Reluctant to learn? The use of evaluation to improve EU cohesion policy implementation in Polish and Spanish regions

For many European Union (EU) member states, the Cohesion Policy (CP) was the channel through which the practice of evaluation was transmitted into domestic administration. Studies have shown that the EU member countries differ in terms of their evaluation capacity and activity. None of those studies, however, addresses regional governments, which are important actors in CP management systems. Our article presents the first cross-state comparative study on the evaluation activity and use by regional authorities in Poland and Spain. We explain the observed differences in evaluation using the concept of internal propensity and external pressure on evaluation, which in the case of regions, is imposed by the EU as well as national authorities.