European Commission - DG EMPL

The purpose of this contract is to evaluate the reaction of ESF to the financial and economic crisis. With regard to this, the main objectives of the evaluation are to describe how the ESF has reacted to the crisis (Task 1), whether and under which circumstances it played a role in mitigating its effects (Task 2) and how it could eventually be made more apt to respond to needs of post-crisis recovery (Task 3).

This DG EMPL-evaluation aims at assessing the extent to which the formal aspects of the Ops and their implementation influence the OPs capacity to attract and support target groups.

20 case studies in 15 countries will be implemented so as to obtain a sufficient overview of the existing contexts, delivery systems and vulnerable populations at stake. Good practices will be proposed based on the case studies, and their replicability will be tested via two Europe-wide workshops.

DG EMPL wishes to establish a template to report annually on the use and implementation of the European Social Fund (ESF) at EU level. The annual report will present a battery of output and result indicators common to the 117 operational programmes and covering the main domains and types of intervention of the ESF.

This evaluation as been commissioned by the European commission in the context of the framework contract signed between DG EMPL and Ramboll Management in association wirh Matrix and Eureval. In September 2009, the Commission has launched this evaluation in order to assess the contribution of the European social fund (ESF) to the European employment strategy (EES). The evaluation is expected to provide recommendation for the Commisson to improve its instruments, and in particular the ESF, which contribute to EES objectives.

Eureval leads a consortium (with Ecorys Netherlands BV and Ramboll Management), working on a long term mission for the European Commission (DG EMPL) and its employment, social and equal opportunities policies. The services involve the development and pilot- testing of methods and tools (lot 4) for evaluations, evaluation related activities and impact assessments in the framework of DG EMPL activities.

This evaluation has been commissioned by the European commission in the context of the framework contract signed between DG EMPLOYMENT and Eureval in association with Ramboll Management and Ecorys. The main objective is to provide geographical desks with better information on how the delivery systems of the ESF work. In particular what is the influence of the formal framework of delivery systems (official procedures) and the “de facto” features of it (local interpretations and practices). The objective is to determine a successful way to attract and support OP target groups.

Through this study, the European Commission (DG EMPL) intends to make a series of important inputs into the design of the next programmes of the European Social Fund (ESF) which will come to birth in 2014. Knowing that the ESF supports thousands of training activities per year across Europe, the study assesses the return on such investments in terms of benefits for the participants, for the employers, and for the society at large. A literature review is intended to synthesise the lessons learned and to identify the knowledge gaps, under the scrutiny of a panel of experts.

The objective of this contract is to set up a network of national experts – one in each Member State – that provides a concise overview of the evaluation activities in the Member States including an inventory of evaluation plans and activities and an analysis of the findings and results of the evaluations to date. A synthesis covering all 27 Member States is foreseen to provide a coherent picture of the evaluation activities, compare the approaches and identify relevant trends.

The contract is carried out by a consortium of Metis GmbH and Euréval.

To prepare the Active Ageing European Year, DG EMPL needed a synthesis of what was learned from previous similar European and World years. Euréval did that synthesis, and emphasised on the good practices of previous years.

The synthesis was then integrated in the Impact Assessment of the European Year.

Together with a Belgian firm and an English firm, we produced the synthesis of all evaluation reports in the field of employment and training programmes supported by Structural funds Objectives 3 and 4 in Belgium. Our role was one of methodological support and quality assurance.