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.Section 1-National r ules for t he evaluation ofSt ate aidschemes

21.1.1.Obligat ion or lack ther eof to evaluat e

Policyinstruments of Dutch Ministries and regional authorities do not have any aid

measures that would need a m andatory evaluation as laid downinthe existingSt ate

aidfr amework (Ar ticle 1 of GBER regu lation). As such, atnation 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 customaryin the Netherlands to regularly evaluate legislation,

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

required in the Netherlands to evaluate all subsidy schemes at 5-year increments.

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

there is an obligation to conduct a comprehensive policy review atleast once every

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

specified timeframe, generally after5 years, subsidy schemesare stopped

automatically. It is possible to extend the clauses; however, evaluation is needed for

evidence on impactmotivating the extension in a proposal to be submitted to the

Parliament. In essence, for all of these policies, they 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 schemes in each of the following policy fields:broadband, compensation of

dam ages caused by nat ural disaster, 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 recreation, regional development (including infrastructure, ports

and airports), RDI, sectoral development, SMEs (including risk capital), social support

to individual consumers, and training. An important caveat is thatthese evaluations

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 forState aid

In terms of governance of evaluations, there is a number of ground rules. First, the

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

Provinces, Municipalities, Governmental agencies, etc.) responsible forthe

implementation of the policy. Second, the evaluation is notconducted by the same

authority; rather, it has to be carried out by an independent research group. Such a

research group is steered by a guidance committee with an independentChairand

independent expert (s) involv ed.

The general obligations of EU State aidschemes require the Netherlands to reporton

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, the Ministry of Econom ic Affairs and Climate coordinates the annual

State aidreport on aid granted by national ministries, under EU St ate aidrules. After

collecting inputfromeach Ministries’ Administrative Organisation (responsible for

collecting all State aidrelated information from the Ministry and its independent

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