- European Commission
- Better regulation
By assessing the results and impacts of EU activities, evaluation contributes to evidence-based policy making and helps to give account to the European citizen about how taxpayers' money is spent.
Evaluation gives a judgement of interventions according to their results and impacts in relation to the needs they aim to satisfy and the resources mobilised. Evaluation can be carried out in a prospective (ex-ante evaluation) as well as a retrospective (ex-post evaluation) perspective, or in a combination of both. Evaluation generates relevant information that is essential for planning, designing and implementing EU policies. It is the main tool used by the Commission to assess the extent to which EU interventions reach the set policy objectives and how their performance can be improved in the future.
Evaluation tries to answer questions such as:
Moreover, where evaluation results are communicated properly, they enhance transparency and democratic accountability. Therefore, evaluation can also support the Commission in better communicating the added value of the European Union to the European citizen.
Evaluation as a component of Better Regulation
The EU's policy objectives, notably of the reviewed Lisbon Strategy as well as the agenda for prosperity, solidarity, security require ever greater synergies and coherence between different EU-initiatives. "Better Regulation" and evaluation can significantly contribute to such more ‘joined up' policy.
The European Commission has a mature evaluation system which is well embedded in its departments and has generated a wealth of relevant information. The Commission can build on these achievements for its Better Regulation agenda, which, for example implies that planned interventions are regularly assessed in advance to determine their ‘real world impacts'. Ex-post evaluations of legislation can help in providing a better evidence base for new initiatives.
While the Commission has traditionally focused on evaluation of expenditure programmes, it will in future increase its evaluations of legislation and other non-spending activities which have substantial impacts on citizens, businesses and the environment. This will include more "strategic" evaluations, which assess impacts of EU activities across different policy areas. Other added value can be achieved by creating synergies between ex-ante evaluations, as required by the Financial Regulation, and integrated impact assessments.