Economic Appraisal methodologies and Common Provision Regulation

About

Investment projects financed by EU funds need to provide the best value for money and offer the best return for the society. This requires evidence-based analysis and investment decisions based on objective and verifiable methods.

Economic appraisal aims to assess the extent to which an investment project contributes to overall social welfare and economic growth. It can also be used to rank investment projects and could help in allocating limited resources among different investments options. 

Several analytical economic appraisal methods including cost-benefit analysis, cost-effectiveness, least-cost and multi-criteria analysis, can be used to verify whether projects achieve their intended objectives in an effective and efficient manner.

For the 2021–2027 programming period and the cohesion policy funds, the use of Cost-Benefit analysis is not a legal requirement. However, the Common Provision Regulation  calls for managing authorities to ensure proper value for money for the selection of operations to be financed, with a major shift of responsibilities from the EU to Member States.

Economic appraisal is also relevant in other investment contexts beyond cohesion policy, including for the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) and the InvestEU Fund.

In this respect, DG REGIO has prepared with the support of JASPERS an Economic Appraisal Vademecum (EAV), for possible wider voluntary use across EU funding sources in the 2021–2027 programming period. This EAV complements the 2014 CBA Guide and is based on established good practices at both EU and national levels.

 

Target audience

More than 150 participants attended the webinar, which was aimed at project managers and experts from managing authorities, relevant line ministries, project promoters and authorities working on project assessment and economic appraisals. 

 

Objectives

This interactive webinar provided an overview of Economic Appraisal (EA) requirements proposed for the 2021-2027 programming period, according to the Common Provisions Regulation. In addition to a short presentation of the general principles of Cost- Benefit analysis Guide, the session also focused on simplified EA methodologies presented in the Economic Appraisal Vademecum, with some practical application case studies.