COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE EVALUATION Accompanying the document REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS assessing the implementation and achievements of the 2014-2020 rights, equality and citizenship programme
Date: 2022-03-22
Institutions: Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers, European Commission
Subjects: EU programme, European citizenship, area of freedom, security and justice, children's rights, civil society, consumer protection, data protection, equal treatment, gender equality, human rights

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  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 22.3.2022  SWD(2022) 59 final  COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT  EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE EVALUATION  Accompanying the document REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS assessing the implementation and achievements of the 2014-2020 rights, equality and citizenship programme {COM(2022) 118 final} - {SWD(2022) 58 final}  
 
 
Background 

This  staff working document accompanies the report from  the European Commission to the 
European Parliament and the Council, in accordance with the obligation specified in Article 
13.2(c) of the legal base of the rights, equality and citizenship programme (hereinafter ‘REC 
programme’)1.  

The Regulation  requires  the European Commission  to provide the European Parliament  and 
the Council with an ex post evaluation report for the programme by 31 December 2021. The 
report  must  assess  the  long-term  impact  and  the  sustainability  of  the  programme’s  effects, 
with  a  view  to  informing  a  decision  on  any  subsequent  programme.  In  2021,  however,  a 
considerable number of projects remained ongoing (more than 40%) due to their multiannual 
life-span. This situation has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused 
the extension of the duration of several projects. 

For these reasons and in order to have a meaningful evaluation of the programme’s long-term 
results  and  impacts,  the  ex  post  evaluation  will  be  carried  out  in  two  parts.  This  report 
represents the first part of the evaluation. It is based on the data currently available, provides 
an overview of how the funding is distributed and assesses the programme’s achievements to 
date. The second part will complete the evaluation of all the projects in the programme and 
will  assess  the  long-term  impacts  and  sustainability  of  the  effects.  This  will  take  place  in 
2024,  together  with  the  interim  evaluation  of  the  citizens,  equality,  rights  and  values 
programme.  

The  staff  working  document  provides  an  overview  of  the  programme’s  objectives  and  the 
needs  addressed,  the  intervention  logic,  and  the  implementation  of  the  programme.  It  then 
covers  the  replies  to  the  evaluation  questions  regarding  the  programme’s  effectiveness, 
efficiency, coherence, EU added value, equity and scope for simplification. Finally, the staff 
working document explains the conclusions of the analysis  of eight case studies, in which a 
number of specific questions have been studied in detail. 

In terms of geographical scope, the evaluation covers all  the participating countries, namely 
all EU Member States and, when relevant, Liechtenstein, Iceland, and Serbia. 

Description of the programme 

The  REC  programme  focuses  on  fundamental  rights  in  nine  areas,  corresponding  to  its 
specific  objectives:  non-discrimination;  racism  and  other  forms  of  intolerance;  rights  of 
persons with  disabilities; gender equality;  preventing violence (Daphne);  rights  of the child; 
data  protection;  EU  citizenship;  and  consumers’  rights.  Compared  to  its  predecessor 
programmes,  its  specific  objectives  show  an  effort  to  tackle  the  issues  from  a  cross-cutting 
perspective. This has resulted in a more streamlined programme positioned at the intersection 
between equality and people’s rights. 

The programme was implemented via direct management by the European Commission. 

Implementation of the programme 

The  budget  annual  allocations  for  the  programme  amounted  to  EUR  426.8 m  for  the  entire 
programming period. A total of 81 calls for proposals were planned during 2014-2020. The 
largest  number  of  these  calls  covered  the  specific  objective  to  ‘prevent  violence  (Daphne)’, 

1 REGULATION (EU) NO 1381/2013 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 17 

December 2013 establishing a rights, equality and citizenship programme for the period 2014 to 2020. 

1 

 
 
                                                           
with 18 calls. Overall, 942 action grants and operating grants were awarded throughout the 
programme. 

A large part of the activities funded by REC projects between 2016 and 2020 can be classified 
as  ‘training  activities’  (35%).  Non-profit  organisations  accounted  for  the  majority  of 
beneficiaries throughout 2016-2020 (57%)2. 

Procurement  was  an  important  funding  mechanism  for  a  number  of  specific  objectives, 
amounting to a total of 345 contracts over the entire period. In total, approximately EUR 81 
million  was  allocated  to  procurement  contracts  and  services.  The  most  common  type  of 
procurement was for analytical and monitoring activities. 

Evaluation results 

Based on the results of the evaluation, the REC programme continues to be  relevant to the 
changing  needs  of  stakeholders  and  the  target  groups.  Activities  are  highly  relevant  to  the 
current needs in 85% of the sampled projects. This was ensured via its flexible programming 
nature, including the annual prioritisation of emerging policy needs and issues3 and dialogue 
with civil society organisations.  

Overall, based on qualitative evidence collected, the implementation of the REC programme 
was effective and contributed to the achievement of the overall objectives. In particular, this 
success  was  due  to  the  quality  of  most  of  the  projects  implemented  with  REC  funding, 
allowing  the  implementation  of  concrete  actions,  directly  relevant  to  the  changing  needs  on 
the ground.  

Both  desk  research  and  fieldwork  show  that  the  projects  were  largely  successful  in 
implementing  the  planned  activities  and  almost  all  finalised  projects  have  achieved  the 
expected results (95% of the sampled projects delivered the expected results).  

Progress  has  been  recorded  in  terms  of  the  indicators  identified  in  the  Regulation,  in 
particular: 

 

 

the number of people that were reached by information and dissemination campaigns 
or took part in awareness-raising events (at least 80 million people); and  

the  number  of  stakeholders  participating  in  training  activities  (at  least  1.5  million 
individuals) and in exchanges, study visits, workshops and seminars (at least 85 000 
individuals) funded by the programme. 

Overall,  the  evidence  gathered  suggests  that  the  REC  programme  has  contributed  to 
increasing knowledge of EU soft and hard law. 

Qualitative evidence collected by the study suggests that benefits of the REC programme 
outweigh the costs. 

The evaluation also identified a number of areas for improvement which are being addressed 
for the the succeeding CERV Programme, such as: (i) improving the monitoring framework in 
order to more systematically collect information on outputs, results and targets achieved; (ii) 
putting  in  place  additional  measures  to  increase  the  geographical  range  of  participants;  (iii) 
encouraging  projects  to  focus  on  a  limited  number  of  key  activities,  thus  preserving  their 
focus; (iv) putting in place additional measures to improve gender mainstreaming.   

2 Data for 2014-2015 are not available. 
3  For  example,  the  programme  adjusted  to  address  new  needs  that  emerged  in  relation  to  online  hate  speech, 
intersectionality, anti-Semitism, as well as issues such as adapting to the GDPR. 

2