INVESTING IN OUR

SHARED FUTURE

THE 8TH CONFERENCE ON THE EVALUATION OF

EU COHESION POLICY

20 – 21 JUNE 2019BUCHAREST, ROMANIA

PROGRAMMERegional and Urban Policy

2

INVESTING IN OUR

SHARED FUTURE

THE 8TH CONFERENCE ON THE EVALUATION OF

EU COHESION POLICY

20 – 21 JUNE 2019BUCHAREST, ROMANIA

INDEX TABLE

INTRODUCTION 3

IMPORTANT ADDRESSES 4

AGENDA 5

DESCRIPTION OF PLENARY SESSIONS AND WORKSHOPS 10

LIST OF SPEAKERS AND CHAIRS 15

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INTRODUCTIONWith its strategic orientation to foster shared prosperity across Europe, EU cohesion policy invests in the social, economic and environmental fabric of its regions. It harnesses creativity and

cooperation across more than 270 regions, improving the lives of about 500 million European citizens.

Over the last three decades, EU cohesion policy has evolved, inspired by good practices in the Member States and shared

investment challenges. cohesion policy does not only invest in development, but it also encourages partnership, participatory planning, social responsibility, accountability and transparency,

building upon sound principles of performance-oriented governance, EU added value and long-lasting benefits.

The monitoring and evaluation framework of cohesion policy supports the policymaking cycle with robust evidence, in order

to achieve the EU objectives of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth and to improve the citizens’ quality of life.

The 8th Conference on the Evaluation of EU cohesion policy brings together policy makers, national, regional and local authorities,

managing authorities, evaluation experts, academia, civil society and other stakeholders. The goal is to reflect on the role and the

contribution of the policy to promoting performance-oriented public investments, and to developing a culture of evaluation in

the Member States.

I would like to thank the speakers, chairpersons and all the participants for taking part in this conference. It will help us move faster towards the consolidation of a result-oriented approach to investments throughout the Union, for a better and shared future

of all European citizens.

CORINA CREŢU EUROPEAN COMMISSIONER FOR REGIONAL POLICY

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IMPORTANT ADDRESSES

SOCIAL EVENT VENUE

CONFERENCE VENUERADISSON BLUE HOTEL Calea Victoriei, 63-81 Sector 1 10065 Bucharest, Romania

ROMANIAN ATHENAEUM Benjamin Franklin Street 1-3, Sector 1 030167 Bucharest, Romania

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AGENDA

8:30 - 09:45 REGISTRATION AND WELCOME COFFEE 09:45 – 10:30 SESSION 1: OPENING KEYNOTE SPEECH Corina Creţu European Commissioner for Regional Policy

WELCOMING ADDRESS: Vasile-Daniel Suciu Vice Prime Minister of Romania

Minister of Regional Development and Public Administration

Michael Schneider Member of the European Committee of the Regions

Envoy of the State of Saxony-Anhalt to the Federal Government of Germany

10:30 FAMILY PHOTO & PRESS CONFERENCE 10:30 - 11:00 COFFEE BREAK 11:00 – 11:30 INTRODUCTORY SPEECH ‘EU FOCUS ON PERFORMANCE IN THE 2021-2027 MULTIANNUAL FINANCIAL FRAMEWORK’ Maria Rosa Aldea Busquets Deputy Director-General for Budget

European Commission

11:30 – 13:00 SESSION 2: EVALUATION OF COHESION POLICY – ROLE AND REACH INTRODUCTORY REMARKS: Roxana Mînzatu Minister of European Funds of Romania

PANEL DISCUSSION: Mihaela Virginia Toader Secretary of State

Ministry of European Funds of Romania

THURSDAY 20 JUNE 2019

The plenary sessions of the conference will be moderated by Jacki Davis, with interpretation in German, English, French and Romanian.

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Andrey Novakov Member of the Committee on Regional Development European Parliament Michael Schneider Member of the European Committee of the Regions Duarte Rodrigues Vice President of the Agency for the Development and Cohesion of Portugal John Bachtler Professor and Director of the European Policies Research Centre University of Strathclyde and the Technical University of Delft Eric von Breska Director for Policy, Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy European Commission

13:00 - 14:30 LUNCH

14:30 – 16:00 SESSION 3 – PARALLEL WORKSHOPS WORKSHOP 1: EVALUATION OF PUBLIC POLICY – STATE OF THE ART

CHAIR: Ioana Cristina Condurat Deputy Head of Evaluation and Impact Assessment Unit Secretariat - General, European Commission

SPEAKERS: Christiane Arndt Head of Programme, Measuring Regulatory Performance, Regulatory Policy Division, OECD Frauke Hoss Policy Officer at Evaluation and Impact Assessment Unit, Secretariat - General, European Commission Jeff Chelsky Manager, Economic Management and Country Programs, Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) of the World Bank

