Ecorys to conduct the mid-term evaluation of cross-border cooperation programmes between IPA II beneficiaries

The Cross Border Cooperation (CBC) programme between the countries of the Western Balkans is funded through the Instrument for Pre-Accession (IPA) of the European Commission (EC). It strives to resolve regional enmities and address development challenges through economic, social and cultural integration initiatives. Regional integration, and cooperation within the Western Balkans, is an EU accession prerequisite and an important policy objective for both the EU and the countries of the region.

The mid-term evaluation provides an opportunity to understand how the nine constituent programmes are performing and to help improve the design of future programmes to be funded under the 2021-27 financing perspective The assessment of the individual programmes will be synthesised into higher level conclusions and recommendations to improve ongoing implementation and future CBC programmes under IPA III.

The evaluation covers the nine ongoing intra-regional CBC programmes funded by IPA II 2014-2020, with a total budget of 83.3 million euros. It follows the standard theory-based EU evaluation approach and uses a variety of tools to analyse programming documentation and understand perspectives of a wide range of stakeholders.  Preliminary findings will be validated during a field visit to all six of the beneficiary countries in mid-2020 and the final conclusions presented in a conference in the region at the end of the year.

For further information please contact Veronika Brantova (veronika.brantova@ecorys.com).