Atlantic Area programme, case study : ex post evaluation of Cohesion Policy programmes 2007-2013, financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and Cohesion Fund (CF)

This case study report provides an assessment of the Atlantic Area (AA) programme 2007-2013. The main achievements of the AA programme are overwhelmingly "soft" including the development of joint networks and platforms to promote maritime cooperation, the creation of coomon databases, methodologies and tools as well as a range of case studies and pilot action. These are rather intangible compared to the achievements of other ERDF mainstream or even cross border funded projects. The key challenge, therefore, for the Atlantic Area (and other transnational programmes) is to be able to more effectively "measure" the achievements made due to the nature of transnational cooperation, which is very different to mainstream ERDF funding. The AA case illustrates clearly the difficulty that the programme had in developing robust indicators to capture effectively the range of achievements made. Ultimately, the indicators developed for AA programme were not "fit for purpose" and more work needs to be done to improve this crucial element for future TNC programming periods. Having said that, the AA programme has strengthened territorial development linked to EU priorities in a number of ways. A broad range of stakeholders from across the programme area were actively involved in the programme and there was a decent involvement of partners from the five Member States. The programme area is territorially, socio-economically, institutionally, culturally, historically diverse. This contrasts distinctly from other TNC programmes, such as the Baltic Sea region, which is much more territorially congruent. Moreover, the budget of just over €100m is relatively modest for such a large geographical area. These two factors do have an important influence on the achievements and contribution of the programme to strengthening territorial development in the Atlantic Area. Whilst cooperation in the AA has a long standing history, the development of a new basin strategy is an emerging issue. The key point is that both the objectives and achievements of the AA programme are aligned with, and relevant to, the aims of the Atlantic Strategy and are coherent with the priorities of the Action Plan for the Atlantic, which was approved in 2013.