EQUAL - Final report - eng - navreme

EVALUATION OF CIP EQUAL TRANSNATIONAL CO-OPERATION PRINCIPLE
several member states. This activity must build on a transnational, inter-governmental agreement and
specification of an assignment for monitoring or evaluation from the position of the given group of
countries. At the same time, the reasoning is possible rather at the level of comparisons (of similarities
or on the contrary, of differences), in it how the individual accents in the priorities of the thematic
(intervention) areas in the given countries, in the wider context of the European Employment
Strategy, are stipulated. With regard to the fact that such setting will most probably exceed the
competencies of the ministries, inter-governmental agreements would have to be concerned. At the
same time these agreements would have to stipulate the responsibilities for system administration and
sharing the costs connected with its development and operation.
Individual countries create also monitoring and evaluation plans, e.g. “Northern Ireland European
Social Fund Programme 2007 – 2013” mentions in Chapter 4 Evaluation in paragraph 4.24 the
evaluation strategy in the first half of the programme: having carried out the substantial part of the
project activities to evaluate the contribution (added value) of the programme to the strategic
intentions of the EU, the Member State and the region and, in particular the innovative, supranational
and interregional activities and horizontal themes. The evaluation strategy of the North Irish ESF
programme will be updated for the second half of the programme’s duration in order to take account
of the regional socio-economical and political development. In the United Kingdom, the West Wales
and the Valleys Convergence Programme - Operational Programme for the ESF mentions in Chapter 3
– Strategy, paragraph 3.131 that the managing authority shall establish an independent Transnational
Cooperation Unit to support the programme activities. Then in Chapter 6 in paragraphs 6.40 – 6.42
the planning tool of the managing authority “Strategic Frameworks” is described as an implementation
strategy to achieve the strategic objective by means of strategically interconnected project
interventions. These frameworks will serve in selection of the projects, they will enable their
comparison. Thus the managing authority will be able to identify projects proposing transnational or
interregional cooperation already in the stage of submission and selection and to direct them towards
achieving of the programme objectives. It will be able to provide them specific assistance also during
the implementation and monitor and evaluate them purposefully in cooperation with the Monitoring
Committee. The East Wales Regional Competitiveness & Employment Programme for the ESF 2007–
2013 is drawn up accordingly. Both these programmes will thus be implemented, monitored and
evaluated with the managing authority’s active participation, without prejudice to the Monitoring
Committee’s power and responsibility.
5.6 Management of the CIP EQUAL and other HRD
programmes funded from the ESF
Management and implementation of the transnational cooperation priority axis does not arise in
vacuum, it follows up with the previous experience in management of similar programmes and it does
not definitely assume that it will leave the begun tradition completely. On the contrary, this is
obviously the solution to the basic question, the general problem connected with management of any
programmes: namely to what extent to set the rules and restrictions in such a way that the exerted
endeavour would really reflect in the improved quality of the implemented projects. It appears that
obviously the surest answer is the link-up with the traditions, the implementing entities’ expectations
and the previous experience, from which this results as a rule. The priority axis management must
work necessarily with the context of the Czech environment, thus with the relatively low experience of
the project implementing entities in transnational partnerships and (sometimes) with the partnership
at all, smaller stability of institutions and weak links between the transnational and national level of
the partnership. In the countries that were included in the evaluation, various measures were
recommended and somewhere also implemented. For example, creation of a special measure or a
project at the programme management level (not at the project level) was concerned, which will
facilitate the process of search for the partners and formation of the transnational partnership; in
some countries this type of measures is implemented in the form recommendation of minimum extent
of the partnership, which countries to focus on when searching for partners (further to the national
strategies), which activities shall be strengthened (it is generally recommended to limit generic
activities that miss the concrete content); somewhere this principle was transposed into formation of a
concrete physical institution, the mission of which is to support transnational partnership in the
projects in the given programme. A recommendation to announce gradually successive calls, some of
Navreme Boheme, s.r.o. 41