Final Report on the ERDF and CF post 2020 common indicators

Written By Andrea Gramillano
Publishing 30 October 2018

Last week, the European Commission has published the report on a system of common indicators for the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and Cohesion Fund (CF) after 2020, prepared by t33 in the framework of a Consortium led by Sweco. The study developed a proposal for expanding the list of 2014-2020 common and programme-specific output indicators and assessed the feasibility of developing a list of common direct result indicators for post-2020.
The study was coordinated by Andrea Gramillano, who liaised with the Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO) of the European Commission. The methodology was based on the use of different sources:

• Review of the programmes (ERDF and CF), their budget allocation at Thematic Objective (TO) level and illustration of the Investment Priorities (IPs);

• Gap analysis of the 2014-2020 common indicators based on EC data;

• Detailed consultation of Managing Authorities (MAs) of ERDF and CF funds, both on 2014-2020 common and programme-specific output indicators and on proposed direct result indicators. A total of 127 consultations of 84 MAs have been carried out in two different rounds, the first one about TO1, 3, 4, 5, 6 and the second one on TO2, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.

• Analysis of the allocation of planned resources;

• Literature review from ECA, EC services, World Bank, evaluations, and other, was also utilised to complete the analysis.

The team (including t33 internal experts Alessandro Valenza, Giovanni Familiari, François Levarlet, Lorenzo Palego, Pietro Celotti, Nicola Brignani, Dea Hrelja, Chiara Zingaretti, Roberto Palloni, Paul Negrila) also carried out an analysis of the Commission’s proposal for laying down common provisions on the ERDF, CF, ESF+ and EMFF in 2021-2027, since the study included a specific task on the European Commission proposal for 2021-2027 indicators.
The approach proposed in the study for post 2020 addresses the three challenges of thematic coverage, harmonisation, and simplification. In addition, introducing direct result indicators will enable stronger ERDF/CF programme accountability and aid the communication activities of EU Institutions. It could also support data collection for evaluation, bridging the gap between the output of supported operations and results referring to programme area.

The report is available here.