Research history
SGI
SGI experts have undertaken various research tasks connected with Structural Funds.
In 2006, seminar "Will we eat up or use up EU funds?" took place in Bratislava. Five research outcomes were edited into a publication. Two of them were focused on the use of Structural Funds from the strategic perspective analyzing proposed National Strategic Reference Framework 2007-2013. Another research conducted by Mr. Salner, at that time executive director of SGI, was focused on the proposed use of EU funds in the area of education policy. In 2007 SGI experts conducted research on Corruption Threats in Structural Funds in Slovakia in the period 2007-2013 and are currently working on the research of NGOs participation in the use of Structural Funds in Slovakia.
Providus
- Application of administrative process law in the competitions of projects of Structural Funds;
- Risks of corruption in the administration of Cohesion fund;
- Save Public Assets - Civil Society as an independent monitor of Structural Funds from anticorruption perspective);
- Balancing priorities: Latvia's agriculture and rural development in a European Union context;
- Project: "Participation in the monitoring of the process implementation of the system of Structural Funds and elaboration of National development plan";
- Research and advocacy: "Use of Administrative Procedure Regarding Open Competition Projects. Structural Funds;
- Joint project: "Save public assets. Civil society as an independent monitor of Structural Funds from an anti-corruption perspective";
- Research report: "Assessment of corruption risks in the use of Cohesion Funds (2004-2006)".
Praxis
PRAXIS has been engaged in policy impact evaluations since 2003. Starting from 2005, PRAXIS has conducted several impact evaluation studies in e.g. impact evaluation of Socrates and Leonardo programmes (2007), achievement of target levels of impact indicators of the Single Programming Document (2007). Public support instruments have been available for entrepreneurs since the end of the 1990s in Estonia. Although the aid amounts were modest until the implementation of the EU Structural Funds since in 2004, it is only recently that first attempts have been made to evaluate the impacts of such policy instruments. In 2006-2007, PRAXIS conducted impact analyses of eight national business support schemas. Six of them have been financed mainly from either ERDF or ESF. The study was commissioned by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications.
In 2007, PRAXIS also carried out a study on achievement of target levels of impact indicators of the Single Programming Document. This study focussed on projects supported from the EU structural funds in 2004-2006 under four priorities of the Single Programming Document (SPD). Based on the results, recommendations were made for upgrading monitoring system of the EU structural funds and the respective methodology including selection of suitable indicators. Study was commissioned by the Ministry of Finance.
Transparency International Lithuania
- Transparency through awareness" project (2005-2006) together with other TI chapters;
- Monitoring of the EU structural funds: efficiency and implementation" project (2005-2006) together with Civil Society Institute;
- EU SF Allocation Transparency Survey (2006) together with Special Investigation Service of Lithuania;
- "Save public assets" project (2006-2007) together with PROVIDUS and other CEE NGOs.
Europeum
EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy is consistently dealing with the issues relating to EU cohesion and regional policies. We have conducted:
- awareness raising projects (e.g. Increasing absorption capacity of NGOs in using EU structural funds; Monitoring calls for proposals for a special section of wwwEurActiv.cz dedicated to regional policy and EU funds).
- Research projects (e.g. "Save Public Assets" - an international project which was led by Providus - Center for Public Policy in Riga and supported by European Commission).
- From Policy Takers to Policy Makers - an international research on the question "to which extent the current setting of the EU Cohesion policy suit the needs of new EU member states.
Czech national report as one of the project outputs examined the overall implementation system of EU Structural Funds with the emphasis on transparency, i.e. publication of information on selected projects, name of project, project holder, amount, short description, indicators, number of points awarded, names of assessors etc. This study which has focused on selected regions and selected grant schemes under Joint Regional Operational Project was complemented by theoretical parts on constitutional fundaments of transparent and open public administration.
Another relevant part of this study has dealt with the free access to information embodied into the national act (no 106/1999 Coll.). The research has analyzed how and to which extent there can be any potential clashes between free access to information and protection of personal data guaranteed by different law.
Finally, this research was devoted to the issues of political alliances, i.e. a potential linkage between central and regional politicians and informal channels of inside information and financial flows.
CPS
CPS has carried out several studies investigating the impact of new EU funds. It was part of a seven-country assessment of the SAPARD programme in 2005 and more recently, it was part of a eight country study of cohesion policy in Europe. Other related research has included assessing anti-corruption programmes in the Balkans and developing Budget and Revenue Monitoring capacities over resources coming oil and gas sectors.
