The Ex Ante Evaluation forms a responsibility of the authorities that are competent for the preparation of plans, interventions, and planning supplements. It is carried out during the stage of the plan’s elaboration and programmes including the planning supplement.

The Ex Ante Evaluation is a bi-directional procedure providing assessments and recommendations made by the evaluators separately for each field, i.e. evaluators competent for the planning, or for issues related to the policy followed or the programme. The ex ante evaluation’s objective is to improve and reinforce the final quality of the plan or programme to be drawn up.

More specifically, the procedure of the Ex Ante Evaluation has the following objectives:

• Assessment whether the total plan or programme is the mostly recommended tool to confront the problems observed in the region or the sector.
• Assessment whether the plan or programme has sufficiently specified strategy axes, priorities and goals and whether it reflects a documented aspect for their appropriateness and their actual possibility to be achieved.
• Contribution to the quantification of objectives/ goals and development of a basis for monitoring and future evaluation activities.
• The Ex Ante Evaluation must analyze the sufficiency of the implementation and monitoring arrangement mechanisms and contribute to the planning of procedures and selection criteria of the project. The Measures stipulated in the Planning Supplement are evaluated with the aim to prove their consistency in relation to the goals of the respective priority axes.
• Finally, the Ex Ante Evaluation checks the accuracy of the foreseen implementation and monitoring method and the consistency of the proposed intervention in line with community policies and the general indicative guidelines.