Small and medium sized enterprises, innovation, ICT - Final Report - Work package 2 Ex post evaluation of Cohesion Policy programmes 2007-2013, focusing on the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Cohesion Fund (CF)

Evaluations

Date: 07 apr 2016

Theme: Business support, Evaluation, Research and innnovation

Languages: en

This evaluation presents main achievements of cohesion policy in the area of SMEs support for the 2007-2013 period.

The study offers an in-depth examination of strength and weaknesses of ERDF support to small and medium enterprises, focusing on how funds helped SMEs to cope with the crisis in particular in those regions most severely affected – and also to achieve more ambitious and structural results by supporting strategic investments.

It comprises the analysis of 50 OPs representing 65% of the support to SMEs and outlines the mechanisms and context where the OPs were implemented. It focuses in particular on the examination of eight case studies of selected OPs and a theory-based impact evaluations of three policy instruments.

This evaluation underlines how funds helped SMEs to cope with the crisis in particular in those regions most severely affected – and also to achieve more ambitious and structural results by supporting strategic investments.

Annexes

More information

Evaluations of the 2007-2013 programming period