Country Profile: Croatia

• Author: Naldini, Andrea; Pompili, Marco; Peruccacci, Eleonora
• Pages: 178-181

178

13.COUN TRY PROFI LE: CROATI A

13.1.Sect ion 1-National r ules for t he evaluation ofSt ate aidschemes

13.1.1.Obligat ion or lack ther eof to evaluat e

In the Republic of Croatia, the Ministry of Finance is responsible forState aidpolicy ,

wh ich is being im plement ed based on the St ate aidLaw ( OG 47 /2 014, 69/ 201 7). State

aidproviders propose programmes that are monitored by the Ministry of Finance.

However, there is no formal obligation, regulation or guideline referring to the

evaluation of Stat e a idpr ogr amm es or int erv ent ions ( incl. ex-an te, interim or ex -post).

On the gen eral level of pub lic p olicy , u p t o now, th ere was no n ationa l po licy eval uat ion

fr amewor k. Wi th t he adop ti on of th e n ew leg isla tiv e fra me wor k for t he nat io nal st rat egi c

planning system(includinglong-termstrategies, medium-termplans and short-term

pr ogrammes incorporating St ate aidin ter ventions, OG 123/20 17) , evaluations becam e

obligatory. This strategic planning law is accompanied by a Regulation on the

implementation of evaluation procedures ( OG 66/2019). The new planning syst em will

be in full function as of 2021. The Ministry of Regional Developmentand EU Funds is

responsible for this new planning system. The same Ministry is also in charge of the

coo rdi nat ion of ESI fun ds i n Cr oat ia, wh ere th e ev alu ati on o bli gat ion on pro gra mm e a nd

projectlevel is followed in accordance with the overall Evaluation Strategy and

individual evaluation plans. There are four ESI-fund related operational programmes

that are accom panied by respective evaluation plans covering the pr ogram ming per iod

and a nu mbe r of t he dev elopm ent rela ted in ter ven tio ns co ver ing Stat e a idpr ogrammes

as well. Howev er, these evaluat ions do not cover State aidimp act evaluat ions.

An example with regard to the evaluation of a State aidprogram mes in Croat ia might

be the Law on State aidin R&D proj ects (OG 64/ 2018) , which ment ions in its glossary

in article 4 “evaluation plan”. However, no references are made to the preparation of

evaluation plans, nor to projects’ evaluations. This lawis accompanied byRegulation

onState aidfor R&D projects covering also the project assessment process. Impact

indicators for State aidmeasures are mentioned in the context of monitoring project

implementation. NoState aidprogramme evaluation is publicly available, and it is

un rea list ic to ex pec t th at im pa ct ev alua ti ons ha ve been d one , a s n o g uid eli nes on im pa ct

evaluation ofSt ate ai dprogr amm es exist.

With regard to environment, energy or transportsectors, there are no stipulations

refer ring t o St ate aidevaluat ion beyond t he EU relat ed program mes.

13.1.2.Procedu res to en force t he obligation

There ar e no procedures t o en force obligat ion, since evaluation is not m andatory .

13.2.Sect ion 2-National aut horit ies r esponsible for th e evaluat ion of State aid

13.2.1.Nation al organisat ion for Stat e aid