Country Profile: Spain

• Author: Naldini, Andrea; Pompili, Marco; Peruccacci, Eleonora
• Pages: 143-153

143

10. COUN TRY PROFI LE: SPAI N

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

10.1 .1 . Obligat ion or lack ther eof to evaluat e

In Spain there is an obligation t o monitor and assess State aid schem es, but not to

carry out impact evaluation s of public policies and State aid, ev en if th is type of

evaluation is becoming a more common pr act ice in recent years, especially for RTDI

and h ealth policy .

The Spanish syst em of State aid contr ol is based on an extended management contr ol

app roach, which requir es financial and ou tput verifications in each granting authority

but does not requ ire the evaluation of the socio-economic impacts of State aid

measures. Consequently, when n ot differen tly specified in the text , the word

“evaluation” has t o be intended as monitoring of achieved fin ancial and physical

objectives and not as im pact evalu ation.

In Spain several actors at dif ferent t erritorial lev els ( st at e, regional or local) adv ocate

an d / or p art ici pat e i n e valu at ion pr oces ses, how ev er, t her e “ is no nat ion al com m on lega l

an d a dm ini str at iv e f ram ew or k th at pr om ot es a p ubl ic c ult ur e o f eva lua tio n and im pr ov es

the eff icient dev elopm ent of the evaluation of t he r esults of public policies” (Genaro

Moy a and Ló pez Hernández, 2019).

In fact, t he Spanish Gov ernm ent’s prior ities are controlling, supervising and assessing

State aid schemes in order t o avoid dist or tions and safeguard the well-funct ioning of

market s (Callol, Cañadas & Moy a, 2019)130.

In Spain, t he legal f ramework for subsidies/ State aid is the basic State law: Law

38/ 20 03 , of November 1 7t h, General Law of Subsidies131 and it s Developm ent

Regulat ion, Royal Decr ee 88 7/ 2006, of July 21 st. However, apart from this basic St ate

law , the ev alua tio n o f St at e aid , in i ts dif fere nt ph ases, is det erm ine d b y d iffe ren t nor ms

of legal an d regulat or y rank , as well as the equivalent regional r egulations, app licable

in the field s cor responding t o t he Regional Government s.

The General Law of Su bsidies ( Law 38/2003, of Nov em ber 17th) est ablishes, for the

Public Adm inist rations, the obligation to elaborate a strategic plan of subsidies ( PES),

indicating t he object ives, ef fects, term s, estimated costs and fun ding sources, in

coherence with the objectives of budgetary stability. I n fact , ev ery Minist ry in Spain

must design a 3-year Strategic State aid Plan (Plan Estr atégico de Su bvenciones, from

no w PES) an d su bm its an ann ual re por t on its im plem en ta tio n. Ther efo re, in Spa in Stat e

aid are organised t hr ough t hese str at egic plans, which must be coor dinated by ot her

Adm in ist ration s, an d be consistent w it h multiannual ministerial pr ograms. The sam e

app lies to th e regiona l governme nts, as th ey elabor ate an d appr ove strategic su bsidies

plans132.

130 Callo l, P., Cañadas, M. & Moya, L., ( 2019). Callol, Coca & Asociados SLP. Stat e aid-S pain.

ht tp s: //get tingt hedealthrou gh. com / area/ 67 / ju risdict ion/ 21 /state-aid-sp ai n/

131 Gener al Subsidies Law . Ley Gener al de Subvenciones –Ley 38/ 2013 of November 17 th.

ht tp s: //www.o ficinav irtual.pap.hacienda. gob .es/sitios/ oficinavirt ual/es-

ES/Catalogo Sist em asI nform acion/ TESEOnet/ Do cum ents/ LGS-consoli dado.pdf. In Sp anish law the t erm

"p ublic aid" is defin ed as a synon ym for subsidies ( subv encion es in Spanish) , ev en if subsidy is a broader

conc ept of St ate aid, as st ated in the UE law.

132 See for example, t he case of the Balear ic I slands government ,

ht tp :/ / ww w.ca ib.e s/g ove rn/ sac/ fi txa .do ?codi= 3 289 478 &cod uo= 21 8&l ang= e s. I n this case, the Balea ric

PES speci fies the dura tion of subsid ies, the ir o bject ives and the exp ected effe cts t o ac hieve , t he de adlin es