Portugal’s integration in the European Economic Community in 1986, allowed, on the one hand, access to financial support for development particularly high and essential to catch up the structural delay (economic, social, cultural and territorial) that the country revealed. On the other hand, it raised new questions and challenges about the new development model to be pursued and the priority areas for investment.

The Study, elaborated after the Study on the Ex-Ante Evaluation and Methodology for the Ex-Post Evaluation of the I Community Support Framework (CSF) was a mid-term evaluation aiming at evaluating the macroeconomic impact of the CSF I, comparing the trajectory of growth in Objective 1 regions of Portugal, with and without community intervention, and at assessing the implementation procedures and its effects on the planning processes of structural interventions.

Overall, it was concluded that, despite the good implementation of the CSF in the early years and the clear importance of the CSF I for the modernization of infrastructure and equipment in Portugal, and for the strengthening of its production system, the macroeconomic impact of its performance has been very limited when compared to the effort needed to achieve a reasonable level of economic and social convergence with the EU average.