Country Profile: Luxembourg

• Author: Naldini, Andrea; Pompili, Marco; Peruccacci, Eleonora
• Pages: 202-204

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18. COUN TRY PROFI LE: LU XEMBOURG

Int roduct ion

Luxem bour g is a centr alised state with only two levels of gover nance, the national and

municipal level. As a r esult, all St ate aid measures are handled directly at the nat ional

lev el by the Luxem bour gish govern men t and its respective m inistries and author ities.

Luxem bourg is among the EU Mem ber States that provide th e least am ount of Stat e

aid . I n 20 17 , State aid measures am ounted to 0.29 p ercent of GDP, below t he 0.7 6

per cent of t he EU28 mean. Individual State aid schemes in Luxembourg are generally

of ve ry lim it ed size, w hich can be ex pla ined by t he com par ati vel y s mal l si ze of th e p ubl ic

budget of the country 178.

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

18.1 .1 . Obligat ion or lack ther eof to evaluat e

The regulat or y policy context in Lux em bour g does not set out a general obligat ion to

conduct ex-post evaluat ions of public policies. This does n ot m ean, however, that t he

various policy measures or spen ding pr ogrammes are not subject ed t o regular

evaluation. The need to carry out ex-post evaluation s is assessed on a case-by-case

basis for each regulat ion or spending progr am m e. Ty pically, t he decision t o carry out

an ev aluat ion lies with the Minister in char ge of the dossier. Ther e is also no oblig atio n

to publish any evaluat ions that are carr ied out by th e auth orit ies. 179

As a r esult , th ere is also no gen eral ised requ irem ent t o condu ct evaluat ion on State aid

measures specifically either, beyond those obligations set out in the European

legislation. Regarding the lat ter, all aid measu res grant ed by the Lux embourgish St ate

have stayed below th e minimum t hresholds and thus remain outside t he scope of t he

European obligat ions t o con duct an ev aluat ion.

18.1 .2 . Proced ures t o enfor ce t he o bligation

Under Eur opean legislat ion, St ate aid exceeding a cert ain threshold or fulfilling cer tain

condit ions must be notified to t he Europ ean Commission. The Lu xembou rgish

gover nment has decided, as a general g uideline, not t o gr ant any St ate aid that would

pass t hese thresholds. Ther eby, t he au thor it ies are able avoid the e requirement t o

notify the Stat e aid sch eme al together . By extension, this also me ans that no State aid

scheme is subj ect t o the obligat ion of evaluation under EU legislat ion.

Som e a id is g ranted d irectl y u nder t he ‘ de m inim is’ reg ulat ion . I n additi on, seve ral law s

hav e been adopted by t he Luxembourgish parliament t o transpose and implement

European legislation on St at e aid. These laws provide the legal basis for lar ger Stat e

aid schemes accessible t o econom ic act or s in the count ry, such as aid for SMEs, for

en vir onm en ta l p rot ect ion , f or th e p rom ot ion of RDI , and fo r r egi onal de velo pm ent . None

of these legal text s contain any prov ision s requiring an evaluat ion.180

178 ht tp s: //ec.euro pa. eu/ comp etition/ st at e_aid/ scoreboard/ index_en.ht m l

179 OECD, La pr océdu re b udget air e au Luxem bour g : ana lyse et recom me ndat ions, March 201 3, Par is.

180 Law on Stat e ai d sche mes for RDI: htt p: / / legilux .public.lu/ eli/etat / leg/loi/ 20 17/05/ 17/ a54 4/ j o

Law on Stat e aid sche mes in su ppor t of SMEs: htt p: / / legilux .public.lu/ eli/etat / leg/loi/ 20 18/0 8/ 09/ a88 2/ jo

Law on State aid schemes for t he protection of t he envir onm ent:

ht tp:// legilux.public.lu/ eli /etat/ leg /loi/ 2017/12/ 15/ a11 08/j o