WORKSHOP 2: SMART SPECIALISATION STRATEGIES – MONITORING AND EVALUATION

CHAIR: Carlo Amati Evaluation Officer at Evaluation and European Semester Unit, Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy, European Commission

SPEAKERS: Pierre-Alexandre Balland Assistant Professor of Economic Geography at Utrecht University and visiting Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Media Lab), The Netherlands and USA Attila Varga Professor of Economics, Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Pécs, Hungary Mara Giua Researcher at Department of Economics and Rossi-Doria Centre, Roma Tre University, Italy

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WORKSHOP 3: TERRITORIAL INTEGRATED STRATEGIES – MONITORING WAND EVALUATION

CHAIR: Marek Teplanský Head of Inclusive Growth, Urban and Territorial Development Unit, Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy, European Commission

SPEAKERS: Alessandra de Renzis Public officer at Tuscany Regional Government, Managing Authority of ERDF Regional Operational Programme Tuscany 2014-2020, Italy Sérgio Barroso Director of the Centre for Studies and Urban and Regional Development (CEDRU), Portugal Adri Hartkoorn Programme Secretary of the Managing Authority of the ERDF Operational programme ‘Opportunities for the West’ 2014-2020, The Netherlands

WORKSHOP 4: IMPACT EVALUATION AND THE DATA REVOLUTION

CHAIR: John Walsh Team leader at Evaluation and European Semester Unit, Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy, European Commission

SPEAKERS: Dirk Czarnitzki Professor at Faculty of Economics and Business, KU Leuven, Belgium Anda Berenyi Client Development Advisor, McKinsey & Company, Belgium Simona De Luca OpenCoesione coordinator, Evaluation Unit, Department for cohesion policy, Presidency of the Council of Ministers of Italy Dario Buono Team Leader at Methodology, Innovation in Official Statistics Unit, EUROSTAT

16:00 - 16:30 COFFEE BREAK

16:30 – 18:00 SESSION 4 – PARALLEL WORKSHOPS WORKSHOP 5: COHESION POLICY: WHAT WORKS WELL AND WHAT DOES NOT?

CHAIR: Mariana Hristcheva Head of Evaluation and European Semester Unit, Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy, European Commission

SPEAKERS: Riccardo Crescenzi Professor of Economic Geography at London School of Economics, United Kingdom Silvia Vignetti Director of Evaluation Studies at Centre for Industrial Studies (CSIL), Italy John Bachtler Professor and Director of the European Policies Research Centre, University of Strathclyde and the Technical University of Delft

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WORKSHOP 6: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES OF EVALUATION OF COHESION POLICY IN MEMBER STATES

CHAIR: Claudia Magdalina Head of Programmes Evaluation Unit, Ministry of the European Funds of Romania

SPEAKERS: Terry Ward Director of Studies, Applica, Belgium Balázs Pichler Head of Evaluation Unit, Ministry for Innovation and Technology of Hungary Jana Drliková Head of Evaluation Unit, Ministry of Regional Development of Czechia

WORKSHOP 7: EXPLOITING THE EUROPEAN STRUCTURAL AND INVESTMENT FUNDS OPEN DATA

CHAIR: John Walsh Team leader at the Evaluation and European Semester Unit, Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy, European Commission SPEAKERS: Alain Vanden Borre Team Leader and Webmaster at Communication Unit, Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy, European Commission Gábor Toth Evaluation Officer at Evaluation and Impact Assessment Unit, Directorate- General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, European Commission

WORKSHOP 8: FROM ADMINISTRATIVE REGISTERS TO IMPACTS OF THE EUROPEAN SOCIAL FUND OPERATIONS

CHAIR: Maria-José Cueto Faus Head of Evaluation and Impact Assessment, Directorate- General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, European Commission SPEAKERS: Nuno Crato Professor at University of Lisbon, Portugal Andrea Naldini Director for Policy Analysis and Evaluation, Ismeri Europa, Italy Ann Coenen Statistical Analyst at International Relations and Socio-economic Studies Division, Federal Public Service Employment, Labour and Social Dialogue, Belgium

18:30 SOCIAL EVENT – CLASSICAL MUSIC CONCERT AND COCKTAIL DINNER AT ROMANIAN ATHENAEUM (offered by the Ministry of European Funds of Romania)

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FRIDAY 21 JUNE 2019 9:00 - 9:30 WELCOME COFFEE

9:30 – 11:00 SESSION 1: POLICY EVALUATION FOR THE EU: LEARNING, ACCOUNTABILITY AND COMMUNICATION

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS: Iliana Ivanova Dean of Chamber II ‘Investment for cohesion, growth and inclusion’ in the European Court of Auditors Veronica Gaffey Chair of Regulatory Scrutiny Board, European Commission

