1 European Union Regional Policy – Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Draft guidance on monitoring and evaluation : Concepts and recommendations REGIO network meeting with Member States, 20 Oct Kai Stryczynski

2 European Union Regional Policy – Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Findings of April meeting General support from Member States Use and usability missing Definitions of common indicators needed Annex 2 on result indicators not helpful

3 European Union Regional Policy – Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Section 1: Concepts New section on use and usability –Further development planned in EVALSED No other major changes Text improvements –E.g. relation between counterfactual and theory-based evaluation Section on standards suppressed – little interest, no reactions

4 European Union Regional Policy – Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Section 2 More changes than in section 1…

5 European Union Regional Policy – Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Section 2: Quality criteria for result indicators New: Quality criteria for result indicators New: ex ante conditionality on statistical systems and result indicators Network could discuss how to deal with ex ante conditionality in due time (together with ex ante evaluation?)

6 European Union Regional Policy – Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Result indicators: A baseline for what or whom? Baseline for the priority axis can be different from baseline data needed for evaluation. For example: –Baseline data for all SME in a region when deciding the programme content –Only a small part will be supported – the effect on these enterprises only will be evaluated. See box page 11, example in annex 2.

7 European Union Regional Policy – Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Targets for result indicators I Setting targets for result indicators is difficult! Reflects effect of programme and other factors. Can be of quantitative or qualitative nature. What is a qualitative target? –Range of expected values, –the expected direction of change and the expected pace of change

8 European Union Regional Policy – Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Targets for result indicators II Attention – two different issues the estimate of a future value of the result indicator - influenced by programme and other factors. It is this stated aim that is meant by the legal text. an estimate of the contribution of the programme to the change of the result indicator (the effect or impact of the programme).

9 European Union Regional Policy – Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Targets for output indicators Based on past experience (past unit costs) Recommendation: Make information available for a discussion of targets

10 European Union Regional Policy – Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Ex ante evaluation Some new elements, reflecting changes in OP, possible support for meeting conditionalities Do MS wish a special meeting of network? Should the Commission write up guidance?

11 European Union Regional Policy – Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Evaluation plan A flexible planning tool for MS Less details likely for later years Attention: some baseline data cannot be created ex post Commission encourages coordination across programmes

12 European Union Regional Policy – Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Electronic data transmission No legal provisions so far in proposed regulation Planned for implementing regulation Key idea the same as for –Common indicators: electronic structured transmission –Programme-specific indicators: only in annual report

13 European Union Regional Policy – Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Examples on result indicators (annex 2) Mix of intervention areas (enterprise support, infrastructure, innovation, cross- border cooperation) Mix of evaluation appproaches (counterfactual, theory-based) Mix of data sources (statistics, surveys, tax authority data) Is this more helpful?