Country Profile: Lithuania

• Author: Naldini, Andrea; Pompili, Marco; Peruccacci, Eleonora
• Pages: 198-201

198

17. COUNT RY PROFI LE: LI THUANI A

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

17.1 .1 . Obligat ion or lack ther eof to evaluat e

Evaluation culture in Lithuania has st arted to develop as a direct result of the EU

regulat ions an d the need to evaluate t he r elevance, efficiency ef fectiveness an d im pact

of the EU funds. Th e evaluation of suppor t provided from the ESIF is conduct ed on a

systematic b asis, mostly by ext ernal evaluators. Evaluat ion of the ESIF is coordinated

by t he Managing Authority – the Ministry of Finance and is planned in advance on t he

basis of evaluation p lans that cover the whole programming period ( the so called

“evaluation st rategy”) and every financial year ( annual evaluation plans t hat in clu de

evaluation foreseen in t he ev aluation strategy and some other ev aluat ion based on ad

hoc needs) .

The goo d p ract ices and cap acit y d eve lope d in t he fiel d of Coh esion Polic y ev alu ati on had

led t o th e extension of t he ev aluat ion pract ice to all public investm ents, not only the

ESIF, and ot her types of government int ervent ion (r egulatory , taxation, et c.). Th is

initiat ive is one of the elem ent s of the Strategic Planning an d Budget Reform , w hich is

du e t o be com plet ed by the b egin ning o f 2 021 . Th e pu rpo se of t his refo rm is to deve lop

a more reliable and bett er -qu ality syst em of st rategic planning and to st rengthen

per form ance budgeting. As a result of this ongoing refor m, public expendit ure review

t ools wer e int ro duce d i n 2 01 9 a nd th e f ir st exp end itu re re vie ws in th e t hr ee pub lic pol icy

areas - social protecti on, health care, and e ducat ion - w ere carried out.

In Lithuania, the evaluat ion system of St at e aid schemes is not well developed. There

is a clear r egulatory obligation and respon sibility for ex-an te assessment of grants of

State aid for comp liance with the EU regu lations. This function is delegated to t he

Competition Council of Lithuania. Since 2016, granting au thorit ies have been r equir ed

to o btain ex-an te com pat ibility opin ions from the Comp etiti on Co uncil a dvis ing them on

the com patibilit y of t heir project with the State aid rules. However , Council

recom mendat ions concerning State aid are not r equir ed t o be adopt ed by State aid

gr anting aut hor ities.

17.1 .2 . Proced ures t o enfor ce t he o bligation

The an aly sis o f St at e ai d sche mes is lim it ed t o ex-an te asse ssme nts . I n Lith uan ia, t her e

is no legis lat ion dir ectl y co mp ellin g i nst itu tio ns t o c arr y o ut ex-p ost eval uat ion s of State

aid schemes. The impact of State aid schem es m ight only ind irect ly and part ially b e

evaluated by conduct in g ESI Funds evaluat ions and in ad hoc cases by the Supreme

Aud it In stitu tio n – Nat ion al Au dit Of fice of Lith uan ia. For ex amp le, t he St ate aid schem e

SA.41540 Aid t o public legal persons – science and technology parks (STPs) fell wit hin

the scop e of state audit car ried out by the National Audit Office in 2017.