8th Evaluation Conference of EU Cohesion Policy

The European Commission is organising the 8th evaluation conference of EU cohesion policy ‘Investing in Our Shared Future’ on 20-21 June 2019 in Bucharest. The conference is part of the calendar of the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

With its strategic orientation aimed at fostering shared prosperity across Europe, EU cohesion policy invests in the social, economic and environmental fabric of Europe's regions. It harnesses creativity and cooperation across more than 270 regions, touching the lives of about 500 million European citizens.

Over the last three decades, EU cohesion policy has been evolving and modernising, inspired by good practices in the Member States and shared investment challenges. Cohesion policy not only invests in development, but also encourages participatory planning, social responsibility, accountability and transparency for its investments. It promotes an inclusive vision of a common future, building upon sound principles of performance-oriented governance, EU added value, and durable benefits. Evaluations performed at the European Commission and Member States level have been instrumental to gather evidence to support cohesion policy transformation.

In this event, we invite policy makers, national, regional and local authorities, managing authorities, evaluation experts, academics, civil society and other stakeholders to reflect on the role and exchange views on the contribution of the policy to promoting performance-oriented public investments and to developing a culture of evaluation in Member States. Join us in this dialogue on how the policy can contribute further to the consolidation of a result-oriented approach of EU-wide investments to the benefit of European citizens.