The CMEF at a glance
The European Commission has set up the common monitoring and evaluation framework (CMEF) to assess the performance of the common agricultural policy (CAP) and improve its efficiency. The CMEF is a set of rules, procedures and indicators.
The European Commission uses the CMEF to assess whether the CAP is achieving its objectives. These objectives are:
- viable food production, with a focus on agricultural income, agricultural productivity and price stability;
- sustainable management of natural resources and climate action, with a focus on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, biodiversity, soil and water;
- balanced territorial development, with a focus on rural employment, growth and poverty in rural areas.
CAP indicators
The CMEF provides key information on the CAP implementation, this is the monitoring element of the CMEF. Evaluation describes achievements and verifies how well objectives were reached.
A number of indicator types were defined to support the assessment of the CAP's performance
- context indicators describing general information relevant to the policy (such as the amount of agricultural land available or information on the average age of farm managers)
- income support and market measure output indicators, which provide information on, for example, the number of beneficiaries of CAP income support
- output indicators monitoring EU policies on rural development, for example, on the public expenditure for investment
- results indicators for the income support elements of the CAP measuring the direct and immediate effects of interventions (for example the percentage of farmers income which came from income support)
- rural development results indicators assessing the effect of rural development policy, such as preventing soil erosion and improving soil management. Most of these indicators are also target indicators. In addition, rural development complementary result indicators aim to assess the net effect of CAP intervention
- target indicators used to set quantified objectives at the beginning of the programming period for the rural development policy (some of which correspond to result indicators)
- impact indicators measuring the impact of policy interventions for the longer term and when there are effects beyond the immediate period (of which some are also included in the context indicator set)
Selected indicators are presented visually and interactively in the dashboard by theme, including farming income support, climate change and air quality, market orientation and organic production.
The European Commission provides an annual update of data (subject to availability) for a set of context indicators that reflect relevant aspects of the general contextual trends likely to have an influence on the implementation, achievements and performance of the CAP.
Related information
- 2014-18 context indicator updates
- CAP indicator dashboards
- CAP indicators (impact, result, output and context)
Evaluation
Within the CMEF, evaluation is a tool to assess the impact of policy interventions. It provides evidence for decision-making and improves the effectiveness, utility and efficiency of CAP interventions. It also contributes to improved transparency, learning and accountability.
Evaluation results are communicated to decision-makers and other relevant stakeholders encouraging active discussion and debate on the findings and inform reports on the implementation of CMEF.
Measuring the impact of the CAP is the responsibility of the Commission services (Article 110 of EU regulation 1306/2013). These evaluations are carried out on the basis of a multi-annual evaluation plan, by independent external contractors selected after a tendering procedure, under the responsibility of the Commission services.
For rural development, evaluations are carried out both by the Member States and by the Commission, who also produces syntheses of the ex-ante and ex-post evaluations prepared by the Member States.
The department of agriculture and rural development published evaluation guidelines for the Member States' use, in line with the Commission evaluation standards.
CMEF reports
The European Commission has to publish an initial report on the implementation of the CMEF and the first results assessing the performance of the CAP.
CAP indicators contribute to the assessment of CAP performance.
The Commission expects to publish the final assessment of the CAP implementation for the 2014-2020 period in 2021.
Rules
The following rules govern the CMEF
- setting up the common monitoring and evaluation framework (see article 110 of EU regulation 1306/2013
- rules for the application of the CMEF (EU implementing regulation 834/2014)
- how to monitor and evaluate elements for the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) (EU regulation 1303/2013)
- how to monitor and evaluate the rural development policy (EU regulation 1305/2013, EU implementing regulation 808/201