The purpose of this paper is to describe the role of monitoring committees (MCs) in the next programming period of EU cohesion policy. It beginns with the analysis of the main changes that MCs are facing (in terms of regulatory changes), and secondly describes to what extent changes have already been made or are envisaged by five Dutch MCs. From the analysis it follows that although the Common Provisions Regulation (Regulation EU No 1303/2013) has laid down more comprehensive competencies for MCs, a stronger role for MCs in (substantive) monitoring and evaluation is still a long way off.