How to Design Effective Strategies to Support SMEs Innovation and Growth During the Economic Crisis journal article Lessons from Ex-post Evaluation of 2007-2013 ERDF Programmes Massimo Florio, Elena Vallino, Silvia Vignetti European Structural and Investment Funds Journal, Volume 5 (2017), Issue 2, Page 99 - 110 This paper presents and discusses some of the results of the ex-post evaluation of the contribution of the European Regional Development Fund 2007-2013 programmes to SMEs growth and innovation. Implemented during a harsh economic crisis, the ERDF provided € 47.5 billion of SMEs support, representing 16 % of the total ERDF allocation during the 2007-2013 period. Programme strategies aimed more to cope with the contingent economic pressures and fall in employment levels than to address long-term objectives addressing structural barriers affecting target SMEs. The majority of policy instruments which were conceived, or further adjusted during the reprogramming phase, for generic SMEs support generated a diffuse stabilizing and anticyclical mechanism. Findings however show that the most effective strategies were represented by those more ambitious instruments that had a well specified logic intervention, focused objectives and selective targeting strategies.
The Audit Authority’s Role within the Single Audit Concept as Governance Principle in the EU’s Cohesion Policy Marcel Bode