L 298/30 Official Journal of the European Communities 19.11.1999 COMMISSION COMMISSION DECISION of 4 November 1999 concerning the grant of Community assistance for evaluation of Community structural interven- tions and modifying the relevant Commission Decision approving programming documents in the different Member States (with the exception of Objective 1 and 6 regions) in respect of Objective 5(a), covering the period between 1994 and 1999 (notified under document number C(1999) 3124) (Only the Spanish, Danish, German, English, French, Italian, Dutch, Finnish and Swedish texts are authentic) (1999/745[EC) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, Having regard to Council Regulation (EEC) No 4253/88 of 19 December 1988 laying down provisions for implementing Regulation (EEC) No 2052/88 as regards coordination of the activities of the different Structural Funds between themselves and with the operations of the European Investment Bank and the other existing financial instruments ('), as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 3193/94 (%), and in particular the third subparagraph of Article 25(5) thereof, Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 951/97 of 20 May 1997, on improving the processing and marketing condi- tions for agricultural products (*) and in particular Article 15(1) thereof, Whereas: (1) Council Regulation (EC) No 867/90 (*) extends the common measure to forestry products; 20  the Commission approved by Decisions referred to in the attached table (Annex I) the programming docu- ments for Community structural interventions for improving the processing and marketing conditions for agricultural and forestry products in Member States in respect of Objective 5(a), outside Objective 1 and 6 regions, covering the period between 1994 and 1999; () O] L 374, 31.12.1988, p. 1. () O] L 337, 24.12.1994, p. 11. () O] L 142, 2.6.1997, p. 22. (% O] L 91, 6.4.1990, p. 7. () Atrticle 6(2) of Regulation (EEC) No 2052/88 in conjunc- tion with Article 26 of Regulation (EEC) No 4253/88 requires the evaluation of Community structural opera- tions in order to gauge their effectiveness and whereas the latter Article sets out that evaluations are the joint responsibility of the Member State and the Commission; Article 5(2)(e) of Regulation (EEC) No 2052/88 defines support for technical assistance, including the measures to evaluate operations, as a form of financial assistance which may be provided; contrary to the other structural interventions, the initial programming of measures under Regulation (EC) No 951/97, outside of Objective 1 and 6 regions, did not foresee support for technical assistance; the requirement to carry out an ex-post evaluation of the previous period 1991 to 1993 as well as a mid-term and ex-post evalu- ation of the ongoing period 1994 to 1999 will cause additional costs to be borne by Member States; on the occasion of the discussion of the evaluation of measures under Regulation (EC) No 95197 and Regula- tion (EEC) No 867/90 in the meeting of the Committee on Agricultural Structures and Rural Development of 28 January 1997, Member States requested the expenditure for evaluation to be co-financed by the Funds; the Commission considers this request justified; according to the second paragraph of Article 1 of Commission Decision 98/524/EC, of 28 July 1998, amending Decision 94/279/EC on the indicative alloca- tion by Member States of the commitment