On-going Evaluation in Germany 2007- 2013 DG REGIO Evaluation Network Meeting, Brussels, 2-3 April 2009 Ulrike Schreckenberger Federal Ministry of Economy and Technology, Unit EA3 – Coordination of European Structural Policy, ERDF 10115 Berlin, Germany

Introduction In Germany 18 ERDF OPs 2007-2013 17 regional OPs (6 in Convergence objective and 11 in objective for Regional Competitiveness and Employment) 1 sectoral OP (Federal OP Transport, in convergence regions only)

Starting Position of EU Structural Policy in Germany Specifics of German regions with different structural problems Resulting in different regional Operational Programmes (different in volume and content) Decentral management of EU Structural Policy due to federalist state system in Germany Coordination of general questions by the national level, with ERDF issues by Federal Ministry of Economy, Unit EA3

On-going Evaluation 2007-2013 Different OPs -> different evaluation approaches New evaluation principles regarded as progress due to greater flexibility So far 7 evaluation plans or concepts, at least 4 more to come yet more 3 MAs plan mid-term evaluations until 2011 either of the entire OP or thematic evaluations Generally close alliance between continuous monitoring of OPs and deepening evaluation of the entire OP or parts of it

Details of Evaluations Either conceived as Mid-term evaluations according to the period 2000-2006 (possible risk: need of premature OP revision because of the economic crisis) Or as thematic evaluations of specific priority axes, e.g. competitiveness of enterprises, specific horizontal themes, e.g. equal opportunities, sustainable urban development, or specific methods,e.g. competitiveness In general external experts are charged with the evaluations and a steering comittee is established

Examples for on-going evaluation North-Rhine Westfalia: „Competition“ completed Thematic evaluations „micro loans“ and specific competitions, e.g. Start ups Niedersachsen: „impact of selection criteria“ and implementation of „regional budgets“(= independant management of funding by municipalities“) Sachsen: Equal opportunities (finished by April 2009) OP priority axis „Competitiveness of entrepreneurship“ Sachsen-Anhalt: Evaluation plan was presented here in June 2008, now running on schedule

Example on-going Evaluation in Thuringia ERDF evaluation concept from November 2008 Setting up of a working group Evaluation Identification of annual target figures for output and result indicators (intermediate bodies were consulted) In annual report 2008 analysis of the target figures for the first time Divergency with more than 20% -> evaluation is started (divergency between 10 and 20% evaluation is optional) Internal or external Evaluations according to complexity and volume

Example on-going Evaluation Thuringia Moreover optional evaluations (resulting from qualitative analysis of OP priorities in the annual reports) Irrespective from these evaluations there will be a Mid-term evaluation at the end of 2011 latest (including evaluation of equal opportunities) Most important elements of the Mid-term evaluation: impact analysis of ERDF promotion, quantification of the impact indicators, strategic evaluation Regular Monitoring of the development of environment (evaluation resulting from negative development of environment indicators in the annual report)

Mid-term Evaluation Thuringia Main focus is Impact analysis and Impact indicators In the OP output and result indicators are defined and quantified, whereas impact indicators are just defined. The Mid-term evaluation shall help with the quantification. E.g.: - increase of patent application, - increase of business volume (turnover) in the field of R&D