Country Profile: Portugal

• Author: Naldini, Andrea; Pompili, Marco; Peruccacci, Eleonora
• Pages: 223-230

223

23.COUNTRY PROFI LE: PORTUGAL

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

23.1.1.Obligat ion or lack ther eof to evaluat e

The evaluation of public policies in Portugal was particularly reinforced since the

adh esio n t o t he EEC. Fro m the n on ,pu blic pol icies wh ere Euro pean fu ndin g o ccur s nee d

to b e ev aluat ed, as per the EU r ules. How ever , at the nat ional level, there is not a clear

pr erogative r egarding a mand ator y evaluation of State aid.

The Portuguese legal and institutional framework on dom esticState aidconsiders, on

its art icle 65(1) of t he Portuguese compet ition law, that State aidis an aid granted by

a Member State or by any ot her public entity and t hat it “should not restr ict, dist ort or

affect in a sensible manner compet ition in thedom estic m ark et or in a subst antial part

of it .” This is in lin e wit h ar tic le 1 07( 1) of the Tr eat y on th e Fun ctio ning of t he Eu ropean

Union ( TFEU), th at states: “ save as oth erw ise p rov ided in the Treat ies, any aid grant ed

by a Mem ber State or through State resources in any form whatsoever which distorts

or t hreatens to distort com pet ition by fav our ing cert ain under tak ings or th e pr oduction

of certain goods shall, insofar as it affects trade between Member States, be

incom patible with t he int ernal market ”.

As exp lained below, mon itor ing en tit ies donot have enf orcement pow ers, and can on ly

issue recommendations. This does not allowfor an active role on either attribution or

evaluation ofState aid, only being able to monitor its implementation and issue

recom men dations and request inf orm ation about th e pr ocesses.

So, accordin g to the nat ional legal framework, t he m onitoring entities do not have t he

legal supportor abilityto scrutiniseState aid. Their role is essentially to help public

authorities that grant measures considered to be aid, to elim inate negative effects on

com petition.

In short, it can be concluded that there is not a specific legal framework in Portugal

regar ding State aidevaluation. This absence means t hat only the St ate aidthat must

be assessed under the EU rules are to be evaluated and thatthe nat ional procedures

on t his matter ma inly suppo rt themselv es in th e legal fram ework s deri ving f rom t he EU

and t he Commission.

23.2.Sect ion 2-National aut horit ies r esponsible for the evaluation of St ate aid

23.2.1.Nation al organisat ion for Stat e aid

Competition practices in the Portuguese internal market are monitored by Autoridade

da Concor rên cia –AdC ( Com pet ition Author ity ). I ts mi ssion is to ensure the ap plication

of the rules of promotion and protection of competition in the private, public,

cooper ative and social sectors, in accordan ce with th e pr inciple of market eco nom y and

free competition, with a view to the efficient operation of markets, the optimum

allocat ion of resources an d the interests of consum ers, in accordan ce with its St atutes.

On the matter of State aid, there is no need for a prior notificat ion to t he AdC, noran

app ro val be for e t h e ai d i s en act ed. Th is me ans AdC d oes no t hav e e nfo rce me nt cap acit y.

In order to carry outits tasks, the AdC has sanctioning, supervisory and regulatory

po wer s. Those re lat ed t o sanct ion ing ar e m ost ly re lev ant , a s, in its use , Ad C can id ent ify

and investigate conducts thatare liable to infringe national and European Union