PANEL DISCUSSION: Iliana Ivanova Dean of Chamber II ‘Investment for cohesion, growth and inclusion’ in the European Court of Auditors Veronica Gaffey Chair of Regulatory Scrutiny Board, European Commission Philip McCann Professor of Urban and Regional Economics, Sheffield University Management School Mariana Hristcheva Head of Evaluation and European Semester Unit, Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy, European Commission

11:00 - 11:30 COFFEE BREAK

11:30 – 13:00 SESSION 2: WRAP-UP AND CONCLUSIONS FEEDBACK FROM WORKSHOPS Chairs/rapporteurs from the parallel workshops

Q&A

CONCLUDING REMARKS Mariana Hristcheva Head of Evaluation and European Semester Unit, Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy, European Commission

CLOSING REMARKS Mihaela Virginia Toader Secretary of State Ministry of European Funds of Romania

13:00 - 14:30 LUNCH

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DESCRIPTION OF PLENARY SESSIONS AND WORKSHOPS

THURSDAY 20 JUNE 2019

SESSION 1: KEYNOTE SPEECH, WELCOMING ADDRESSES AND INTRODUCTORY SPEECH

The conference will be opened by a keynote speech of the EU Commissioner for Regional Policy and welcoming addresses by the Vice Prime Minister of Romania and by the member of the European Committee of the Regions. The Deputy Director-General for Budget, European Commission, will then make an introductory speech to illustrate the performance-oriented approach of EU policies and its planned reinforcement for the 2021-2027 period.

SESSION 2: EVALUATION OF COHESION POLICY – ROLE AND REACH

Evaluation of cohesion policy should inform on what works and what does not, and assist policy makers in developing further existing policies and in designing new policies addressing new challenges. In this panel, we will invite a debate on the present and future of evaluation of cohesion policy, with an emphasis on its role at EU and national levels, its evolution over time, its reach in terms of territorial and policy coverage, and expectations for the future.

SESSION 3: PARALLEL THEMATIC WORKSHOPS

WORKSHOP 1: EVALUATION OF PUBLIC POLICY – STATE OF THE ART

The objective of this workshop is to reflect on the main characteristics of an effective system of evaluations of public policies (such as proportionality, timeliness, effective consultations, independence etc.) and on the benefits and challenges of establishing such a system for public policies at national and EU level.

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WORKSHOP 2: SMART SPECIALISATION STRATEGIES – MONITORING AND EVALUATION

The workshop will address some of the main challenges for smart specialisation strategies, introduced into EU policy in the 2014-2020 period to unlock the regions’ potential for excellence in research and innovation. From the effectiveness of governance arrangements and project prioritisation to the measure of the impact of interventions, we will discuss preliminary findings, which can provide useful insights for the mid-term evaluation of the strategies.

WORKSHOP 3: TERRITORIAL INTEGRATED STRATEGIES – MONITORING AND EVALUATION

In the period 2014-2020 the territorial integrated approach of cohesion policy promotes multi-level partnerships in the pursuit of multi-sectorial, multi-fund integrated investments for territorial development. In this workshop we will invite a reflection on the implications of the dimension of integration on the need for dedicated monitoring frameworks and the design of evaluations of integrated strategies.

WORKSHOP 4: IMPACT EVALUATION AND THE DATA REVOLUTION

To conduct robust impact evaluations, evaluators need to identify different data sources and interrelate them in order to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of public policies. With a panel of practitioners, we will explore the challenges of identifying and using data in evaluations of European Regional Development Fund and Cohesion Fund. Which data is needed for which evaluation approaches? Is monitoring data sufficient? What other sources are available at what cost?

SESSION 4: PARALLEL THEMATIC WORKSHOPS

WORKSHOP 5: COHESION POLICY: WHAT WORKS WELL AND WHAT DOES NOT?

Evidence-based policy has become the buzzword in the public policy discourse, but what have we learnt from evaluation so far on what works well and what does not in cohesion policy? Did this learning contribute to shape the design of the policy? How can we better integrate the results of evaluations into our policy making? We will discuss this with evaluation practitioners and then reflect on how this learning process can be strengthened in the future.

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WORKSHOP 6: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES OF EVALUATION OF COHESION POLICY IN MEMBER STATES

The regulatory requirements for the 2014-2020 cohesion policy programmes introduced the obligation for the managing authorities to draw up evaluations plans and evaluate the impact of EU support. The workshop will discuss the main challenges of the new evaluation approach and good practices and solutions for addressing them. It will also outline the horizontal conclusions derived from the independent review of evaluations from all MS.

WORKSHOP 7: EXPLOITING EUROPEAN STRUCTURAL AND INVESTMENT FUNDS OPEN DATA

The period 2014-2020 has seen a veritable explosion of monitoring data on financial inputs and common indicators from ESIF programmes. Not only is this data collected but it is also now open and regularly refreshed through the ESIF Open Data Platform. The workshop will take participants behind the web interface with its standard visualisations into the key 2014-2020 open data sets that drive the platform. It will also explore the data catalogue and show how to become a “power user”.

