Evaluation consists of objective assessment of a project, programme or policy at all of its stages, i.e. planning, implementation and measurement of outcomes. It should provide reliable and useful information allowing to apply the knowledge thus obtained in the decision making process. It often concerns the process of determination of the value or importance of a measure, policy or programme.
The Council of the European Union has obliged all the member states to conduct the evaluation of the financial support obtained from EU structural funds, issuing Council Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006 of 11 July 2006 laying down general provisions on the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund and the Cohesion Fund and repealing Regulation (CE) No 1260/1999 
According to the above indicated Regulation, the aim of evaluation is to improve: “the quality, effectiveness and consistency of the assistance from the Funds and the strategy and implementation of operational programmes with respect to the specific structural problems affecting the Member States and regions concerned, while taking account of the objective of sustainable development and the relevant Community legislation concerning environmental impact and strategic environmental assessment.”
Evaluation as a process of systematic assessment of interventions financed from structural funds is continuously gaining increasing importance. In the programming period 2007-2013 the results of evaluation studies will play an important role in the process of shaping of the cohesion policy of the European Union, and during the debate on the next budget following after the current financial perspective after 2013 will belong to key arguments in favour of preserving it in the existing shape or of the verification of its presumptions.
Categories of Evaluation
According to the criterion of the purpose of evaluation, it is classified into the following categories:
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Strategic evaluation (with the purpose to assess and analyse the evolution of NSRF and OP with respect to national and Community priorities);
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Operational evaluation (with the purpose to support the process of NSRF and OP monitoring).
Strategic evaluation concerns mainly the analysis and assessment of interventions at the level of strategic goals. The object of strategic evaluation consists of the analysis and appraisal of the relevance of general directions of interventions determined at the programming stage. One of the significant aspects of strategic evaluation consists of the verification of the adopted strategy with respect to the current and anticipated social and economic situation.
Operational evaluation is closely linked to the process of NSRF and OP management and monitoring. The purpose of operational evaluation consists of providing support to the institutions responsible for the implementation of NSRF and OP with regards to the achievement of the assumed operational objectives by providing practically useful conclusions and recommendations. According to Regulation 1083/2006, operational evaluation should be carried out, in particular, in the case when monitoring has revealed significant deviations from the originally assumed objectives and when requests are submitted for the review of an operational programme or its part.
From the point of view of timing of the performed evaluation, it is classified into the following types:
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ex ante evaluation (prior to the launch of NSRF or OP implementation),
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ongoing evaluation (in the course of NSRF or OP implementation),
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ex post evaluation (after completion of NSRF or OP implementation).
The process of ex ante evaluation of NSRF and OP was completed in the year 2006. The results of ex-ante evaluations of NSRF and OP performed by external evaluators were taken into account in the final version of the National Strategic Reference Framework for 2007-2013 and of the different particular Operational Programmes.
Ex post evaluation is done by the European Commission in cooperation with the member states and with the Management Bodies. Regardless of the evaluation conducted by the European Commission, member states may perform ex post evaluation on their own account.
Ongoing evaluation is a process with the purpose of arriving at better understanding of the current outcomes of intervention and the formulation of recommendations that would be useful from the point of view of programme implementation. In the next few years ongoing evaluation will become key for the effective cohesion policy implementation in Poland.