Evaluation during the period 2014 – 2020
According to Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 20131, EU Member States are required to assess the effectiveness, efficiency and the impact of assistance provided through the ESI Funds, in order to improve the quality of the preparation and implementation of programmes and to determine the impact of programmes in relation to the targets of the Union strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth (Europe 2020).
The provisions of the Regulation relating to the evaluation process are interpreted and detailed by the European Commission in the framework documents for the 2014-2020 funding period. In this respect, the most important documents include:
- EVALSED Evaluation Guide,
- Guidance document on evaluation plans (plans which were necessarily introduced in the 2014-2020 programming period),
- The guide on the design and performance of ex-ante evaluation,
- Guide on the revision of the performance framework,
- Guide for evaluating innovation,
- Guidance on the development of the terms of reference for the impact assessment, and
- Best practice guide for the selection and use of result indicators
The national framework for Evaluation of Structural instruments is aligned with the European legislation in force but also with the public policy framework made by Romania, such as in other Member States, concerning the allocation and implementation of funds.
Thus, the evaluation policy of ESIF in Romania implements Articles 54 to 57 of Regulation EU No 1303/2013, which sets out the general framework for the evaluations of the 2014-2020 programming period.
Article 54 of Regulation No 1303/2013 establishes the objectives of the evaluation:
1. To improve the quality of the design and implementation of programmes;
2. To assess the effectiveness, efficiency and impact.
The ex ante evaluations, carried out for all OPs/national plans for 2014-2020 are associated primarily with the first objective (Art. 55 (1) of Regulation (EU No 1303/2013), while the evaluations during the implementation period and ex-post relate, in particular, to the second objective (Arts 56 (3) and 57 (1)).
According to art. 56 of EU Regulation 1303/2013, evaluations during the period of implementation of the programmes must be carried out on the basis of an evaluation plan covering one or several programmes. Thus, if in 2007-2013 the Regulation that was the basis for the programming and implementation of the Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund introduced for the first time the concept of ‘evaluation plan’, in 2014-2020 it became binding. Its existence is an example of good practice in evaluation management, for which, supplementing the above requirements, the European Commission (DG REGIO and DG EMPL) has prepared a document on evaluation plans, which provided detailed guidelines on the role of evaluation plans and main elements. The steering document states: In the previous programming period, evaluations have tended to focus more on implementation and less on capturing the impact. For the 2014-2020 period, the regulation calls for the Managing Authorities to carry out evaluations to analyse the effects of programmes funded with ESIF. This is a key element of cohesion policy towards results and is reflected in Art. 56 (3) of the Regulation. Evaluation plans are therefore strategic documents which set out how these evaluations will be organised to provide required evidence on the process of policy formulation.