Evaluative Rituals after the Crisis: the strategic utilization of diagnostic discourse

Evaluation, in its diverse forms, plays a central role in the framework of European governance, serving as a vital instrument characterized by strategic ambiguity (Radaelli, Dunlop, 2016). Beyond the procedural aspect often considered a 'ritual,' evaluation represents a 'social ritual' with the substantive purpose of elucidating a diagnosis. Consequently, evaluation serves as a mechanism for revealing political justifications that carry a sense of legitimacy within the institutional space. We look at evaluative practices as the materialization of institutional self-presentation in the post-crisis era. This brings about politicization and conflicts – because evaluating means selecting, and criticizing. The evaluation of the European intervention in the "Greek crisis" is an interesting case. The Commission, in the course of its evaluative pursuits, has presented its intervention through a dual lens — both as an inadvertent mistake and a calculated success. This dichotomy reveals nuanced crisis diagnoses, which have permeated European institutions since 2010. The Greek experience has been instrumental in instigating substantial transformations, particularly accentuating a heightened emphasis on implementation processes and giving rise to an "on-demand" philosophy (Ongaro, 2022). This shift significantly influences the contemporary governance of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (Zeitlin, Bokhorst, Eihmanis, 2023). In our exploration, we delve into the landscape of diagnosing European intervention in Greece. Empirically, the paper examines the evaluations generated on the European Commission’s handling of the Greek crisis and analyses their role in substantiating internal transformations from 2010 to 2022 (Commission, ECA and external consultancies reports). To this document analysis, we add an exploration of professional practices based on interviews. These are used to question the processes of appropriation and strategic utilization of diagnostic discourse, revealing their instrumental role in driving internal reforms. We propose, as an opening, a reflection on what evaluative rituals tell us about the professional ethos in the post-crisis Commission.