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 aidschemes

7.1.1.Obligation or lack ther eof to evaluate

There are no general legal obligations to evaluate public policies in Denmark. This

means that there are no lawconcerning the requirement t o evaluate public policies in

general. However, m ultiple laws on specific policies contain an obligation to 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. This means t hat most of the public policies, project s and funds will

include arequirement to be evaluated in the initial agreements and subsequentlaw.

The Rigsrevisionen (an independent institution 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 examineaccount ings.

In Denmark, the legal regulation related to the State aidarea is limited and in most

cases the EU law takes precedence. With the State aidModernisation (SAM) initiative

the Eur opea n Com missio n d efin ed n ew prin cipl es an d r equire men ts guid ingSta te aidin

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

and the transparency requirementwere implemented in Denmark according to the

Commission’s guidelines. Before 2016, there were no national laws prescribing

evaluat ions of State aidsch 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 ofSt ate

aidin Denmark. The implementation of the EU requirement to evaluate aid over the

am ount ofEUR 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 Denmark a State aidscheme will be presented in a political

agreement. The agreement will usually 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. Only if the law contains an obligation to evaluate, the evaluat ion is binding.

Generally, there exists a strong cultur e for evaluation in Denmark and most of the big

projects and init iatives are evaluated 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 aidDivision at the Ministryof Business, Industry and Financial

Affairs are the central administration on matters of State aid. The State aidDiv 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 initiatives, legislation or public funding entail State aid. They do however not

evaluate St at e a idsch 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 Danish Consumer and Competition Authority )

is responsible for enforcing the national competition law, including for domestic

121The State aid Handbook, 2017. Accessed the 17.03.2020 at:

https://em.dk/media/10141/statsstoettehaandbog-2017.pdf