The European Councils’ recommendation of 20 December 2012 specified that each EU member state should have started to implement VPL processes by 2015. The project conducted period reviews that assessed and evaluated the impact of this recommendation at the national level in terms of advancement of VPL policies, practice and procedures in each country. The impact in terms of effectiveness of VPL and benefits for the individual received special attention in the evaluation.
Based on secondary analysis of national VPL policies, programmes and practices the Policy Evaluation Reports identified objectives, target groups, implementation and impact. The review was conducted in the four partner countries, synthesising and comparing results. It is thus based on a comparative approach. New developments at the European level and particularly interesting examples and developments from other EU countries („good practice examples“) were also considered.