Evaluation support study of the EU support schemes for agriculture in the outermost regions (POSEI) and smaller Aegean islands (SAI) :Executive summary

The EU support schemes for agriculture in the outermost regions (POSEI) and smaller Aegean islands (SAI) pursue the goal of mitigating the difficulties faced by Outermost Regions (OR) and the smaller Aegean islands due to their insularity and remoteness by ensuring the supply of products and supporting the development of local agricultural activities. The programmes under these two schemes are composed of two types of support: Specific Supply Arrangements (SSA) and Support for Local Production (SLP). The SSA aims at guaranteeing the supply of essential food products for human consumption, for processing or as agricultural inputs to the regions. The SLP follows the objectives of preserving traditional productions and developing local diversification productions through measures relating to the production, processing, and marketing of local agricultural products. The present work of the Evaluation Helpdesk aims to support DG AGRI in analysing and quantifying, to the extent possible, the efficiency, coherence and relevance of the implementation of POSEI and SAI during the 2014-2020 programming period. The analysis covers five national programmes implemented for the ORs and SAI: a POSEI programme for the French ORs (Guadeloupe, French Guiana, La Réunion, Martinique and Mayotte), a POSEI programme for the Spanish ORs (Canary Islands), two separate programmes for the Portuguese ORs (Azores and Madeira) and a Greek programme for the smaller Aegean islands (SAI).The analysis focuses on the assessment of the implementation of the POSEI and SAI programmes as defined in the Regulations (EU) No 228/2013 and No 229/2013 of the European Parliament and the Council.