CALL FOR EVIDENCE

FOR AN EVALUATION / FITNESS CHECK

Title of the evaluation

Aid Programme Evaluation

Lead DG – responsible unit

DG REGIO Unit.DDG.04 Cyprus Settlement Support

Indicative timetable

(planned start date and completion date)

Q4 2025 – Q2 2027

Additional information

Support to the Turkish Cypriot community - European Commission

A. Political context, purpose and scope of the evaluation

Political context

The aid programme for the Turkish Cypriot community is based on Council Regulation 389/2006. It aims to support the reunification of Cyprus by promoting the economic development of the Turkish Cypriot community, focusing in particular on the economic integration of the island, to improve contacts between the two communities and with the EU, and to support preparations for the implementation of the EU acquis once a comprehensive solution to the Cyprus issue has been found.

The programme’s main objectives are (i) to promote social and economic development; (ii) to develop and upgrade infrastructure; (iii) to foster reconciliation, build confidence and support civil society; (iv) to bring the Turkish Cypriot community closer to the European Union, and (v) to help the Turkish Cypriot community prepare for the implementation of the EU acquis upon a comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus issue.

Article 34(3) of the Financial Regulation requires the Commission to evaluate the programme at least once during its 2021-2027 cycle based on the criteria of effectiveness, efficiency, coherence, relevance and EU added value. The sustainability of the support provided will also be assessed. The results of the evaluation could support the development of future programmes, taking account of key lessons learnt and recommendations arising from the implementation of the current programme.

Purpose and scope

The evaluation will give an overall independent assessment of how well the aid programme has worked and of the support provided to the Turkish Cypriot community under the programme’s specific objectives. The findings will make it possible to identify key lessons learnt and recommendations on how the programme’s implementation could be improved, providing the basis for an evidence-based policy approach to the next programming period (post‑2027). The results are also expected to provide useful input for a proposal on a set of indicators to be used for future monitoring and evaluation of EU support to the Turkish Cypriot community.

The last evaluation of the aid programme covered the period up to December 2018 1 , and the current evaluation will cover the period from 2019 to 2024.

In compliance with Article 34(3) of the Financial Regulation it will therefore mainly assess the implementation of annual programmes and actions from 2019 to 2024, with a set of interventions analysed in more detail, based on the following assessment criteria:

üEffectiveness - to what extent the funded projects contributed to achieving the programme’s objectives and intended impact;

üRelevance - to what extent the actions are still relevant to achieving the programme’s objectives and contribute to achieving the overall objective of supporting the reunification of Cyprus by promoting the economic development of the Turkish Cypriot community;

üEfficiency – whether the costs were proportionate to the benefits, also in terms of operational aspects such as the implementation arrangements, and whether resources were used as efficiently as possible and if not, how this could be simplified and improved;

üEU added value – whether the EU support had added value compared to what could have reasonably been expected from other players with an active role in Cyprus;

üCoherence – whether the actions under the programme were coherent and consistent with other EU actions in Cyprus;

üSustainability - to what extent the results achieved are sustainable with positive effects for the beneficiaries in the long term.

B. Better regulation

Consultation strategy

The consultation strategy for this evaluation includes the following activities: (i) analysing replies to this call for evidence; (ii) a 12-week public consultation on the Commission’s ‘Have your say’ webpage, and (iii) targeted consultations with stakeholders.

The consultations with stakeholders involved in the implementation of the programme and other players will gather extensive feedback on the programme through interviews, focus groups and surveys of specific groups.

The public consultation will be launched in parallel with the targeted consultations, indicatively in the second quarter of 2026, for a period of at least 12 weeks. It will be available via the Commission’s central public consultations page, Have your Say portal; and replies can be made in any of the 24 official EU languages.

The findings following the consultation with stakeholders will be presented in a synopsis report. A factual summary report will also be published on the consultation page (eight weeks after the public consultation has been completed). The synopsis report will be published along with a European Commission staff working document on the planned evaluation, indicatively in the second quarter of 2027.

Why we are consulting? 

The aim of the consultation is to give stakeholders an opportunity to express their views on and share their experience of the evaluated actions and encourage them to contribute to the data-gathering process to be put in place during the evaluation. The inputs provided will be also used to draft a set of key recommendations for the future implementation of the aid programme.

Target audience

The consultation will target various stakeholders who have been directly involved in the implementation of the aid programme from 2019 to 2024. This includes direct beneficiaries such as civil society organisations (CSOs), private-sector operators, rural development partners, scholarship recipients and other key participants in the relevant projects areas, i.e. the environment, economic development, agriculture and rural development, education, and peace-building and confidence-building measures.

Data collection and methodology

The evaluation will mainly be based on information and data on projects funded under the aid programme for the Turkish Cypriot community from 1 January 2019 up to 31 December 2024.

Account will also be taken of feedback received through this call for evidence and the public consultation to be published at a later date.

A study by an external contractor will assess the information on the implementation of the supported projects currently available and collect additional data as required. The external contractor will also support the Commission with the public and targeted consultations, providing further data for assessing the performance of the evaluated projects and looking into how the procedures can be simplified.

Information reported by the Commission and the implementing partners on allocations, expenditure, outputs and result indicators will be analysed and relevant reports and documents published by the Commission (including the Aid Regulation annual reports, programme performance statements and the previous evaluation) will be reviewed.

Additional data will be gathered using qualitative methods, targeting the aid beneficiaries and implementers. The main tools used in this process are interviews with various stakeholders, such as the final beneficiaries (e.g. Civil Society Organisations, small and medium-sized enterprises, rural development partners, scholarships recipients etc.) and case studies.

Another aim of the data gathering is to identify key lessons learnt from implementing the aid programme that could prove useful in the planning and programming of future action programmes.