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Evaluating European Social Fund (ESF) projects and programmes is an extremely complex undertaking because of their political implications, their scope and the diversity of the regions in which they are carried out. The ESF Assessment Unit entrusted the author with coordinating a working group consisting of several experts from member states in order to formulate a methodological proposal for ex-post assessment of programmes co-funded by the ESF. The author's work enables him to examine the main issues such an evaluation raises: the tension between the social logic and the economics behind training and employment policies; generating demand which is of necessity adapted to supply; difficulties in identifying groups; insufficiencies of data and indicators; the lag between assessment findings and planning new activities.