Digitalisation was one of the simplification measures reinforced in the EU Regulations governing cohesion policy investments in the 2014-2020 programming period. As such, electronic data exchange systems between beneficiaries and programme authorities, or ‘e-Cohesion systems’, were created or further developed and subsequently used during the implementation of the programmes.The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy prepared a staff working document to report on the results of the evaluation of e-Cohesion systems in the 2014-2020 programming period. The evaluation was conducted by an external contractor between November 2020 and May 2022 and the final report was published in June 2022.The evaluation of e-Cohesion in the 2014-2020 programming period sought to:
(a) collect and provide up-to-date information on the implementation and performance of e-Cohesion systems in the Member States;
(b) identify good practices and the challenges of the e-Cohesion systems;
(c) assess whether the desired policy objectives were achieved;
(d) identify possible features for further improving the performance of the e-Cohesion systems in the 2021-2027 programming period.
The evaluation examined 302 programmes funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Cohesion Fund (CF) in the 2014-2020 programming period, for which 108 e-Cohesion systems were mapped and analysed. The evaluation methodology included documentary research, large-scale surveys addressed to all users of e-Cohesion systems, case studies, interviews and a webinar. Six evaluation criteria were addressed, covering the five Better Regulation criteria (effectiveness, efficiency, coherence, relevance and EU added value) and the user-friendliness of the systems.