Formal opinion procedures

The implementation of the State aid/de minimis aid measures is possible after the opportunity analysis were performed and it impose to the initiator/grantor the elaboration of some normative or administrative legal acts. The legal acts have to include provisions regarding the following elements: objectives, modalities used by the initiator in order to grant the aid, beneficiaries, granting period, the amount of money allocated by the grantor, the European applicable regulation and so on.

Drafts of previously mentioned normative or administrative acts, as well as drafts of the legal acts establishing schemes/ad-hoc aids granting compensations for the provision of a service of general economic interest or a public service are evaluated and approved by the Competition Council from the point of view of compliance, accuracy and satisfy the requirements of European legislation on State aid.

Any draft measure likely to constitute State aid or de minimis aid must be accompanied, in order to be approved by the Competition Council, by a memorandum approved by the Government on the classification of such measures in the economic and budgetary and financial policies of the Romanian state. Exceptions are measures financed from European funds, as well as those initiated by local governments.

For the draft measures liable to constitute State aid or de minimis aid initiated by local authorities, in order to ensure consistency with economic, fiscal and financial policies of the Romanian state, they must be accompanied by the proof of informing the Prefect Institution and the County Council about the intention to establish the respective support measure. The information will also include analysis of the opportunity.

The Memorandum requested for the central public authorities will be initiated by the SGG, usually once in every six months, after consulting grantors in the Ministerial Council “Council for the implementation of State aid policy (CIAS)”.

For the approval of a State aid/de minimis measure, the Competition Council may request to the initiator/grantor additional data and information, as applicable. If the requested information is not submitted within the deadline set by the Competition Council, it will give its opinion on the data were made available and indicate this in the opinion.

If the notifications, information sheets or the documentation relating to the de minimis measures are changed after an opinion of the Competition Council was issued, but before its submission or approval to the European Commission, any amendments must be submitted to the Competition Council, which will issue a new formal opinion.

Also, the amendments of the normative/administrative acts and subsequent documents implementing State aid or de minimis aid, in particular regarding duration, budget, beneficiaries, eligibility and award criteria, require their submission to the Competition Council in order to issue a new formal opinion.