For several decades, the European Commission (EC) has been promoting territorial development processes in all European Union (EU) Member States, mostly via the implementation of EU Cohesion Policy’ financed programmes and respective projects. Alongside, in recognition of the need to effectively assess the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, causality, added-value, results and ultimately the impacts of this policy. In this context, this paper offers a synthetic explanation of the added value of using the Impact_WEB_GIS platform (https://websig.iscte-iul.pt/) to facilitate the process of monitoring and evaluation of the impacts of policies, programmes, projects and strategies, in all policy evaluation phases (ex-ante, mid-term and ex-post), territorial levels (local, regional, national and EU), and selected policy areas or analytical dimensions. Alongside, the platform presents aggregated statistical indicators showing cartography of regional inequalities and territorial cohesion trends in the EU, to facilitate the analysis of the policy impact evaluation element of ‘regional sensibility’, as well as cartography of the distribution of EU Cohesion Policy funding to facilitate the analysis of the policy impact evaluation element of ‘policy intensity’. To better illustrate the Impact_WEB_GIS platform, a specific case study is presented: the main impacts of the Portuguese Operational Programme for Sustainability and Efficient Use of Resources (PO SEUR 2014-20) in the five mainland NUTS 2 of Portugal, in five in five analytic dimensions (economy with low emissions, adaptation to climate change, risk prevention and management, environmental protection and resource efficiency). This analysis concluded the EU policy goal towards a transition to a green economy in Portugal is not being sufficiently supported via existing policy instruments to finance environmental sustainability’ projects, and that the POSEUR is largely ineffective and inefficient in its implementation.

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EU Cohesion Policy,Regional Disparities,Territorial Cohesion,Territorial Impact Assessment,Sustainable Development,Sustainability