EVALUATION ROADMAP Interim evaluation of the direct management under the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF)

EVALUATION ROADMAP

Roadmaps aim to inform citizens and stakeholders about the Commission's work to allow them to provide feedback and to participate effectively in future consultation activities. Citizens and stakeholders are in particular invited to provide views on the Commission's understanding of the problem and possible solutions and to share any relevant information that they may have.

Title of the evaluation

Interim evaluation of the direct management under the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF)

Lead DG – responsible unit

DG MARE - Unit A1 (Maritime innovation, marine knowledge and investment)

Indicative Planning

(planned start date and completion date)

Start date: Q1 2018

Planned completion date: Q3 2018

Additional Information

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The Roadmap is provided for information purposes only. It does not prejudge the final decision of the Commission on whether this initiative will be pursued or on its final content. All elements of the initiative described by the document, including its timing, are subject to change.

A. Context, Purpose and Scope of the evaluation

Context

The primary (general) objective of the Integrated Maritime Policy (IMP) is "to develop and implement integrated, coordinated, coherent, transparent and sustainable decision-making in relation to the oceans, seas, coastal, insular and outermost regions and in the maritime sectors"[i] and that of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) is "to ensure that fishing and aquaculture activities contribute to the creation of environmental conditions capable of being sustained long-term which are necessary for economic and social development. Moreover, it should contribute to increased productivity, a fair standard of living for the fisheries sector and stable markets, and to provide conditions for economically viable and competitive capture and processing industry and land based related activities"[ii].

The establishment and objectives of the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) are set out in Regulation (EU) No 508/2014. Direct management operations under the EMFF shall facilitate the implementation of the CFP and the IMP.

Article 15 of Regulation (EU) 508/2014on the EMFF stipulates that the Commission shall review the implementation of Chapter I and II of Title VI, including the need for adjustments of the indicative distribution of funds as laid down in Annex III, and shall by 30 June 2017, submit to the European Parliament and to the Council an interim evaluation report on the results obtained and the qualitative and quantitative aspects of the EMFF.

Council and Parliament have been informed that, owing to the late adoption of the Regulation, the report will be delivered later.

Purpose and Scope

The purpose is to assess performance of and fine-tune the implementation of the direct management component of the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) for the current programming period 2014-2020.

The interventions cover both maritime policy and fisheries. Those for maritime policy aim to provide (1) integrated governance (2) better data (3) more effective spatial planning (4) sharing of information on potentially unsafe or illegal activity at sea (5) economic growth (6) protection of the marine environment. Those for fisheries cover (1) scientific advice (2) control and enforcement (3) voluntary contributions to international organisations (4) support to advisory councils (5) market intelligence (6) technical assistance.

Each of the measures listed will be evaluated for relevance, effectiveness, efficiency (including an assessment of the potential for regulatory simplification and burden reduction), coherence and EU added value. In addition, specific questions will be analysed linked to the various intervention categories.

B. Better Regulation

Consultation of citizens and stakeholders

The wide range of the interventions requires a separate approach for each stakeholder group. This will involve interviews by the external contractor and a public consultation.

The public consultation will be accessible on the Commission's consultation website. Stakeholders will be encouraged to participate also through information posted on the DG-MARE maritime forum and through email notification using the DG MARE list of nearly 6000 stakeholders. The questions asked in the public consultation will largely be similar for all stakeholders but analysed according to different stakeholder categories. They will also distinguish those who have been funded through the EMFF funding directly or from attending an event. The public consultation will be available in all languages of the EU.

Targeted consultations will be carried out with help of external consultants. These consultations aim to target those stakeholders who should benefit from the interventions of the direct components of the EMFF. In some cases this will be because they have received financial support but mostly it will because the action has helped them in their everyday work. The objective will be to determine what difference the intervention has made to their activity. These consultations will be done through semi-structured interviews in person and by telephone. The key stakeholders identified and to be interviewed are regional and national authorities, sea-basin bodies, national and regional agencies responsible for spatial planning, coastguards, fisheries inspectors, customs officials, law enforcement agencies, business clusters, regional sea conventions, fisheries managers, fisheries inspectors, international organisations with responsibilities for fisheries, Advisory Councils, (fish) producer organisations, management authorities for the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund, DG MARE and the Executive Agency for Small and Medium Enterprises (EASME).

The marine knowledge and seabed mapping interventions will be covered in the public consultation but not in the targeted one because they are subject to a separate evaluation.

Data collection and methodology

The evaluation will incorporate analysis and lessons learned from previous and ongoing evaluations including;

• SEC(2011) 1416 final of 2.12.2012 Impact assessment accompanying the document "Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 1198/2006 and Council Regulation(EC) No 861/2006 and Council Regulation No 1255/2011 on integrated maritime policy.
• SWD(2012)0250 final of 29.8.2012 Interim Evaluation of the European Marine Observation and Data Network - Accompanying the document Green Paper Marine Knowledge 2020: from seabed mapping to ocean forecasting.
• Ex post evaluation of the transitional financial programme of the Integrated Maritime Policy (IMP) and of two preparatory actions for maritime spatial planning following from Regulation (EU) No 1255/2011 establishing a Programme to support the further development of an Integrated Maritime Policy.
• Ex post evaluation on Union financial measures for the implementation of the Common Fisheries Policy and in the area of the Law of the Sea 2007-2013[iii] covering inter alia the following matters: fisheries partnership agreements; voluntary contributions to international organisations; data collection and scientific advice; and control and enforcement (excluding financial support to the European Fisheries Control Agency and to inspection and control activities carried out by Commission inspectors)[iv].
• The separate on-going evaluation of the European Marine Observation and Data Network[v].

It will also include an analysis of the uptake of allocated budget using data extracted from the Commission’s internal financial database.

These data sources, together with the results from the consultations will be the main data used for the evaluation. Throughout the evaluation process, the independent external contractors will use qualitative and quantitative indicators to empirically assess the evaluation questions while also applying their expert judgement.