WORKSHOP 8: FROM ADMINISTRATIVE REGISTERS TO IMPACTS OF THE EUROPEAN SOCIAL FUND OPERATIONS

While governments are collecting an extensive amount of data for administrative purposes, this is often not available for research. In the workshop we will explore to what extent the EU Member States are using administrative data for evaluating the impacts of the European Social Fund operations. We will discuss the potential of increased availability of micro data to obtain credible evidence on the impacts of the education, labour market and social inclusion programmes.

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FRIDAY 21 JUNE 2019

SESSION 1: POLICY EVALUATION FOR THE EU: LEARNING, ACCOUNTABILITY AND COMMUNICATION

Evaluation of EU policies is expected to help decision makers learn what works, to inform stakeholders and citizens on the achievements of EU policies, and to contribute a more efficient allocation of resources to EU programmes. The discussion in this panel will address the extent to which the evaluation of EU policies has met these expectations, and reflect also on what we can do better in the future.

SESSION 2: WRAP-UP AND CONCLUSIONS

Chairs and rapporteurs of the thematic workshops will summarise the issues debated in the parallel sessions and present the main outcomes of the discussion.The Head of Unit of Evaluation and European Semester of the Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy, European Commission, will then draw some concluding remarks on the overall conference and the way forward. The Secretary of State of Ministry of European Funds of Romania will close the conference.

LIST OF SPEAKERS AND CHAIRS

INVESTING IN OUR

SHARED FUTURE

THE 8TH CONFERENCE ON THE EVALUATION OF

EU COHESION POLICY

16

Maria Rosa Aldea-BusquetsDeputy Director- General

European Commission, DG BUDGET

Maria Rosa Aldea-Busquets is the Deputy Director-General in DG Budget and Accounting Officer of the European Commission. Her responsibilities cover treasury, accounting, financial reporting, budget execution, debt recovery and the discharge (i.e. process through which the EU budget authority holds the European Commission accountable for the EU Budget implementation). In this process, which is increasingly focused on performance, Rosa plays a key role in the improvements made to the reporting of the EU value added and the performance framework for the next multiannual financial framework.

Carlo Amati Evaluation Officer

European Commission, DG REGIO

Carlo Amati is an evaluation officer in the Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy of the European Commission. He has an extensive background in quantitative methods for analysis and statistical modelling. Before joining the Commission, he worked for the Italian government where he launched and managed the OpenCoesione initiative and other tools to exploit the potential of monitoring data. He holds a Master’s degree in Physics from the Sapienza University of Rome and a Master in Applied Econometrics.

Christiane ArndtHead of Programme, Measuring Regulatory Performance, Regulatory Policy Division

OECD

Christiane Arndt leads the OECD Programme on Measuring Regulatory Performance, ranging from work on cross-country comparable indicators to advice on domestic policy evaluation. She previously worked at the OECD Development Centre, the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and for the World Bank on measuring governance and its economic impact. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Economy and a Master’s Degree in International Business Studies, both from the University of Maastricht, as well as a Master’s Degree in International Politics from Sciences-Po Paris.

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John BachtlerDirector

European Policies Research Centre School of Government and Public Policy University of Strathclyde

John Bachtler is Professor of European Policy Studies and a Director of the European Policies Research Centre (EPRC) based at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow and the Technical University of Delft. His research experience is principally on regional and industrial development in Europe, notably EU Cohesion policy. He has led EPRC research on regional policy as well as the evaluation of Structural Fund programmes, and the implementation of the Funds. Recent work focuses on administrative capacity and cohesion policy performance.

Pierre-Alexandre Balland Assistant Professor of Economic Geography

Utrecht University, MIT Media Lab, The Netherlands and USA

Pierre-Alexandre Balland is Assistant Professor at Utrecht University, Visiting Professor at the MIT Media Lab, and Fellow at the Center for Complex Systems Studies. His research focuses on the uneven economic development of cities and regions and on the implementation of smart specialization principles using network science and complexity analysis. With colleagues from Utrecht, MIT, and UCLA he is developing a matching algorithm to assist decision-makers in their effort to prioritize industries and technologies in EU regions.

Sérgio BarrosoDirector

Cedru - Centre for Regional and Urban Studies and Development, Portugal

Sérgio Barroso, Geographer and Urbanist, Master in Urban and Regional Planning. Director of CEDRU, since 2001, is expert in the fields of special planning and climate change adaptation, urban and strategic planning, and evaluation of public policies. Has extensive experience in public policy evaluation and, since 1998, has participated in a large number of evaluation studies of regional, sectorial and territorial cooperation programmes, supported by European Structural and Investment Funds and European Economic Area (EEA) grants.

