Ex Ante Evaluations: reflecting on the 2014-2020 experience DG REGIO Evaluation Unit Cohesion Policy

General Questions: Who uses them? In what way? Who are they meant for? What was the timing? Were they iterative? Cost? Was there national guidance? Did the ex ante evaluator play a role in drafting the programme? Cohesion Policy

Content Questions: Were some elements particularly useful? Could/did evaluators challenge the strategy or forms of support? Did the ex ante evaluator understand the result orientation? Did evaluators contribute to the evaluability of programmes? Should they? Cohesion Policy

Governance Questions: Who contracts the evaluators (MA or some national body)? Does this make a difference? Respective value of text of evaluation and oral feedback at meetings? Cohesion Policy

First impressions from REGIO evaluation unit Review of a sample (on-going) of ex ante evaluations and discussion with geographic units (AT, BG, FR, GR, HU, NL, PL, SK) Variable quality, between MS and within MS Ex ante evaluations seldom challenge strategic choices of investment priorities Useful for fine-tuning (coherence with national policies, definition of objectives, selection of indicators) Cohesion Policy

First impressions from REGIO evaluation unit Evaluations often weak in judging form of intervention (eg grants vs. loans) – a timing problem? Evaluators conceptually not in advance of MS – training by COM as a condition or just transitional problem? Costs not excessive Cohesion Policy