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The economic situation determined by the effects of the financial crisis in 2008-2010 has determined the governments of the countries worldwide to take into account the implementation of New Public Management (NPM). Even if for many years the proponents of this concept pointed out its ability to improve the public administration performance, most of the studies on this subject highlight the features regarding the quintessence of the concept and theoretical backgrounds with some anecdotal evidence and insights, by using different indicators to measure the results. This study provides a more comprehensive and metaanalytical analysis of EU countries' public sector performance and tests the long-term implications and specific context of the economic cycle. By using factor analysis, we summarize the opportunity indicators and Musgrave standard indicators and we calculate the public performance index during the period 2000- 2014. The need for an innovative and performant public sector is generally recognized. The empirical results show that EU countries have some uninspired mechanisms to conduct the reform in the public sector and show preference for pro-cyclical policies; consequently, the wagering political stakes hamper the implementation of NPM-related mechanisms and result in poor performance at the EU level. The study reveals the limitation of the proactive governments in 2009, when the financial crisis worsened and only a few governments showed a positive directional indicator of public performance (Malta, Poland and Luxemburg, with very low results). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]