Evaluation & Assessment

Evaluations can be divided into ex-ante and ex-post evaluations. Ex-ante evaluations are carried out as a forward-looking assessment of measures. These cover a wide range of assessment tools, such as Sustainability Impact Assessments (SIAs) for policies, Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEAs) for plans and programmes and Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) for projects. These assessment tools/procedures are important as they provide the framework for more transparent and informed decisions regarding the impacts on the environment. Ex-post evaluations are backward looking assessment of measures evaluating what has actually happened based on specific criteria such as relevance (were the environmental needs met?) or effects (what were the impacts on the environment?). The ex-post evaluations should provide feedback information to ex-ante evaluations and some of the assessment tools have already monitoring requirements built into them. Consequently they can be important in shaping future environmental policy.

The coming into force of the EU SEA Directive, the Commission's Impact Assessment procedures covering new policies and the mainstreaming of ex-post policy evaluation within the Commission reflects a growing interest in better and more effective governance. IEEP has contributed to thinking in this area, based on direct experience of undertaking assessments at the local through to the EU level, and using a range of assessment and evaluation tools. This includes evaluations of the European Environment Agency, specific EU funding areas, and contributing to evaluation guidebooks, such as the Commission's reference manual on evaluation (the MEANS handbook). For a complete list of our reports that relate to assessments and evaluations, simply select 'Evaluation and Assessment' in the quick search menu.

For more information on IEEP's Evaluation & Assessment work, contact Peter Hjerp