Country Profile: Latvia

• Author: Naldini, Andrea; Pompili, Marco; Peruccacci, Eleonora
• Pages: 205-210

205

19. COUNT RY PROFI LE: LATVI A

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

19.1 .1 . Obligat ion or lack ther eof to evaluat e

Latvia h as not yet im plem ented a St ate aid pr oj ect or schem e under t he Comm ission

Regulat ion ( EU) No 651/2014 of 17 June 2014 declaring certain cat egories of aid

com pat ible with th e in ter nal mark et in applica tion of Ar ticles 1 07 and 108 of th e Treat y

(furt her - GBER), w hose average annual State aid budget would exceed the threshold

provisioned by the GBER. Thus, Lat via has not yet complet ed any ex -post ev aluat ions

under GBER regulat ion. On the ot her hand, Latvia has com plet ed evaluations of State

aid pr oj ects/ sch emes u nder EU-funde d prog ram me s, a ccord ing t o EU f und s’ m onito ring

and evaluations requ irement s.

At th e n ati onal lev el, th ere is n o l egal obl igat ion to con duct ex -post ev alua tio ns of Stat e

aid pr oje cts/ schem es, ho wever, th e an alysis explain s, in the n ext sect ions, th e ex isting

sy stem i n La tv ia t ha t sets con tr ol m ech ani sms at t he ex-an te st age a nd oth er pr ovis ion s

that assess w hether pub lic r esources w ere used efficient ly or not .

General principles on dev elopm ent planning of public policy in Lat via are em bedded in

th e Law on Development Planning System185, as well as Regulat ion of the Cabinet of

Min ist ers No 737 of De cem ber 2, 2 014 on De vel opm ent p lan nin g d ocu men ts pr epa rat ion

and impact assessment rules186. The Development Planning Sy st em is the political

document enclosing a set of principles, obj ectiv es and actions, with a view t o

im plem ent ing polit ically det er mined prior it ies and ensur ing th e dev elopm en t of bot h

terr it or y and society. The Regulation of the Cabin et of Ministers No 737 regu lates how

public entit ies, in case t hey plan to adopt a developm ent planning policy, should car ry

out an ex-ant e, ongoing (n o lat er t han 2 years before the end of a policy act ion) and

ex-post (n o lat er t han 2 years after the end of a policy action) analy sis of its im pact.

The development pla nnin g docum ent would include obj ectives an d pr iorities of a maj or

public policy or ientation, as well as policy t ools on how to achieve t hese obj ectives,

however , detailed planning of policy instru ments would be carried out with separat e

legislative acts on ly after the policy orientation is approved. Th us, other political

init iatives not related to development planning document s (e.g. public policy

instr um ents) which are developed as separate public policy acts, do not fall under the

Law on Dev elopm ent Plannin g System.187

The backbone of the EU’s regulatory fram ework for State aid in Latvia is t he Law on

Cont rol of Aid for Comm ercial Activity of 19 June 2014 ( hereafter - LCACA)188. I t m ust

be pointed out that th e legal fr amework for provid ing support for com mer cial act ivit ies

is embedded solely in t he LCACA. St at e aid instr uments can be part of/ included in a

dev elopm ent planning docum ent, but a planning document (m edium or short t er m) is

so far always m ore ex tensive t han a Stat e aid sch eme or an in dividual proj ect.

The LCACA does not have sp ecific provision s that a Sta te aid proj ect or schem e, w hose

av era ge a nnu al bud get e xcee ds t he lim it o f GB ER ( EUR 15 0 m il lio n) , sho uld also de velo p

an eva luat io n p lan pri or to th e p roj ect im ple men ta tion . The LCACA d oes not fo rese e an y

other ex-post evaluation procedures. Nevert heless, according t o the Sect ion 1 0 (1) of

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