Country Profile: Hungary

• Author: Naldini, Andrea; Pompili, Marco; Peruccacci, Eleonora
• Pages: 182-185

182

14.COUNTRY PROFI LE: HUNGARY

14.1. Section 1- Nat ional rules for th e ev aluation of State aidschemes

14.1 .1.Obligation or lack thereof to evaluate

In Hungary the CXXX. 2010 Law (17. §) defines the prerequisites for the introduction

of new laws an d p ubli c policies; t his law stip ulat es t hat an y legislat ive proced ures m ust

be preceded by an ex-ante impact assessment on the budgetary and socio-economic

im pact . Ho wev er, the se ex -ant e ev alua tion s ar e m ost ly car ried out by the Gov ern men t,

and for t he int ernal work of t he Government , so these evaluations are not public m ost

of t he t im es. On t he cont rar y, ex-p ost eval uat ions are not m andat ory and it is up to t he

Govern ment to decide to im plement t hem ( 21. §).

In Hungary the main source of law regarding St ate aidschemes is represented by EU

rules159and the national 37/2011 Government Regulation. There is no national legal

obligation to evalu ateState aidschemes, so EU legislation is the main legally binding

source in t his mat ter .

Major legislation changes in EU legislation regarding State aidschemes occurred

between the 2007-2013 and 2014-2020 programming periods. The main principle is

‘trust and verify’;however, at the same time, measures that may seriouslyharm

com pet itio n or fragm ent the internal m ark et are assessed m ore careful ly.

The mainState aidguidelines and frameworks adopted since 2012 foresaw the

possibility of requiring evaluations for aid schemes with large budgets, with novel

characteristics or when significant market, technology or regulatory changes are

foreseen. The Commission has already required evaluations in cases related to

broadband investments. The new GBER foresees evaluations of large aid schemes in

specific fields, in order to ensure that evaluation remains proportionate and limited to

a manageable number of aid schemes with an average annual State aidbudget of at

leastEUR 150 million in the field of: regionalaid, aid for SMEs, access to finance, aid

for research and development and innovation, energy and environmental aid, aid for

broadband infr astr uctures.

14.2. Section 2- Nat ional author ities responsible for the evaluat ion of State aid

14.2.1.Nation al organisat ion for Stat e aid

In Hun gary , t he main cent ralised author ity dealin g w ith St ate ai dand sta te subsidies is

the Stat e aid Monit oring Off ice ( SAMO), which is under the authority of t he Ministry of

Innovation and Technology. The procedures of this authorityto manage State aid

schemes are presented below, but they do not include evaluations carried out

autonom ously, since they are not m andatory. So far this kind of assessments has not

been implement ed by th e gover nment .

The SAMO has to ensure that Stateaidin Hungary is granted in accordance with the

St ate aidr ules of the European Uni on. The l egal back ground f or implem enti ng Sta te aid

contr ol is defined by Gover nment Decree 37/ 2011. (I II . 22.) on procedures relat ing to

State aidschemes under Article 107(1) of the TFEU and the regional aid map. The

Gov ern me nt Decr ee cont ain s p roce dur al rul es r elat in g t o pri or not ifi cat ions , s ets out t he

159The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), Article 107 and 108 and the Council

Regu latio n 20 15/ 158 9 o n lay ing down det ailed rul es fo r t he ap plicat ion of A rtic le 10 8 of th e TFEU.