The 2014-2020 cohesion policy should be more result-oriented than in previous periods to make a visible contribution to the objectives of the Europe 2020 strategy.
EU regulations require the implementation of evaluations of the effectiveness, efficiency and impact of support from the Common Strategic Framework funds with the aim of improving the quality of programme implementation and design and determining the impact of the programmes in relation to the objectives of the EU's strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.
An ex-ante evaluation of each programme should be conducted to improve the quality and design of each programme and verify the feasibility of its objectives and targets, which should be submitted to the European Commission together with the operational programme.
During the programming period, the managing authorities must carry out assessments to estimate the effectiveness and impact of the programme. Likewise, the monitoring committee and the European Commission should be informed of evaluation results to facilitate management decisions.
Ex-post evaluations of programmes will also be performed to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of the funds and their impact on the general objectives of the funds and the EU's strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. These evaluations will be carried out by the European Commission.
The indicator system will be a key part of the monitoring and evaluation system for the 2014-2020 period. The indicator system must include common indicators (defined by the European Commission and included in the regulations) and specific programme indicators. These indicators, depending on their nature, can be classified into: output indicators and result indicators A selection of these indicators will make up the Performance Framework, which must be defined for each programme to facilitate the programme monitoring.
The 2014-2020 ERDF Evaluation Plan is structured in two parts: a common part for all programmes and a specific part for individual programmes.