with the transparency requirements, but there are no specific

procedures to enforce this, nor any specific sanctions for non-compliance.

The Belgian competition authority (BMA-ABC) has no competence in State aid matters.

1.3. Organisational arrangements

1.3.1. Institutional arrangements

The institutional arrangements for compliance with the transparency requirements are highly

decentralised, but broadly similar across Belgium.

In all three regions (Flanders, Wallonia and the Brussels Capital Region), and at the Federal level,

there are well-developed coordination and advisory mechanisms; however, awarding bodies

and/or their parent ministries are responsible for compliance for reporting awards exceeding

€500,000. The coordinators provide guidance and may signal potential compliance issues, but

have no formal responsibility.

All the regions and the Federal level have a coordination capacity with respect to State aid. In

Flanders this function is the responsibility of a single official in VLAIO who provides guidance,

manages the network of awarding bodies and liaises with the other Belgian regions, the federal

government and the European Commission. The network of represe ntatives of awarding bodies in

Flanders numbers around 200. In Wallonia the coordination funct ion is provided by the regional

contact point on State aid, situated in the Directorate for Economy, Labour and Research in the

Walloon regional government. As in Flanders, the coordinator provides information and

awareness-raising sessions and training for awarding bodies in Wallonia. The Walloon network

comprises around 100 people from different ministries and parts of the administration.

The four State aid coordinators meet regularly to discuss common issues within their own

networks.

1.3.2. Scrutiny and control of specific compliance issues

There is no centralised mechanism to ensure compliance with specific compliance issues (namely:

Deggendorf principle, cumulation limits, de minimis conditions, firms in difficulty and single

undertaking criteria), but the State aid coordinating bodies provide advice and guidance as

required. For example, regarding firms in difficulty, a case in which the Commission intervened led

to a new approach to assessing the financial situation of firms. While this has been shared with

the networks by the Flanders coordinator, the responsibility for adopting such formulae rests with

the awarding bodies.