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Anda BerényiClient Development Advisor

McKinsey and Company, Belgium

Anda Berényi is an Economist and EU Advisor at McKinsey’s Public and Social Sector Practice. She has broad experience in serving EU institutions with a spotlight on policy analysis and impact evaluation. Her main area of expertise is cohesion policy, but she has deep knowledge in other areas such as digital policy and advanced technologies, institutional transformation and healthcare. Throughout her career, she has coordinated evaluation working groups and knowledge sharing platforms and has experimented with innovative methods including counterfactual approaches and advanced data analytics.

Dario BuonoTeam leader at Methodology, Innovation in Official Statistics Unit

EUROSTAT

Dario Buono is the Team Leader of Methodology for Official Statistics at Eurostat the Statistical Office of the European Union. He holds a Ph.D. in Econometrics from the University of Naples Federico II. Since 2000 he is training national statisticians in Time Series Analysis and Seasonal Adjustment. He is currently researching on the use of Big Data for Macroeconomic Nowcasting and looking for new metrics to measure uncertainty around point estimates.

Jeff ChelskyManager of Economic Management and Country Programmes,

World Bank, Independent Evaluation Group (IEG)

Jeff’s experience with independent evaluation began in late 1990s when, as Senior Advisor to the Chair of the IMF Executive Board’s Evaluation Coordination Group, he assisted in the establishment of the IMF’s Independent Evaluation Office (IEO), later serving as Senior Economist in IEO. After joining the World Bank in 2008, he became Manager of the Operations Monitoring and Analysis Unit where he oversaw the development of new analytical tools and metrics to improve the quality of the Bank’s portfolio and pipeline. In 2018, he assumed his current position in IEG.

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Ann Coenen Statistical Analyst

International relations and socio-economic studies division, Belgian Federal Public Service Employment, Labour and Social Dialogue

Ann Coenen is a statistical analyst for the research department of the FPS Employment (Belgium). Her areas of expertise include: inequalities in the labour market (age, ethnicity, gender, education), economic restructuring and the future of work. She is a member of the EMCO Indicators Group, and the Labour Market Statistics Working Group. Dr. Coenen studied History and Economics, and was awarded a PhD at the University of Antwerp (2013). She has been working as researcher and lecturer at the Universities of Utrecht and Antwerp.

Ioana Cristina ConduratDeputy Head of Evaluation and Impact assessment Unit

European Commission, SG

Ioana Cristina Condurat is Deputy Head of Unit in the Secretariat-General, unit Evaluation and Impact assessment. Ioana worked in the Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union in the areas of information technology and programme management. She joined the Secretariat-General where she coordinates the EU policy on regulatory burden reduction and better regulation policy in the areas of justice and home affairs. She holds a Master’s degree in Law.

Nuno Crato Professor

University of Lisbon, Portugal

Nuno Crato is co-editor with Paolo Paruolo of Data-Driven Policy Impact Evaluation: How Access to Microdata is Transforming Policy Design, Springer, 2019. A professor at the University of Lisbon and visiting researcher at the EC-JRC in Italy, he was Portuguese Minister of Education and Science from 2011 to 2015. He has published extensively on statistics, econometric evaluation, and education. An active science writer and educational essayist, his books have been published in the U.K., U.S., Portugal, Brazil, and Italy.

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Riccardo CrescenziProfessor of Economic Geography

London School of Economics, United Kingdom

Riccardo Crescenzi is a Professor of Economic Geography at the London School of Economics where he is also affiliated with the Spatial Economics Research Centre. Riccardo is the current holder of a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant. He is also an Associate at the Centre for International Development at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. His research is focused on Regional Economic Development, Innovation, Multinational Firms and the analysis and evaluation of European Union development policies.

Corina CrețuCommissioner for Regional Policy

European Commission

Corina Creţu has been the European Commissioner for Regional Policy since November 2014. Prior to becoming a European Commissioner, she was Member of the European Parliament and also served as Vice-President of the European Parliament. She had worked as a journalist before becoming Spokesperson of the President of Romania in 2000. Corina Crețu is also a former Romanian Member of Parliament and a former Romanian Senator. She graduated from the Academy of Economic Studies, Department of Cybernetics in 1989.

Maria-José Cueto FausHead of Evaluation and Impact Assessment Unit

European Commission, DG EMPL

Maria-José Cueto Faus is currently Head of the Unit dealing with the evaluation and impact assessment in the employment and social area at the European Commission in Brussels. She did legal studies in the University of Barcelona. Afterwards, she did a Master in European Community Law at the College of Europe, in Bruges. Ms Cueto Faus has worked in the European Union’s institutions in a variety of sectors and policies, since 2017, she is working in the evaluation area.

