Measuring benefits of European Territorial Cooperation Programmes – Piloting of Typology 22 February 2011

The Proposal – Why? Need to know benefits at the EU level Need to assess what is achieved in order to communicate benefits Difficulty with indicators across E.T.C. Programmes – Over 50 sub themes identified in regulations – Wide range of projects  multi country & multi sectoral – Common system not possible – Difficult to change existing programmes – Too late for new indicators Data for communication, capitalisation, monitoring, evaluation needed

Benefits A tool to identify common achievements – What are you proud of? – Relevance of your achievement in context of programme area/topics Visibility Communication tools – KEEP Help the programme – To show its uniqueness – Justify achievement of programme objectives

The Proposal – How does it work? Looking outside of indicators, but focusing on project achievements (the most significant effects achieved by the end of the project) Reported via one report at project completion stage Based on project self assessment Simple, easy to use, not take very long to complete Online system

Step 1: Type of achievement New knowledge or analysis - Studies and analysis where the main purpose is to develop new knowledge (eg feasibility studies, benchmarking, comparitative analysis or surveys) New ways of working - Change or significant improvement of working methods, skills, practices, procedures and structures ( eg guidelines, strategies, tool kits, new clusters, new legal identities) Changes to policy or public behaviour - Amended laws or regulations (eg new standards for construction of buildings) Investment or infrastructure - eg road, bridge, cycle route Product or Service – eg online service, health care service Community integration - I ntegrating communities on both sides of the border and strengthening personal contacts ( eg people to people, cross border cultural festivals)

Step 2: Themes Economic development Environment Quality of life Accessibility

Step 3: Value of cooperation What is the added value of the cooperation? Cooperation status – To what extent is the cooperation important for this achievement? Benefits of cooperation – Additional effects of cooperation? Geographical impact – At what level is the most extensive geographical impact of your achievement? Transferability of achievements – Would it be possible to transfer this achievement to other organisations / regions / countries outside current partnership?

Pitfalls Projects have difficulty identifying one major achievement Projects have difficulty distiguishing between types of achievements Projects have difficulty distiguishing between outputs and results

Discussion Questions Can you identify one main project achievement? Can you explain how cooperation has helped you reach your main project achievement?