Identification of potential changes to transparency requirements

• Author: Michie, Rona; Wishlade, Fiona; Mendez, Carlos
• Pages: 31-37

Fact-finding study on the GBER transparency re quirement

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4. IDENTIFICATION OF POTENTIAL CHANGES TO TRANSPARENCY REQUIRE MENTS

One of the aims of the study is to identify possible changes to the transparency requirements that

would facilitate compliance. This was addressed through semi-structured interviews with

stakeholders in selected countries.17 These were to include the three countries that do not use

TAM (Spain, Poland and Romania) and up to five further countries selected to take account of:

• the results of the analysis undertaken

• geographical representativeness – north/south – east/west

• EU joining date (EU15 / post 2004 Member States)

• Total volume of granted aid.

The research undertaken suggests that countries fall into one of six transparency models (see

Figure 1). For the purposes of the case studies, the following grouping ca n be applied:

• Type I – awarding bodies (generally) encode in TAM dir ectly (comprising Models 1 and 2

in Figure 1)

• Type II – State aid units encode in TAM (comprising Models 3, 4 and 5 in Figure 1)

• Type III - a national State aid register operates instead of TA M: (Model 6 in Figure 1).

In terms of expenditure, State aid as a percentage of GDP can usefully identify key areas of focus

(see Figure 19), though absolute spend is also relevant.

Taking these four elements into account, the following countries were proposed as case studies.

Figure 18 : Case study countries and characteristics

Type EU15/EU13 Geography

Spend (% of

GDP)

Czech Republic

I

New

East

High

Germany

I

Old

West

High

Netherlands

I

Old

North

Low

Estonia

II

New

North

Medium

Italy

II

Old

South

Low

Spain

III

Old

South

Low

Poland

III

New

East

Medium

Romania

III

New

East

Medium

17 The ‘framework’ questionnaire is a ppendixed to this report. This was adapted as required by specific national

characteristics (such as whether a national r egister exists).