Controlling and Evaluating EU-Funded Interventions

This paper reviews the controls carried out within the Cohesion Funds and those allocated for the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), in order to draw some preliminary observations on the control system characterizing European funds. The paper argues that the results-based mode of control, which is set to gain increasing importance within the European fund system, finds a formidable testing and development ground within the NRRP framework. Already adopted within the framework of the Cohesion Policy in recent years, outcome-based control was adopted to promote concrete results and govern a multilevel system that often proved to be slow and cumbersome. Yet, the opportunities for simplification and efficiency that underlie a results-based form of control risk may not be fully seized, unless additional systemic elements are adopted. These elements include staff training and administrative capacity development, enfranchisement from technical assistance provided by consulting firms, and better integration of control and evaluation systems.