Country Profile: Denmark

• Author: Naldini, Andrea; Pompili, Marco; Peruccacci, Eleonora
• Pages: 131-134

131

7. COUNTRY PROFI LE: DENM ARK

7.1. Section 1 - Nat ional rules for t he evaluat ion of State aid schemes

7.1. 1. Obligation or lack ther eof to evaluate

There are no general legal obligat ions to ev aluat e public policies in Denmark . This

means t hat there are no law concerning th e requirement t o evaluat e public policies in

gen eral. However, m ultiple laws on specific policies contain an obligation t o evaluate.

In Denmark there is a st rong cultu re concern ing the need t o ev aluate pu blic policies to

secure legit imacy. Th is means t hat m ost of the public policies, proj ect s and funds will

include a requirement to be evaluated in t he in it ial agreem ents and subsequent law.

The Rigsrevisionen (an independent inst it ution placed under the Danish Parliament)

au dit s t he S tat e b udg ets and bu dget s f or pub licly f inan ced com pani es i n De nm ark . Th ey

only examine account ings.

In Denmark, the legal regu lation relat ed t o the State aid area is lim it ed an d in m ost

cases t he EU law t akes preced ence. With t he State aid Modernisation ( SAM) initiat iv e

the Eur opea n Com missio n d efin ed n ew prin cipl es an d r equire men ts guid ing Sta te aid in

the EU. Since 2016, bot h th e requ irem ent s r egar din g ev alua tio ns on Sta te aid Schem es

and t he t ranspar ency requirement wer e implemented in Denmark according t o th e

Commission’s guidelines. Before 2 01 6, t here were no nat ional laws prescribing

evaluat ions of State aid sch emes.

7.1. 2. Procedu res to en force the o bligation

As of 2020, ther e are n o national legal requirement s to und ertake evaluations of St ate

aid in Denm ar k. The im plem entation of the EU requirement to evaluat e aid over the

am ount of EUR 1 50 milli on is t her efor e t he only legal req uir ement to eva luat e St ate ai d

schemes121. However , in Denm ark a State aid scheme will be presented in a political

agr eement . The agreem ent will usu ally include a description of the obligation to

evalu ate the schem e. Political agreem ents are not bin ding, but th ey most oft en lead up

to a law. On ly if the law cont ains an obligation t o evalu at e, t he evaluat ion is bin ding.

Generally, ther e exists a st rong cu lt ur e for evaluation in Denmark and most of the big

proj ect s and init iatives are evaluat ed both on a national and a local level. The Danish

St ate aid syst em is how eve r t o a lar ge ext en t b uil t a rou nd tr ust an d n o le gal pr ocedu res

are m ade to enforce th e EU obligat ion to evaluate.

7.2. Section 2 - Nat ional authorit ies responsible f or th e evaluat ion of State aid

7.2. 1. Nat ional organ isation for State aid

In Denmark the State aid Division at the Ministry of Business, Indust ry and Financial

Affair s are t he central adm in ist ration on matters of State aid. The State aid Div ision

of fer s leg al a dvi ce t o t he nat ion al a war din g b odie s, e speci ally wh en th ere is d oub t a bou t

whether initiat ives, legislat ion or public funding entail St at e aid. They do however not

evaluate St at e a id sch em es or syst em at ica lly m on ito r th e l egal r equ ire me nt s t o eva luat e

the larger systems of aid. The NCA ( the Dan ish Consumer and Compet it ion Aut hority )

is respon sible for enf orcing the nat ional compet ition law , in cluding for domestic

121The State aid Handbook, 20 17. Accessed the 17. 03.20 20 at :

ht tp s: //em.dk /media/1 0141/ st at sst oet tehaandbog-2017 .pdf