Evaluating Evaluation in the European Commission

Abstract

There is an increasing demand for the evaluation of expenditure and regulatory measures undertaken by the European Union in order to improve accountability and achieve “value for money” objectives. At the most general level, the task of organizing evaluation systems for these programs falls to the European Commission. Historically, the commission has focused on developing policies rather than monitoring or delivering them. With the maturing of certain policy areas, the commission’s role is shifting in the direction of review and evaluation. From a systemic point of view, the management of EU policy presents particularly severe challenges in the area of evaluation. There are multiple actors located at local, national, and supranational levels; divergent administrative cultures and practices; variable quality of information, records, and capabilities; an attenuated system of reporting; and unclear lines of accountability. Joint funding of some programs creates additional problems by entangling program impacts and the audit purposes and management of national and EU institutions, respectively. The commission has still to come to a view on the parameters defining commonality and diversity in evaluation. In order to improve the situation, the commission has taken a number of initiatives, among them the setting up of an expert working group on the evaluation process. This article reports, in general terms, the findings of that group for 1994–95.