Brussels, 22/11/2013 (Agence Europe) - On 22 November, the European Commission launched a consultation exercise that will run until 24 January 2014, inviting comments on a guidance paper aimed at helping member states to better evaluate the extent to which public support schemes have achieved their purpose and what their impact was on markets and competition. This guidance document will help public authorities to evaluate the impact of public support schemes in favour of the economy, not only to verify whether the planned results have been achieved but also how efficiently this has been done.
The guidance paper, published on DG Competition's website, contains information on methodologies, best practice and examples on how to carry out ex-post evaluations. It also seeks to set minimum standards on evaluation modalities and techniques in order to foster a common approach among member states, thereby ensuring high quality evaluations, while leaving the necessary flexibility to adapt to the specific situations of each evaluation exercise. The guidance document is in particular intended for assessing aid schemes with large budgets since those are likely to have the biggest impact on the market and the highest efficiency gains.
The Commission's DG Competition will publish the definitive guidance paper on its website and use it as a basis for the evaluations to be carried in the coming years. (FG/transl.fl)