Country Profile: Estonia

• Author: Naldini, Andrea; Pompili, Marco; Peruccacci, Eleonora
• Pages: 135-137

135

8.COUNTRY PROFI LE: ESTONI A

8.1.Section 1- Nat ional rules for t he evaluat ionof Stat e aidschemes

8.1.1.Obligation or lack ther eof to evaluate

Estonia has dev eloped com mon principles of legislative policy and long-term pr inciples

that the public sector has to consider upon planning its activities. The Rules for Good

Legislat ive Pract ice and Leg islat ive Dr aft ing (r egulat ion 18 0, 22. 12. 201 1), in f orce fr om

20 12, r egu lat es t he req uir em ent s f or leg islat iv e in te nt , co ncep t, im pac t a ssessm en t and

ex-post impact assessment. A formal methodology of impactassessmentwhich also

cov ers ex post evaluation and regulat ory oversigh t w as endo rsed by th e go vernm ent in

December 2012124. Preliminary impact assessment is prepared for all prim ary laws and

selected subordinate regulations and ex-post evaluation is mandatory for some

regulations since 2012; implementation of regulatory impact assessments is more

advanced in Estonia as compared to ex-post evaluations.125However, no specific legal

obligations are set for the ev aluation of State aidsch emes in Estonia.

The field ofState aidis regulated in Estonia by the Competition Act that was adopted

in 2001 (RT I 2001, 56, 332; the m ost recent version is from 15 March 2019 – RT I,

13 .03.201 9, 92). The sco pe of app licat ion of th e Act is the safeguar ding of compet ition

in the interest of free en ter prise upon the ext ract ion of n atural r esources, manu factur e

of go ods, pr ovision of ser vices and sale and p urch ase of produ cts and serv ices and th e

preclusion and elim ination of the prevent ion, limitation or restriction of competit ion in

other economic activities, as well as the processing of and liability for claims arising

fr om dam ages (§ 1). Chap ter 6 of the Act is fo cused on State aidissues, def iningSt ate

aid, de m inimis aid, gr antors, submissio n of notice on State aidt o t he EC, et c.

According to § 49 (Reporting on State aid), the Ministry of Finance is expected to

prepare reports on State aidcorresponding to the EC Regulation No 794/2004, based

on da ta fr om t he reg ist er of Sta te aid and de m ini mi s ai d. The lat t er is a na tio nal re gist er

established by the Government in which r ecords of the grant and use of St ate aidand

de m inimis State aidsh all be mainta ined. The register is oper atio nal since 2 009.

The Ministry of Finance is expect ed t o submit an over view of State aidan d de m inim is

aid grant ed in Estonia to t he Gover nment of the Repu blic once a year.

Neither the Com petit ion Act nor ot her acts establish specific r ules for the evaluation of

State aidschemes. This was also confirmed by the communication with the Estonian

Ministry of Finance that stated: “Wewould like to inform you that in Estonia we have

no national experience in evaluating State aidschemes and the efficiency in the

im plem ent ati on o f t he eval uation req uirem ents from legal, organisat ional and t echnical

perspective”.

8.2.Section 2- National aut hor ities responsible for the evaluat ion of State aid

8.2.1.Nat ional organ isation for State aid

The in stit utional setu p for regu latory oversigh t g enerally includes:

124https://www.just.ee/sites/www.just.ee/files/elfinder/article_files/mojude_hindamise_metoodika.pdf

125OECD ( 2018 ), OECD Regu lato ry Polic y Out look 201 8. Coun try pr ofile : Est onia .

https://www.oecd.org/gov/regulatory-policy/estonia-country-note-regulatory-policy-2018.pdf