Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Finance Facility : Phare Ex post Evaluation. Phase 1, Multi- Beneficiary Programmes: Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Finance Facility

The overall objective of this ex post evaluation is to provide accountability with respect to the use of European Commission funds, and lessons learned for decision making on improvements to the Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Finance Facility (the Facility) for remaining and future candidate countries. The purpose of the evaluation is to review 1999-2001 Facility programmes as well as the design and performance of the Phare allocations in the 2002-2005 period. ... This ex post evaluation report has been prepared by the MWH Consortium during the period January-March 2006, and reflects the situation at 31 May 2006. It examines the performance of the programmes in addressing the objectives stated in the formal programming documents, provides a general assessment of the programmes and draws conclusions and lessons learnt from them. The evaluation is based on analysis of documents provided by the Commission Services and the participating international financial institutions, as well as interviews with, and questionnaires to, participating banks, financial intermediaries and leasing companies in the new EU member states, Bulgaria and Romania.