Public policy continually developing in Europe. - Ernst & Young has just published a barometer on public policy assessment in Europe, which identifies good practices developed in different countries and proposes ways of improving policy. The evaluation aims to improve public policy performance and transparency for citizens. More than 1,000 public decision makers, senior civil servants and academics participated in this survey. The investigation demonstrated that the assessment of public policy is continuing to develop in Europe: 86% of respondents consider that awareness about this practice has improved over the last three years. More than 50% of elected representatives appear to support this development in an effort to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of public action. Assessment development is done through regulatory requirements, particularly European (56%), the need for decision making to have accompanying measures (39%) and the necessity of rationalizing public spending. The barometer illustrates that the main evaluation goal for 65% of respondents is to improve the management, effectiveness and efficiency of public policy. Evaluation is now no longer perceived as a way of controlling the use of public funds but rather, as a lever for improving performance. The level of development of public policy evaluation is nevertheless uneven. The investigation looks at three major zones: 1) founding member states of the European Union (such as Italy, France and Germany) where the European Commission has played an important role in initial evaluation development. Public management in these countries currently integrates assessment as a means of accompanying the processes of state modernisation and decentralisation; 2) the United Kingdom and Scandinavian countries, which have for a long time demonstrated a strong political determination to reduce public expenditure, and have promoted the complete integration of evaluation into their management practices often by concentrating on best cost effectiveness and assessment of outsourced policies; 3) the new member states, where evaluation is still quite limited but has developed considerably due to regulatory requirements accompanying the accession process and thus contributing to reconstructing public management mechanisms.
The investigation underlines that: 1) 58% of policies and programmes assessed are Community-based; 2) regional and economic development policies are the most frequently assessed policies (49%), followed by economic development (40%) and the environment (34%). Conversely, the least assessed policies are cooperation policies (13%), cultural programmes (10%) and especially defence (3%). Further information: http: //http://www.ey.com/fr/secteurpublic