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Dirk CzarnitzkiProfessor at Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB)

KU Leuven University, Belgium

Dirk Czarnitzki is Associated Professor at the Department of Applied Economics at KU Leuven, Belgium, and he is also a senior researcher at the Steunpunt O&O Statistieken at KUL as well as a research associate at ZEW, His research interests cover the fields of the economics of innovation and focus on applied microeconometrics. The lines of research address topics such as the evaluation of public innovation policies, corporate governance and innovation, the valuation of intellectual assets, as well as knowledge and technology transfer.

Simona De LucaOpenCoesione Coordinator at Evaluation Unit, Department for Cohesion Policies

Presidency of the Council of Ministers of Italy

Simona De Luca is a mathematician, expert on open data and qualitative and quantitative analysis to evaluate public policy. For over 15 years she has been a member of the Evaluation Unit of the Italian Department for cohesion policy now at the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, working on data collection and analysis for territorial development and well-being. She coordinates the open government initiative OpenCoesione, which provides open data and interactive visualisations on projects funded by cohesion policy in Italy.

Alessandra De RenzisPublic Officer

Tuscany Regional Government, Managing Authority of the ERDF Operational Programme Tuscany 2014-2020, Italy

Alessandra de Renzis is a Public Officer at Tuscany Regional Government since 2005 working for the Rural Development Programme Managing Authority and later for the ERDF Operational Programme Managing Authority in implementation of local development strategies. Her work has focussed on programming, implementation and evaluation initially of LEADER strategies and later of Inner Areas, Urban Development and Smart Specialisation strategies. From November 2018 she has started a PhD in Urban Studies and Regional Science at Gran Sasso Science Institute.

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Jana DrlikováHead of Evaluation Unit

Ministry of Regional Development, Czechia

Jana Drliková leads the Evaluation Unit of the National Coordination Authority’s Evaluation Unit. She focuses on qualitative methods, project management and public procurement issues. Previously, she worked at the Ministry of Health, where she gained comprehensive insight into the implementation of ESI funds in the Czech Republic. She received her bachelor’s degree in political science from Charles University and in international relations and European studies from Masaryk University; she graduated from Central European University in Budapest.

Veronica GaffeyChair of Regulatory Scrutiny Board

European Commission

Veronica Gaffey was nominated as Chair of the Regulatory Scrutiny Board by the European Commission in 2019. This Board, which is independent of the Commission services, examines the evidence base of all impact assessments for new policy proposals and major evaluations. Ms Gaffey was Director of the Paymaster’s Office of the Commission from 2016 and before that worked in the Directorate General for Regional and Urban Policy from 2000. She worked in evaluation in Ireland and the European Commission for 23 years.

Mara GiuaResearcher, Department of Economics and Rossi-Doria Centre

Roma Tre University, Italy

Mara Giua is a Researcher at the Department of Economics - Roma Tre University. She studies the regional economic disparities across Europe and the policies implemented to improve economic performances. She has focused on the impact of European Structural Funds for most disadvantaged areas and of economic incentives on firms’ performance, using primarily a counterfactual approach. More recently, she is investigating the impacts of territorial embeddedness in determining the global trajectories of local areas and more traditional low-tech sectors.

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Adri HartkoornProgramme Secretary

Managing Authority of the ERDF 2007-13 and 2014-20 operational programmes ‘Kansen voor West’, The Netherlands

Adri Hartkoorn, Urban Manager (MA Urban Management), working for the municipality of Rotterdam at the cluster Urban Development. He has extensive experience in the management of ERDF programmes. Programme Secretary of the ERDF Managing Authority 2007-13 and 2014-20, operational programmes ‘Kansen voor West’. Previously, he was Programme Manager of the Rotterdam URBAN II programme, in addition to capacity building, management advice, architectural work and research in Albania, the Philippines, Tanzania and Botswana, and work in the Dutch Architect’s office.

Frauke HossPolicy Officer at Evaluation and Impact Assessment Unit

European Commission, SG

Frauke Hoss currently works in the European Commission’s unit for better regulation. Before joining the European Commission in 2015, Dr. Hoss studied Civil Engineering and Political Science in the Netherlands. Afterwards, she combined these two academic fields by pursing a PhD in Engineering & Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University in the USA. Before returning to Europe, she was a postdoc at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in the Science, Technology and Public Policy Programme.

Mariana HristchevaHead of European Semester and Evaluation Unit

European Commission, DG REGIO

Mariana Hristcheva is Head of Evaluation and European Semester Unit in DG REGIO, in charge of performance of the ERDF and CF and their link to the EU economic governance. Joined the Commission in February 2010 and served as Head of Cabinet of Kristalina Georgieva, Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response and Budget and Human Resources. Previously, she worked as the Head of ECOFIN in the PR of Bulgaria to the EU, the MoF of Bulgaria and the private sector.

