Cohesion Policy at work: evaluation of the 2007-2013 period now underway

Today, Regional Policy Commissioner Corina Creţu is in Bulgaria and is participating in the 7th European Evaluation Conference in Sofia, where the first findings of the evaluation of Cohesion Policy in the 2007-2013 period are discussed. “A lot happened during this funding period; we were hit by the biggest economic and financial crisis the Union has ever known. We welcomed three new EU Member States. And we adopted an ambitious set of goals to be met by 2020, the Europe 2020 strategy. This evaluation exercise helps us assess how Cohesion Policy managed to adapt to these demanding circumstances,” said Commissioner Creţu. “This evaluation feeds into our reflection on the future of the policy. We did the same when we reformed Cohesion Policy for 2014-2020, with further concentration on key, growth-generating areas, such as support to small businesses or R&D. Now we are focusing on further simplification, greater flexibility, stronger administrative capacity and on the performance of our investments, also in the perspective of the post-2020 framework,” she added. In 2007-2013, Cohesion Policy funds helped create 1 million jobs across the EU and directly supported almost 250,000 SMEs. More information on the first findings of the evaluation is available here