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 ion of Stat e aid schem es

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 t he public sector has to consider upon plannin g it s 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 assessm ent. A form al m ethodology of impact assessment which also

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

December 2012124. Prelim inary impact assessm ent is prepared for all pr im ary laws and

selected subordinat e regulat ions and ex-post evaluation is mandat or y for som e

regulat ions since 2012; imp lem entat ion of regulatory im pact assessm ents is m ore

adv anced in Est on ia as compared to ex-post evaluations.125 However, no specific legal

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

The field of St at e aid is regulated in Est onia by t he Competit ion Act that was ad opted

in 2001 (RT I 2001, 56, 332; t he m ost recent version is fr om 15 Mar ch 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 inat ion of the prevent ion, limitat ion or restriction of compet it ion in

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

fr om dam ages (§ 1). Chap ter 6 of the Act is fo cused on State aid issues, def ining St ate

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

According t o § 49 ( Reporting on State aid) , t he Ministry of Finance is expect ed t o

prepare report s on St at e aid corresponding t o 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

est ablished by the Government in which r ecords of the grant and u se of St ate aid and

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

The Minist ry of Finance is expect ed t o submit an over view of State aid an 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 aid schemes. This was also confirmed by t he communicat ion wit h t he Estonian

Ministry of Finance that stated: “We wou ld like to inf orm you that in Estonia w e have

no national exper ience in ev aluat in g State aid schemes 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

per spective”.

8.2. Section 2 - Nat ional 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:

124 ht tp s: //www.j ust.ee/ sit es/ w ww.j ust .ee/ files/ elf ind er/art icle_fi les/ m oj ude_hindamise_metoodik a.p df

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

ht tp s: //www.o ecd. org/ gov/ regulatory -policy/ est onia-cou nt ry -not e- regulato ry-policy -2018. pdf