Country Profile: Finland

• Author: Naldini, Andrea; Pompili, Marco; Peruccacci, Eleonora
• Pages: 154-162

154

11. COUNT RY PROFI LE: FI N LAND

11.1. Sect ion 1 - National r ules for t he evaluation of St ate aid schem es

11.1 .1 . Obligat ion or lack ther eof to evaluat e

General obligations t o ev aluat e any discretion ary govern ment transf er are la id down in

the Act on Discretion ary Governm ent Transfers (688/ 2001, Section 36) : “State aid

auth orit ies must in a suitable m anner m onit or the ef fect iven ess an d ap propriat eness of

the use of discr et ionar y Gov ernm ent t ransfers granted by them and the effect of

transfers on compet it ion and t he st atus of differen t populat ion groups and t heir

envir onmental and ot her im pact. State aid authorities must periodically assess the

necessity for discr et ionar y Governm ent t ransfer s and t he need t o dev elop them . State

aid au tho rit ies shall pr ovi de e ach o th er w it h as sista nce to thi s en d.” 144 The Act 68 8/ 200 1

does n ot specify when and how the evaluation shou ld be carr ied out but leav es to t he

Aut hor ities t he discretionary power to evaluate.

As a lex specialis in re lation to t he Act 688/ 2001, th e Act on t he General Req uire men ts

for Granting Supp ort for Economic Activity (4 29/ 2016) came int o force on 1 July 2016 ,

introducing new obligations on State aid evaluation compar ed t o t he previous act on

St ate aid. The Act cover s al l sect or s except pr im ary agr icul tur al and fores try pr odu ctio n

and f isheries. The new legislation was initiat ed t o harm on ise and enhance the

effect ive ness of financi al su ppor t gran ted for eco nom ic act ivities and to ensure nat ional

ex-ant e assessment of the finan cial suppor t with the EU St at e aid ru les on t he side of

the com pliant .

Act 42 9/ 201 6 ( Sect ion s 6-7 ) s pecif ies t he resp onsib ilit ies of t he Advisor y Commi tt ee on

Business Subsidy in term s of the ex-ant e assessment. I n addition, the r esponsibilities

of the Com m it tee include th e dev elopm ent of t he ent ire nat ional business subsidy

system and the prom ot ion of cooperat ion bet ween administrative bran ches w it hin the

Minist ries and public adm inist rat ion on t he nat ional and region al levels, the subm issi on

of pr oposals and init iatives t o com petent aut horities for dev eloping legislat ion and

adm inistr at ive practices, as well as follow ing nat ional and in ternat ional regulation,

pr actices and deve lopm ent s in it s sector.

Under Act 429/ 2016, r esponsibility for following t he St ate aid pr ocedures defined in

Sect ions 3-7 rem ains within the gr anting authority , includin g ex-ant e assessm ent and

evaluation practices. Section 5 on the evaluation of effectiveness states that the

granting auth or it y must per iodically, at lat est prior t o renewing a State aid sch em e or

an individual support, evaluate t he effectiveness, efficiency and performance of the

sup por t g ran ted in or der t o acq uir e in for mat ion on the r elev ance of th e su ppor t and the

needs for its future improvements. The Act does not however specify how the

evaluations shou ld be carr ied out , as the methodology t o be applied is decided by t he

gr anting aut hor ity, as is also t he case in r espect of Act 688/ 2001.

I n t he aft erm at h o f t he 20 08 fin ancia l cr isis , si nce 201 1, Gov ern me nt Pro gra mm es hav e

included Business Subsidy Reform as one of t he t argets to r educe budget deficits and

t o in crea se t he eff icien cy of t he sup por t pro vid ed i n a ccord ance wi th ene rgy an d c lim ate

targets, including sim plifying the comp lex syst em of Business subsidies and r educing

adm in ist rat ive cost s. Whi le t he am oun t o f p ubli c fi nan ces t arg ete d t o B usin ess su bsid ies

144 Unof ficia l t ransl atio n av ailab le at : https:/ / www.finlex .fi/ en/ laki/ kaann okset/ 2001/ en2 001 0688. pdf. The

te rm Stat e aid does not refe r her e to St ate aid as un derst ood under the EU r ules b ut to any discret ionary

gov ernm ent tr ansfe r.