Interim evaluation of the EU4Health Programme Regulation (EU) No 2021/522 - Report to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on the interim evaluation of the EU4Health Programme
Date: 2023-12-05
Institutions: Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety, European Commission
Subjects: health policy



PART-2023-941140V2.docx











CALL FOR EVIDENCE 


FOR AN EVALUATION 






This document aims to inform the public and stakeholders about the Commission’s work, so they can provide feedback and participate effectively in consultation activities. 


We ask these groups to provide views on the Commission’s understanding of the problem and possible solutions and to share any relevant information that they may have.







Title of the evaluation




Interim evaluation of the 2021-2027 EU4Health Programme 






Lead DG – responsible unit 




DG Health and Food Safety, Unit C3






Indicative planning 


(planned start date and completion date)




planned start date:                        Q4 2023


planned completion date:             Q4 2024






Additional information




https://health.ec.europa.eu/funding/eu4health-programme-2021-2027-vision-healthier-european-union_en; https://hadea.ec.europa.eu/programmes/eu4health_en 






This document is for information purposes only. It has no bearing on the final decision of the Commission on whether this initiative will be pursued or on its final content. All aspects of the initiative described by the document, including its timing, are subject to change.






A. Political context, purpose and scope of the evaluation






Context [max 15 lines]






When developing and implementing policies and activities, the EU aims to ensure a high level of human health protection. The EU supplements national health policies, encourages cooperation between Member States and promotes coordination between their programmes.


The EU4Health Programme Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2021/522)
1
 was adopted in March 2021, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021-2027 EU4Health Programme has a budget of about EUR 5.3 billion. It has four general objectives: (i) to improve and foster people’s health; (ii) to protect people from cross-border threats to health; (iii) to improve access to medicinal products, medical devices and crisis-relevant products; and (iv) to strengthen health systems. These general objectives are further detailed in 10 specific objectives. The programme implements legislative and non-legislative EU health initiatives including their preparatory work. It is delivered through annual work programmes, which are adopted by the Commission after consultations with Member State representatives and relevant stakeholders. The actions included in the annual work programmes (so far, programmes have been adopted for 2021, 2022 and 2023) implement one or more of the programme’s 10 specific objectives and are structured around 5 strands of action. 


The evaluation responds to the EU financial rules applicable to the general budget of the EU requiring the Commission to monitor, evaluate and report on the implementation of the actions of spending programmes. 







Purpose and scope [max 15 lines]






The evaluation will respond to the need and obligation to monitor, evaluate and report on the implementation of the actions of the EU4Health Programme in light of its specific objectives and performance indicators. 


It will assess the relevance of the objectives of the programme, the added value of its actions, whether the programme delivered effectively and efficiently against its intended objectives, the coherence of the actions within the programme, and the consistency of the whole programme with other relevant EU initiatives (e.g. Digital Europe Programme, Horizon Europe, European Social Fund Plus, etc.).


The interim evaluation will cover all Member States and associated non-EU countries, the 2021, 2022 and 2023 annual work programmes, and the implementation period of the EU4Health Programme until April 2024. 


The Commission will make the results of the evaluation publicly available in a staff working document and ensure its dissemination. 






B. Better regulation






Consultation of the general public and stakeholders [max 10 lines]






The aim of the consultation is to collect feedback, evidence and more specific information on the programme’s specific actions and their impacts to supplement the findings of the desk research. 


The groups of stakeholders to be consulted include at least governmental policymakers, relevant competent authorities in Member States and associated non-EU countries, and the following organisations: international health authorities, academic and research organisations, non-governmental organisations, health professionals, patients and service users, vulnerable groups, industry and healthcare providers. 


The consultation will be designed and organised in line with the better regulation guidelines. The planned activities include targeted consultation including interviews of specific stakeholders, online surveys and focus groups.  


All input received from stakeholders will be duly taken into account during the evaluation and included in the synopsis report that will be annexed to the evaluation staff working document.






Data collection and methodology [max 10 lines]






The evaluation will use various information sources that include but are not limited to the annual EU4Health work programmes and their actions, calls for proposals, notifications for services, summaries of (individual) actions, their grant agreements and contracts, their deliverables and reports, websites of the funded actions, as well as evidence gathered from the beneficiaries of the programme. 


Data collection will also cover relevant evidence from the Commission’s monitoring of the implementation of the EU4Health Programme, as well as statistical data from Eurostat and data collected by the competent authorities of the Member States and other relevant organisations such as the World Health Organization, the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 


The evaluation will be supported by an external study. The indicators described in the programme’s performance monitoring and evaluation framework will be used to analyse the programme’s performance. The approach will use quantitative, qualitative and legal analyses including case studies on selected topics or action areas. Methods such as cost-benefit analysis, the standard cost model, and descriptive statistics will be employed.










(1)
 Regulation (EU) 2021/522 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 March 2021 establishing a Programme for the Union’s action in the field of health (‘EU4Health Programme’) for the period 2021-2027, and repealing Regulation (EU) No 282/2014.