1. 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

2. 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)

3. 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

4. On-going Evaluation
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

5. Details of Evaluations
Either conceived as Mid-term evaluations according to the period (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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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)

9. 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