Country Profile: Luxembourg

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

202

18.COUN TRY PROFI LE: LUXEMBOURG

Introduction

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

municipal level. As a r esult, allSt ate aidmeasures 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.

Luxembourg is among the EU Member States that provide the least amountof Stat e

aid. In 2017,State aidmeasures amounted to 0.29 percent of GDP, below the 0.76

per cent of t he EU28 mean. Individual State aidschemes 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 zeof th e p ubl ic

budget of the country 178.

18.1.Sect ion 1-National r ules for t he evaluation ofSt ate aidschemes

18.1.1.Obligat ion or lack ther eof to evaluat e

The regulatory policy contextin Luxembourg does notset out a general obligation to

conductex-post evaluat ions of public policies. This does not m ean, however, that the

various policy measures or spending programmes are not subjected to regular

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

basis for each regulation or spending programme. Typically, the decision to 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 specificallyeither, 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 the minimum t hresholds and thus remain outside the 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 European legislat ion, St ate aidexceeding a cert ain threshold or fulfilling cer tain

conditions mustbe notified to the European Commission. The Luxembourgish

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

pass these thresholds. Thereby, the authorities are able avoid the e requirement to

notify the Stat e aidsch 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

have been adopted by the Luxembourgish parliament to transpose and implement

European legislation onState aid. These laws provide the legal basis for larger Stat e

aidschemes accessible to economic actors in the country, 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

178https://ec.europa.eu/competition/state_aid/scoreboard/index_en.html

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

180Law on Stat e ai d sche mes for RDI: http://legilux.public.lu/eli/etat/leg/loi/2017/05/17/a544/jo

Law on Stat e aid sche mes in su ppor t of SMEs: http://legilux.public.lu/eli/etat/leg/loi/2018/08/09/a882/jo

Law on State aid schemes for the protection of the environment:

http://legilux.public.lu/eli/etat/leg/loi/2017/12/15/a1108/jo