Germany: Interim evaluation of the German Operational Programme for the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF)

Project Background

The European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) had the following objectives for the period 2014-2020:

1. promoting competitive, environmentally sustainable, economically viable and socially responsible fisheries and aquaculture
2. fostering the implementation of the Common Fisheries Policy
3. promoting a balanced and inclusive territorial development of fisheries and aquaculture areas
4. fostering the development and implementation of the Union's Integrated Maritime Policy (IMP)

In order to access funding under EMFF, EU Member states had to draft a national Operational Programme (OP). In this context, COFAD was entrusted with the implementation of the interim evaluation of the EMFF OP for Germany with a planned public contribution of 284 million EUR.

Objectives

According to Article 56 of the Common Provisions Regulation (CPR), Managing Authorities “shall ensure that evaluations, including evaluations to assess effectiveness, efficiency and impact, are carried out for each programme". Based on this, at least once during the programming period, an evaluation shall assess how support from the EMFF has contributed to the objectives for each priority. Ultimately, the evaluation shall improve the quality of the design and implementation of the EMFF OP.
 

Activities and/or Results

• Analysis of recent developments of the fisheries and aquaculture sector in Germany and assessment of the relevance of the OP based on updated context indicators
• Process evaluation with a focus on the implementation of the OP, the involvement of partners and on communication activities
• First evaluation of effectiveness and efficiency of the OP at the level of the EMFF measures and relevant specific objectives
• First evaluation of the impact at the level of the EU Union priorities and the contribution to the EMFF, CFP and IMP objectives