Country Profile: The Netherlands

• Author: Naldini, Andrea; Pompili, Marco; Peruccacci, Eleonora
• Pages: 214-218

214

21. COUN TRY PROFI LE: THE N ETHERLANDS

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

21.1 .1 . Obligat ion or lack ther eof to evaluat e

Policy inst rum en ts of Dut ch Ministr ies an d regional authorities do not have any aid

measures t hat would need a m andatory evaluation as laid down in the exist in g St ate

aid fr amework (Ar ticle 1 of GBER regu lation). As such, at nation al or regional level, no

gen eral ev aluation of th e im pact s and r esults of t he aid schem es h as been carr ied out .

Nonetheless, it is customary in th e Netherlands t o regularly evaluat e legislation ,

regulation and policy instrument s. Under the General Administrative Law Act, it is

required in the Net herlands t o evaluat e all subsidy schem es at 5-year increment s.

Mor eover, under the Regulat ion peri odic evaluat ion research of the Ministry of Finance ,

there is an obligation t o conduct a com pr ehensive policy review at least once every

seven years. Fina lly, since 2014, t here are sunset clauses f or subsidy schemes: after a

specified tim eframe, gen erally aft er 5 years, subsidy schem es are stopped

automatically. It is possible to ex tend t he clauses; howev er , evaluat ion is needed for

evidence on impact motivating the ex tension in a proposal to be subm itt ed t o the

Parliam ent. In essence, for all of these policies, t hey are disbanded unless proven

effect ive . Thus, rigor ous studies are done at regula r in ter vals and constant ly i mprov ed.

Each national regu lation has to in clude one of such ev aluat ion clauses.

21.1 .2 . Proced ures t o enfor ce t he o bligation

An evaluation clause is m andatory for each aid or subsidy scheme. As such, it covers

support schem es in each of t he following policy fields: broadband, compensation of

dam ages cau sed by nat ural d isaster, cult ure, employm ent ( especially vulnerable part s

of th e l abou r for ce) , e nvi ron me nt al p rot ect ion ( inc ludi ng ene rgy sa vin gs) , i nfr ast ru ctu re

for sports and other recreat ion, regional developm ent (including infrastructure, port s

and airpor ts), RDI, sect or al development , SMEs (including r isk capital), social support

to individual consum ers, and training. An im port ant cav eat is that these evaluation s

assess t he gen eral effect of th e measures and ar e no t sp ecifically related t o St ate aid.

21.2. Sect ion 2 - National aut horit ies r esponsible for th e evaluat ion of State aid

21.2 .1 . Nation al organisat ion for State aid

In term s of governance of evaluations, ther e is a num ber of ground rules. Fir st , the

studies are commissioned and funded by the national or regional aut hority (Ministries,

Provinces, Municipalit ies, Governm ental agencies, et c.) responsible for the

im plementation of t he policy. Second, the ev aluat ion is not conducted by the same

authority; rat her, it has to be carried out by an in dependent research group. Such a

resear ch grou p is steered by a guidance committee wit h an independent Chair and

indep endent expert (s) involv ed.

The gener al ob ligat ions of EU State aid schemes require t he Netherlands to report on

aid sche mes of Dut ch gov ern men ts. The r epor tin g st ructu re is coor dinated thr ough tw o

core actors. First, t he Ministr y of Econom ic Affairs and Clim at e coordinates t he annual

State aid r eport on aid granted by national ministries, under EU St ate aid rules. Aft er

collect ing input from each Ministr ies’ Adm inist rative Or ganisation ( responsible for

collect ing all St at e aid related information from the Min ist ry and its in dependent

age ncies) , th e Min istr y d elivers t he d ocum ent ation to the Permanent Represen tat ion of

the King dom of th e Ne the rlan ds t o t he Eur opea n Un ion (PVEU). This i nst itu te tak es ca re