The Value of Open Data for European Cohesion

Do open data produce observable, rather than just potential benefits for public policy? The paper aims at investigating how open data contributes to the broad aim of assessing the evidence on  European Cohesion policy, by exploring some open data initiatives, starting from the open EU-spending platform launched online by the Italian Government: OpenCoesione, a few years ago. The poor availability of sound evidence on the real impact of EU-funded projects at local level notably shows that open data portals just remain one aspect in facilitating access to and reuse of public sector information. The paper will analyse the role of the follow-the-money campaigns conducted by the open data movement in order to stimulate and improve the demand for transparency and accountability, and to what extent these parallel projects implemented on the ground, and developed around open data initiatives, can significantly contribute to the monitoring and evaluation of policy outcomes.