Obligations in the Treaty of European Union(*) and the financial regulation(**) require the Commission to observe the principles of sound financial management when preparing and executing EU expenditure programmes. In the light of these obligations, the Commission has identified as a priority that the evaluation of policy initiatives and programmes should take place on a more systematic, timely, and rigorous basis.

Until now, Commission services have successfully implemented an evaluation policy, but it was acknowledged that further progress is needed, in particular as regards the quality and use of evaluation and its relevance for decision making. In each DG, the Senior staff have the responsibility to fully implement high quality evaluation and impact assessment systems, and integrate them into their operations and procedures.

This selection of key EU documents is intended solely as a guide to Commission's rules and instructions on the subject concerned. It is targeted at staff involved in planning of policies, programmes, and all kinds of activities seeking guidance on the adoption and implementation of evaluation and impact assessment mechanisms, procedures and tools.

• EU Financial regulation, implementation rules and other internal control documents
• EU Evaluation background documents and guidance
• Other Evaluation papers, guides, etc.
• Other Evaluation papers, guides, etc.
• External evaluation guidance

EU Policy areas and programmes

• Lisbon Strategy and Sustainable development
• Innovation
• i2010
• Legal acts and key documents for the EU funded Research Framework Programmes
• Legal acts and key documents for the CIP (Framework programmes)
• Evaluation of EU activities - An Introduction [331 KB]
  EC- DG Budget - January 2005
• Evaluating the EU activities: A practical Guide for the Commission Services [6 MB]
  EC - DG Budget - July 2004
• Ex-ante Evaluation [236 KB] EC - DG Budget: A Practical Guide for Preparing Proposals for Expenditure Programmes
• Ex-post and Intermediate Evaluation [325 KB] EC - DG Budget: Evaluating Expenditure Programmes - A Guide
• Focus on Results: Strengthening Evaluation of Commission Activities [86 KB]
  SEC(2000)1051 Communication to the Commission from Mrs Schreyer in Agreement with Mr Kinnock and the President
• Evaluation Standards and Good Practice [2 MB]
  COM(2002)5267 Communication for Commission from the President and Mrs Schreyer
  
  (*)Article 274 of the EC Treaty
  (**)Article 2 of the Financial Regulation as amended by Council regulation n° 2333/95 of 18 September 1995

Reports

• "Evaluating the EU Research and Technological Development (RTD) framework programmes - could the Commission's approach be improved?" [3 MB]  European Court of Auditors - Special Report - No 9/2007

• Report on the Commission's Evaluation Practices [117 KB] European Parliament - Committee on Budgetary Control - A5-0284/2002

Other documents

• Improving Evaluation Practices - Best Practice Guidelines for Evaluation [175 KB] OECD - PUMA/PAC(99)1

Contacts

Anna KRZYZANOWSKA
Directorate General Information Society and Media
Lisbon Strategy and Policies for the Information Society
Evaluation and Monitoring
Tel: +32 2 298 72 46
Fax: +32 2 296 66 13
email: infso-c3 in the domain ec.europa.eu