This working paper aims at Territorial Cooperation Pro­grammes (ETC) and provides information on indicator selection and assessment in terms of the suitability and measurability of indicators, proxy examples for parame­ters of interest and notably, data and methodological strategies to tackle data blindness. The findings are based on a thorough assessment of the performance frameworks of three of the cooperation pro­grammes at the EU external borders for the period 2021-2027: Bulgaria-Serbia, Bulgaria-Turkey, and Bulgaria-Re­public North Macedonia.

The working paper proposes criteria for selecting:

output indicators and three sam­ple methodological applications on how to set-up out­put indicators in the performance framework, including establishment and derivation of milestone and target values, such as using historic data from past pro­gramme performance or from ETC programmes

result indicators and four sample methodological applications on the selection of result indicators in the performance framework, including establishment and derivation of baseline and target values.