COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE MID-TERM EVALUATION Accompanying the document Report on the Mid-term Evaluation of the Programme for Environment and Climate Action (LIFE)
Date: 2017-11-06
Institutions: Directorate-General for Environment, European Commission
Subjects: EU environmental policy, EU financial instrument, EU programme, biodiversity, climate change policy, environmental cooperation, environmental law, environmental protection, waste management

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 6.11.2017  SWD(2017) 356 final  COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE MID-TERM EVALUATION Accompanying the document Report on the Mid-term Evaluation of the Programme for Environment and Climate Action (LIFE) {COM(2017) 642 final} - {SWD(2017) 355 final}  
 
 
Launched in 1992, LIFE is the only EU programme exclusively dedicated to the environment, 
nature conservation and climate action, all areas of growing public concern.  

For  the  current  2014-2020  funding  period,  the  LIFE  Regulation1  will  make  available 
approximately EUR 3.4 billion.  

During its 25 years of existence, the LIFE programme has been evaluated a number of times. 
The current programme is the result of these evaluations and has been shaped by the lessons 
learnt from the programme’s implementation over the years. 

The mid-term evaluation 

As  required  by  the  LIFE  Regulation,  the  mid-term  evaluation  builds  on  the  external  study 
‘Mid-term analysis of the LIFE Regulation’, carried out by independent contractors.  

This  mid-term  evaluation  has  been  carried  out  at  an  early  stage  of  the  programme's 
implementation.  This  means  that  most  projects  have  not  started  yet,  and  few  projects  have 
been completed (the average duration of a LIFE project is 4 to 5 years).  

For these reasons the mid-term evaluation has focused  mainly on the processes put in place 
(launch of calls, signing of contracts, funding of projects, etc.) to reach the LIFE programme's 
objectives. Where relevant, the evaluation has looked at their expected results more than the 
results  achieved.  Moreover  a  comparison  is  done  with  the  previous  programme  (its  outputs 
are used as a reference) because most of the activities and the related procedures (traditional 
projects,  operating  grants  and  procurement)  continue  to  be  as  they  were  under  the  LIFE+ 
programme. 

Main findings  

Overall, the mid-term evaluation provides reasonable assurance that the LIFE programme is 
on track to be: 

-  effective, because it is well placed to meet its targets and deliver on environmental and 

climate objectives and contribute to the pillars of the Europe 2020 strategy.  

  Ongoing projects from the 2014 calls for proposals are expecting to reach 70% of each 
milestone  envisaged  for  2017,  for  example,  by  targeting  better  conservation  of  114 
species, 59 habitats and 85 Natura 2000 sites. 

  Activities are in place to fulfil all the general objectives and to contribute to resource-

efficiency, innovative technologies and, in a limited way, employment. 

1   Regulation (EU) No 1293/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2013 on the 
establishment  of  a  Programme  for  the  Environment  and  Climate  Action  (LIFE)  and  repealing  Regulation 
(EC) No 614/2007, OJ L 347 of 20.12.2013, p. 185. 

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Some of the most recent policy developments have been financed by LIFE  - namely 
the  circular  economy  package  adopted  in  2015  and  the  2030  climate  and  energy 
framework  adopted  in  2014,  the  implementation  of  the  Paris  Agreement  ratified  in 
2016 as well as the EU's adaptation strategy -. 

-  efficient, because the projects are expected to provide value for money. It is estimated 
that the benefit to society of some of the projects from the 2014 call for proposals will 
amount  to  EUR  1.7  billion.  This  figure  alone  represents  four  times  the  cost  of  the 
overall LIFE budget for 2014. 

The transfer of most of the grant management from the Commission to the executive 
agency  EASME  is  well  on  track  and  it  is  expected  to  produce  an  overall  gain  in 
efficiency, above the EUR 8.2 million gains initially planned for 2014-2020.  

-  relevant, because the ongoing projects are addressing some crucial challenges such as 
halting the loss of biodiversity, deriving savings from the circular economy, reducing 
the costs of inaction related to the consequences and effects of climate change. 

-  complementary to and works in combination with other programmes (thus producing 
synergies). As confirmed by the analysis of areas with similar objectives, the fact that 
the different programmes do not have the same primary focus means that there is little 
possibility  of  overlapping.  Initial  findings  also  show  that  the  LIFE  programme  has 
encouraged using the results of the projects financed by research programmes. It has 
also encouraged taking advantage of the European Structural and Investment Funds, in 
particular through the integrated projects. 

Moreover, the LIFE programme shows a substantial and unanimously recognised EU added 
value, because it helps to make the application of EU environmental and climate legislation 
and policies consistent across the EU. It allows a better sharing of responsibility and promotes 
solidarity for the management/conservation of EU environmental assets. Some evidence also 
confirms that the programme is successfully playing its role as catalyst, promoting activities 
to exchange best practice and knowledge and to improve the utilisation of project results as 
well as transfer of know-how. 

The evaluation also highlights aspects which need to be improved. This involves: 

simplifying grant management procedures, in particular the application and reporting 
processes; 

increasing  the  strategic  focus  of  the  demand-driven  part  of  the  programme,  e.g.  by 
targeting topics not covered by the projects funded in previous years; 

   doing more to reproduce the projects and transfer their results, e.g. by developing the 
capacity  to  plan  and  implement  investments  and  addressing  the  lack  of  financial 
resources; 

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improving  the  communication  strategy  to  better  target  audiences,  deliver  more 
objective-specific  and  target-specific  key  messages  and  ensure  more  structured 
coordination between players. 

The results of the LIFE mid-term evaluation exercise will help to improve these aspects under 
the  next  multiannual  work  programme  (2018-2020)  and  in  the  next  multiannual  financial 
framework. 

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