Country Profile: Slovakia

• Author: Naldini, Andrea; Pompili, Marco; Peruccacci, Eleonora
• Pages: 248-252

248

27. COUN TRY PROFI LE: SLOVAKI A

Int roduct ion

Slovakia is a centralised country , wher e the evaluation cult ure is still gradually

dev eloping and th ere is no legal obli gation t o ev aluat e St ate aid schem es.

The ev aluation of public invest men ts as w ell as St ate ai d is sti ll g radu ally dev eloping in

Slovakia. I n recent years, th e gov ernment started to establish inst itutions an d em ploy

civ il serv ant s f ocuse d o n ev alu ati on of inv estm en ts fina nced by t he g ene ral gov ern me nt

budget. At present, the national coor dinat or for State aid schemes in Slovakia is the

Ant imonopol y Office, which succeeded t o the Minist ry of Fin ance.

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

27.1 .1 . Obligat ion or lack ther eof to evaluat e

I n Sl ovak ia the re is no l egal, ad minist ra tiv e or oth er oblig at ion reg ardi ng the ev aluat ion

of nat ional State aid. Evaluation procedures are m andatory only for ESI F operat ional

program m es. However, some legal obligations ar e in force with respect to t he

assessment of investment proj ects financed b y public fundin g.

The Slovak govern ment reformed the investm ent assessm ent process in 20 17 b y

adopt ing the Public Investment Project Assessm ent Framework. The Government

def ined a m et hodological framework f or t he process and preparat ion of large

investm ent proj ects and their assessm ent in line wit h the “Value for Money ” p rinciples.

Moreov er, the Ministry of Economy is providing regional inv estm ent aid aim ed at

increasing th e com petitiveness and econom ic development of least developed regions

via initial investm ent support. Alth ough the Ministry does not carry out evaluations of

these in vestment s, t he eligibilit y cr it eria for support are legally binding and each

potential beneficiary needs to f ulfil t he cr it er ia. Any business registered in Slovak ia

whose investment project fulfils t he conditions for being gr anted investm ent aid un der

the Region al In vest me nt Aid Act may ap ply fo r r egio nal inv estme nt aid. Th e in vest me nt

proj ect mu st su ccessfully pass the process of investm en t aid application assessment

and r egional investment aid approval. There is n o legal entitlem ent to bein g granted

regional invest ment aid.

27.1 .2 . Proced ures t o enfor ce t he o bligation

Even if no legal obligations exist to evaluate State aid schemes, some legal obligations

are in force with respect to t he invest men t p roj ects.

The Ministry of Finance is obligated to prepar e and publish the assessment of th e

investm ent pr oj ects fun ded fro m publ ic r esour ces of the g ener al g over nm ent with cost s

above EUR 40 m illion., or above EUR 10 m illion in the area of inform ation technology.

The spending r ev ision is car ried out by the Valu e for Money Unit at the Ministry of

Finance.

The im plem entation of the measures identified by t he r evisions conduct ed since

2017 are m onit ored by the Implementat ion Unit located at Deputy Prim e Min ist er ‘s

Off ice for I nvestment s and I nformatisat ion of t he Slov ak rep ublic.