Every country striving to become a member of the large European family is obliged to fulfil certain requirements before the accession. One of important requests is the establishment of state aid control system. During the accession process, the Negotiating Chapter 8 – Competition policy, is one of the most crucial and difficult chapters, according to the experience of the countries that have already completed the accession process or those having the status of a candidate country. This Chapter can highly influence the whole course of negotiations, especially the matters within the field of state aid control.
The establishment of a strong state aid system in the Republic of Serbia, in accordance with the rules applicable for all Member States, which implies harmonizing the national legislation in this field, creating good state aid schemes, strengthening the capacities of state aid grantors and the bodies that control state aid granting, will largely benefit economic operators doing business in the Republic of Serbia, because appropriate state aid control enables strengthening free competition, establishing better market conditions and determining the manner of granting subsidies and other state aid types to certain economic operators. Thus, putting certain economic operators in a more favourable position is prevented and equal business conditions are created for all market participants, which entice new companies to come and stay on the market of the Republic of Serbia and enable their economic development. Finally, consumers, that is, the citizens of the Republic of Serbia have ultimate benefit.
Legal framework
State aid control system in the Republic of Serbia was established in 2010 by the adoption of the Law on State Aid Control (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia”, no. 51/09) and two bylaws: the Regulation on the rules for state aid granting (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia”, nos. 13/10, 100/11, 91/12, 37/13, 97/13 and 119/14) and the Regulation on rules and procedure for state aid granting (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia”, no. 13/10). Moreover, for the purpose of drafting annual report on granted state aid, the Rulebook on methodology for drafting annual report on granted state aid was adopted in 2011 (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia”, no. 3/11).
Commission for State Aid Control
Until the Republic of Serbia enters the European Union, the Commission for State Aid Control is competent for state aid control.
The Commission is operationally independent body established by the Government, having the same competences in the Republic of Serbia as the European Commission with regard to state aid control in the Member States, i.e. it is competent to authorize state aid granting. Like in EU Member States, state aid grantors are obliged to notify state aid prior to its granting and report on all granted state aids. Moreover, the Commission can order the recovery of each unauthorized state aid.
Department for State Aid Control
The Department for State Aid Control, independent organizational unit within the Ministry of Finance, performs specialist, administrative and technical activities for the Commission. The Department, as a specialist service for the Commission, besides dealing with case processing, drafting Commission’s decisions and organizing the Commission’s sessions, has a number of other activities, such as drafting annual reports on granted state aid in the Republic of Serbia, keeping records on granted state aids and preparing draft regulations in the field of state aid, adopted by the National Assembly of the Government. Therefore, the Department is also responsible for the harmonization of national legislation in the field of state aid, which involves alignment of national legislation with the EU regulations and interpretative instruments.
Stabilisation and Association Agreement
The obligations of the Republic of Serbia in the field of state aid are defined by Article 73 of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (the Law on confirming the Stabilisation and Association Agreement between the European Communities and their Member States of the one part, and the Republic of Serbia, of the other part (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia – International Agreements”, no. 83/08 – SAA)).