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Iliana IvanovaDean of Chamber II ‘Investment for cohesion, growth and inclusion’

European Court of Auditors

Iliana Ivanova is a Member of the European Court of Auditors, where she is Dean of Chamber II covering Cohesion and Reporting Member for a number of performance audits. She is a former Member of the European Parliament, where she was Vice-Chair of the Committee on Budgetary Control and the Special Committee on the Economic Crisis. She holds a Master’s degree in International Economic Relations from the University of Economics in Varna and an MBA from the Arizona State University.

Claudia MagdalinaHead of Programmes Evaluation Unit

Ministry of the European Funds of Romania

Claudia Magdalina is an experienced Head of an Evaluation Unit, with a demonstrated history of working in Romanian government and administration. During 18 years of evaluation practice, she has contributed to shaping evaluation system and approaches that add accountability and better serve decision making on funding priorities, resources allocation and management of interventions. She is a strong evaluation professional with a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Political Science and research in the field of policy and programme evaluation.

Philip McCannProfessor of Urban and Regional Economy

Sheffield University Management School, United Kingdom

Philip McCann is Professor of Urban and Regional Economics at the University of Sheffield UK and is one of the world’s most highly cited spatial economists and economic geographers. He has won various academic awards for his research in several countries. He was previously Special Adviser to the EU Regional Policy Commissioners Johannes Hahn (2010-2013) and Corina Creţu (2015-2016) and Chief Independent Economic Advisor on the Sixth Cohesion Report (2014).

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Roxana MînzatuMinister

Ministry of European Funds of Romania

A Political Science and European Integration graduate, Roxana Mînzatu has developed her career in EU Funding management, working for both the private and the public sector. Since 2015 she has held dignitary positions in the Parliament of Romania and the national government. Presently she is the secretary of the Industry and Services Committee and also a member of the European Affairs Committee of the Chamber of Deputies. In June 2019 she was appointed as Minister of European Funds

Andrea Naldini Director for Policy Analysis and Evaluation

Ismeri Europa, Italy

Andrea Naldini is Director of the Evaluation Division at ISMERI Europa who carried out evaluations of cohesion policy interventions for over 30 years and participated to all the ex-post evaluations of cohesion policy since the 1989-1993 period. He recently directed the “Study on the effectiveness of results for ESF participants using CIE” for DG Employment and is member of the “Helpdesk” core team supporting DG Regio and DG Employment in coordinating cohesion policy evaluations.

Andrey NovakovMember of the Committee on Regional Development

European Parliament

Andrey Novakov is the youngest Member of the European Parliament who joined the institution in November 2014. He is Vice-Coordinator in the Committee on Regional Development and the EPP rapporteur for the post-2020 Common Provisions Regulation. In 2016, he was awarded the Forbes’ 30 under 30 prize. Andrey’s key activities relate to regional policy and EU investments in infrastructure, SMEs, entrepreneurship. He was apportioned for fourth consecutive year as one of the negotiators on the 2019 EU Budget.

Balázs PichlerHead of Evaluation Unit

Ministry for Innovation and Technology of Hungary

Balázs Pichler is the Head of the Monitoring and Evaluation Department for ESIF at the Ministry of Innovation and Technology in Hungary. His Department is responsible for the central monitoring of ESIF programs and the evaluation activities related to ESIF programs in Hungary. He’s been working in this field for the last 10 years, currently managing the ongoing evaluations of the 2014-20 programmes.

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Duarte RodriguesVice President

Agency for the Development and Cohesion of Portugal

Duarte Rodrigues is Vice-president of Cohesion and Development Agency with strong involvement on regional policy and monitoring and evaluation of public policies and on the negotiation of EU cohesion policy. Portuguese delegate to the OECD Regional Development Policy Committee (since 2008) and the President of its Working Party on Territorial Indicators (2010-2017). Deputy Coordinator of the NSRF Observatory (2008-2013); Adviser of the Secretary of State for Regional Development (2005-2008) and Head of the Territorial Statistics Unit in Statistics Office (1999-2005).

Michael SchneiderPresident of the EPP Group

European Committee of the Regions

Michael Schneider is President of the EPP Group in the European Committee of the Regions since 2010. Since 2002, he is the State Secretary for Federal Affairs and Envoy of the Land of Saxony-Anhalt to the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany. In 2018, Dr Schneider was a member of the Task Force on subsidiarity, proportionality and doing less more efficiently established by EC President Jean-Claude Juncker. In 2018, he was the CoR co-rapporteur on Common Provisions Regulation post 2020.

Vasile-Daniel SuciuVice Prime Minister of Romania, Minister of Regional Develop-ment and Public Administration

Government of Romania

Vasile-Daniel Suciu is Vice Prime Minister of the Romanian Government, Minister of Regional Development and Public Administration. Member of the Social Democratic Party of Romania, he has represented Bistrița – Năsăud County in the Chamber of Deputies since 2012, being Head of the Social Democratic Group Party (2018 – 2019). He started his professional career as a journalist at Mesagerul de Bistrița Năsăud, collaborating in parallel with the prestigious newspaper Evenimentul Zilei. He holds degrees in Political Sciences and in Political Management, International Relations and Diplomacy.

