Country Profile: Sweden

• Author: Naldini, Andrea; Pompili, Marco; Peruccacci, Eleonora
• Pages: 237-242

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25.COUN TRY PROFI LE: SWEDEN

Introduction

Sweden is a centralised country, where the government is the mainauthorit y

responsible for m anaging and evaluat ing public policies. Evaluat ions of public policies,

includingState aidschemes, are usually carried out by several experienced

gov ernment al entities/ agen cies.

25.1.Sect ion 1-National r ules for t he evaluation of St ate aidschemes

25.1.1.Obligat ion or lack ther eof to evaluat e

The Swedish evaluation scene is largely focused on sector-based interests and this

app lies also to St ate aideva luat ion . Ge neral obli gat ions to ev alua te are laid do wn in the

legislation on the governmental agencies responsible foranalysis and evaluation

pr act ices reg ard ing th e u se o f p ubl ic f und ing in t heir r espe ctiv e f iel ds, incl udi ng gra nt ing

authorities ofState aid. Obligations to evaluate include, implicitly, State aidschemes

as a part of the analysis on the use of public funding, although there are no national

rules specifically addressing State aidevaluation. No authority has responsibility for

continuously monitoring and analysing the overall st ate ofState aidgovernance, with

follow-up , ev aluation an d analy sis done by secto r.

When the Govern ment desi gns a m easur e and incl udes an evaluat ion pla n, carr yin g ou t

an ev alua tio n is m andat ory an d an y of the gover nm ent al agen cies may be req uest ed t o

proceed with t he evaluation. The legal basis ensur ing that evaluation s com ply with the

EU rules is laid down in the Law on the application of the European Union’s State aid

ru les (2 013: 388 ). To conclude, the ob ligati on t o evaluate is ba sed o n a legal o bligation

but highly dependent on sectoral administr ativ e pract ices to car ry out analyses on the

efficiency of the use of public funding. The prevailing legal obligat ions do not lay down

any provisions on systematic evaluation practices with respectto State aid, when

evaluation is not mandatory according to the EU rules and Law 2013:388. When

evalu atio n is m andatory, th e law is en forced by carr yin g ou t a n ev aluation according to

an ev aluat ion plan.

For ex amp le, the Sw edish Agenc y for Gr owt h Poli cy A naly sis, Grow th Anal ysis has been

com m issio ned by th e Gov ern me nt to ev aluat e and anal yse Swed ish gro wt h p olicy u nder

Ordinance 2016:1048. Its tasks include gathering microdata on State aidschem es

granted t o businesses. Compared t o the EU report ing requirements, its mission is, on

the one hand, narrower in scope as itdoes not gather microdata on State aidin all

sectors, while, on the other, itis broader as itincludes small-scaleState aidfalling

outside th e scop e of EU Stat e aidcontrol.

In addition to the governmental agencies, the National AuditOffice

(Riksrevisionsverket) acting as Supreme Audit Institution and operating as an

independent body under the Swedish Parliament is also active on St ate aidev aluation

on its own initiative under Ordinance 1998:418. The Swedish Agency forPublic

Management (Statskontoret)mandated by the Ministry of Finance is also active in

developing evaluation practice in Sweden though its role in State aidevaluation is

limited.

Ex-ante assessment on meeting t he preconditions an d the pr ocedures under EU law is

carried out within the Ministry of Enterprise and Innovation. In addition, the National