Country Profile: Austria

• Author: Naldini, Andrea; Pompili, Marco; Peruccacci, Eleonora
• Pages: 89-93

89

1. COUNTRY PROFI LE: AUSTRI A

Int roduction

Austria is a federal countr y with political responsibilities shared both at national and

loc al/ mu nici pal leve l. Accor ding to t his, also t he p rov ision an d m ana gem ent of St ate aid

schemes is usually shar ed bet ween t hem .

1.1 . Section 1 - Nat ional rules for the evaluation of State aid schem es

1.1.1. Ob ligation or lack thereof to ev aluate

I n Au str ia t here are no speci alise d co urt s f or the enf orce men t of Stat e a id ru les, ne ith er

is there one law r egulating State aid. Thus, St at e aid schemes in Aust ria are mainly

sub ject to ESI F and GBER regulation s.

Different aspects of State aid are covered by various leg islations su ch as th e Feder al

Unf air Com pet it ion Act 49, th e Gen eral Ad min ist rat ive Pro cedur e Act 50, t he Res earch and

Technology Promotion Act 51, and the General Guideline for the Grantin g of Funds ( ARR

20 14 ) 52.

In 2013, Austria int roduced its own ev aluat ion syst em for all public policies with t he

Out com e Ori ented Imp act Assessm ent (OOI A).53 Th e ev aluat ion sy stem is based on the

Federal Budget Act ( BGH 2013) 54 and t he I m pact Controlling Decree5 5. Sim ilar to EU

Impact assessments, th e aim is t o assess all draft s of laws and directives (regulatory

pr ojects), but also larg er p roj ects ( oth er pro ject s) on th e ba sis of the desir ed g oals and

m easu res . Th er efo re, t his im pac t asses sme nt go es b ey ond St at e ai d an d c ove rs all ki nds

of Stat e intervent ions. The OOIA con sist s of the followin g steps: problem analysis,

target form ulat ion, form ulation of m easur es and impact assessm en t. The underlying

pr oject will be evaluated aft er five y ears at the latest. The report s are subm itted t o t he

Nat ional Council (Par liam ent of Austria) annu ally.

1.1.2. Procedures to enfor ce t he obligat ion

The General Guideline for th e Grant ing of Funds (ARR 2014) regulates t he types of aid

and r equir em ents for federal funding, as w ell as t he control and evaluation thereof.

Am ong ot her req uir ement s, it out lin es t hat fu ndi ng fall ing und er EU St ate aid law ne eds

to follow the EU State aid principle for the existence of an incentive effect. Regarding

contr ol and evaluation, t he guideline specifies that the authority responsible for

pr ovid ing fu ndin g h as t o m ake an assessm ent of w het her and t o what ex ten t t he tar get

49 Official t itle: Bundesg eset z gegen den unlaut eren Wett bewerb 1984 – UWG. Available at :

ht tp s:/ / ww w.r is.b ka. gv. at/ Gel ten deFassun g.w xe?Ab fra ge= Bun desno rm en&Ge setze snum me r= 10 002 665 .

50 Official t itle: Allgem eines Ver waltu ngsv erf ahr ensgesetz 1991 – AVG. Available at:

ht tp s:/ / ww w.r is.b ka. gv. at/ Gel ten deFassun g.w xe?Ab fra ge= Bun desno rm en&Ge setze snum me r= 10 005 768 .

51 Official t itle: For schu ngs- und Tech nologieförderu ngsgeset z. Availab le at:

ht tps:// www. ris.bka.gv.at/ eli/b gbl/1 982 /434 /P2d/ NOR402 02202 .

52 Of ficia l t it le: All gem eine Rahm enr icht lini en f ür die Gewä hru ng von Förd eru ngen au s Bu nde smi tt eln - ARR

2014. Avail able at: ht tp s:// www. ris.bk a.gv.at/ eli/bgbl/I I /201 8/ 190/ 20180726 .

53 Official t itle: Wirku ngso rien tiert e Folg enabschät zung. For m or e infor matio n see ( only in Germ an) :

ht tps:// www. oeffent licherd ienst.gv.at/ wirk ung sori ent ierte_ ver waltun g/ fol genabschaetzung/ index .htm l.

54 Of ficia l t it le: Bund esgese tz ü ber di e Führ un g de s Bun desh aush alt es ( Bund eshau shal tsge setz 20 13 – BHG

2013). Avail able at: ht tps: //w ww.ri s.bka.g v.at/ eli/bgbl/I/ 20 09/1 39/2 009 1230.

55 Of ficial t it le: Verordnung des Bundeskanzler s über das ressort übergreif ende Wir kungscontroll ing

(Wirk ungscontrollingveror dnung). Avai labl e at : h tt ps: / / www.r is.bka. gv.at/eli/ bgbl/ I I/ 2015 /68/ 20 150401.