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Marek TeplanskýHead of Unit for Inclusive Growth, Urban and Territorial Development

European Commission, DG REGIO

Marek Teplanský is the Head of Unit for Inclusive Growth, Urban and Territorial Development in Directorate General for Regional and Urban policy. During past 16 years he was involved in implementation of the ERDF / CF programmes and projects in different Member states. Before joining the European Commission he was in charge of the coordination of the pre-accession assistance (ISPA) in the Office of Government of the Slovak Republic.

Mihaela Virginia ToaderSecretary of State

Ministry of European Funds of Romania

Mihaela Virginia Toader has extensive experience in strategic planning, public policies and governance, gained in the Government of Romania since 2003. She steered, as general director of the Ministry of European Funds, the preparation and negotiations of the 2014-2020 programming documents. Related multi-annual evaluation plans were conceived under her guidance, providing a decade perspective of ESIF evaluation activity in Romania. Currently, Mrs. Toader holds dignitary positions and continues to be an evaluation champion, promoting the evaluation culture in the country.

Gabor TothEvaluation Officer

European Commission, DG EMPL

Gabor Toth holds a master degree in economics, specialised in EU studies, from the Corvinus University of Budapest. In his job in DG Employment, he works to improve the quality of European Social Fund monitoring data, and make them accessible to the public, including in the cohesion policy Open Data Platform.

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Alain Vanden BorreTeam Leader and Webmaster at Communication Unit

European Commission, DG REGIO

Alain Vanden Borre is Team Leader for web-based communication at DG REGIO. He cares for the needs of a wide range of different audiences through the Inforegio website and many information products. He has been collaborating with the evaluation unit to the development of the ESI Funds Open Data Platform since the origin. This tool is the Swiss knife of ESIF: over the whole life cycle of the programmes, it can serve transparency, monitoring, policy, communication, etc.

Attila VargaProfessor of Economics at Faculty of Business and Economics

University of Pécs, Hungary

Attila Varga is internationally well-known for his research in the fields of regional innovation and economic development. He has published widely in major international journals. He is also active in the economic impact evaluation of EU cohesion policy with a specific attention to knowledge-based development. Attila Varga is the Director of the Regional Innovation and Entrepreneurship Research Center (RIERC) and Professor of the Department of Economics and Econometrics of the Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Pécs.

Silvia VignettiDirector of Department of Development and Evaluation Studies

Centre for Industrial Studies (CSIL), ItalySilvia Vignetti is an Economist specialised in Regional Development and EU cohesion policy with a long track record of study and evaluation assignments. She is an expert in the design, planning and evaluation of Major Projects co-funded by the ESIF, as well as in Cost-Benefit Analysis. Her more recent research interests include the socio-economic impact of Research Infrastructures. Along with her research activity, she is the Director of the Evaluation team at CSIL and deals with contract and project management.

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Eric von BreskaDirector for Policy

European Commission, DG REGIO

Eric von Breska is Director at the Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy, European Commission, responsible for policy development and the preparation of the post-2020 financial and legislative framework for cohesion policy, for Evaluation, the European semester, Financial instruments, relations with International Financial Institutions, and Legal affairs. Eric von Breska has been working for the European Commission since 1999, and joined the Cabinet of Danuta Hübner, Commissioner for regional policy in 2004. He holds a PhD in political science and economics.

John WalshTeam leader at Evaluation and European Semester Unit

European Commission, DG REGIO

John Walsh is a team leader in the Evaluation and European Semester unit of the Directorate General for Regional and Urban Policy in the European Commission. In his functions, he works on ESIF Open Data, and the monitoring and evaluation of 2014-2020 programmes. He has a wide experience in issues linked to coordinating the implementation of the Structural and Cohesion Funds. He was coordinator for the 2018 Annual Summary report.

Terry WardDirector of Studies

Applica, Belgium

Terry Ward is Director of Applica, a research consultancy based in Brussels. He currently directs the work of the Evaluation Helpdesk, set up by DG REGIO and DG EMPL to provide support on evaluations of cohesion policy programmes undertaken across the EU. He was the main author of the Synthesis Reports on the ex post evaluations of the ERDF and Cohesion Fund in the 2000-2006 and 2007-2013 periods and was editor of the all 7 Cohesion Reports so far published.

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NOTESOLICY

INVESTING IN OUR SHARED FUTURETHE 8TH CONFERENCE ON THE EVALUATION OF EU COHESION POLICY

#COHESIONPOLICY #COHESIONEVAL2019 #ESIFOPENDATA

EUROPEAN COMMISSION Directorate General for Regional and Urban Policy Unit of Evaluation and European Semester email address: REGIO-EVAL@ec.europa.eu