EU policy evaluation should make greater use ofinterpretative, qualitative research methods.

How should the EU’s policies be evaluated? Using the case of EU Cohesion Policy, Julian Hörner and Paul Stephenson outline some of the main theoretical principles that underline EU policy evaluation. They write that positivist approaches and quantitative research methods tend to be dominant, in part due to the pressures on European institutions to demonstrate the added-value of policies. Despite this, there may be benefits to adopting more interpretative and qualitative approaches, even if these are more difficult to administer.