CIVICA collaborative research projects unite scholars from across our alliance to address major societal challenges through policy-relevant research. Between 2022 and 2023, a team of researchers from Central European University (CEU), the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration (SNSPA), and Sciences Po came together under a project titled EVALEU to examine the European Union’s policy effectiveness in achieving its Green transformation goals. This project represents a critical step toward developing a more coherent and impactful approach to evaluating the EU’s environmental policy and implementation strategies.
The article below is by Matthias Thiemann, Professor for European Public Policy at Sciences Po and part of the EVALEU research team.
The need for systematic evaluation
The European Union’s Green Deal requires not only massive public investment but also a robust institutional capacity capable of assessing and monitoring policy effectiveness. Currently, there is neither a systematic evaluation nor an established theoretical framework for understanding how the EU approaches the process of designing its environmental policy and designs its instruments of policy implementation. Our CIVICA-supported project took the first steps towards addressing this gap by consolidating existing knowledge of the EU’s capacity and approach towards ex-ante and ex-post evaluation of environmental policy implementation, emphasizing particularly the use of blended finance to enhance the administrative and institutional capacities of Member States.
What Our Research Revealed About EU Environmental Policy Evaluation
Drawing on structured literature reviews and preliminary research, we have structured the findings in four research reports that served as the basis for expert discussions facilitated through a CIVICA workshop organised at Sciences Po Paris. The reports identified critical tensions arising from the institutional fragmentation and competing evaluative logics driving key stakeholders involved in the EU environmental policy cycle – including development banks, civil society, and national governments. Our analysis revealed significant weaknesses in the existing evaluation infrastructure, notably due to inconsistent evaluation methodologies, difficulties in harmonizing indicators at the EU level, resource constraints, and administrative overlay. These shortcomings result evaluations being often viewed as an administrative burden implemented merely for compliance reasons, resulting in the limited integration of evaluation outcomes into subsequent stages of the policy cycle.
Rethinking How the EU Evaluates Policy
A clearer and more consistent articulation of evaluation criteria, coupled with a commitment to embedding findings within multi-level policy processes, could enhance the strategic deployment of environmental funding. Greater transparency and analytical rigor in assessments would not only improve policy accountability but also strengthen public trust in the EU’s green transition efforts.
CIVICA has played an instrumental role in supporting EVALEU through its facilitation of interdisciplinary dialogue and knowledge exchange, setting the foundation for future cross-institutional collaboration on the multi-level accountability architecture of EU environmental policy.
