In the second half of 2015 our company was contracted to evaluate the results achieved by 494 EU financed projects administered by State Regional Development Agency of Latvia. In order to evaluate to what extent investments of almost 500 million EU funds correspond to the needs of municipality itself and its citizens, five regional expert forums and electronic survey were organised for municipality administration and experts who were involved during the implementation of EU funded projects to receive their opinion.
General opinion expressed was that EU funds’ investments have high positive impact to municipalities’ development and needs of their citizens, pointing out that without EU funding municipalities would be able only to maintain their infrastructure and cover every day needs. EU funding allowed to implement significant infrastructure projects in the municipalities: many streets, public buildings, kindergartens, libraries were constructed or newly built and public internet access points were established.
All conclusions of the evaluation are included in the “Review on the Results of European Social Fund and European Regional Development Fund Activities Administered by the State Regional Development Agency during 2007–2013 of EU funds planning period.” It includes also several best practice descriptions of the implemented projects. The review is available only in Latvian.