Joint Report on Social Inclusion
- Document number
- 1171
- Date
- 2002
- Title
- Joint Report on Social Inclusion
- Author/publisher
- Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs, European Commission, European Union
- Availability
- View/save PDF version of this document
- Document type(s)
- Research/Study/Analysis,
- Keywords
- Social protection systems, European Union, Healthcare, Social security, Poverty, Children,
- Summary
- EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: It is the first time that the European Union endorses a policy document on poverty and social exclusion. By documenting and analysing the situation across all Member States and by identifying the key challenges for the future this Joint Report on Social Inclusion contributes to strengthening the European social model. It is thus a significant advance towards the achievement of the EU's strategic goal of greater social cohesion in the Union between 2001- 2010. This report gives a concrete reality to the open method of coordination on Social Inclusion agreed at the Lisbon Summit in March 2000. This new process is an important recognition of the key role that social policy has to play alongside economic and employment policies in reducing inequalities and promoting social cohesion, as well as of the need to ensure effective links between these policies in the future. It is thus an important element in progressing the European Social Agenda agreed in Nice and complements the objectives of the European Employment Strategy. This report marks a significant advance in the process of developing commonly agreed indicators to measure poverty and social exclusion across and within all Member States. It shows that Member States and the Commission are actively engaged in this process. This will lead to a much more rigorous and effective monitoring of progress in tackling poverty and social exclusion in the future. It will also contribute to better evaluations of policies and a clearer assessment of their effectiveness and value for money. This should lead to better policy making in Member States in the future. This report does not evaluate the effectiveness of the systems already in place in different Member States. Rather it concentrates on analysing the different approaches that have been adopted by Member States in their National Action Plans against poverty and social exclusion (NAPs/incl) in response to the common objectives on poverty and social exclusion agreed by the EU at Nice in December 2000. It examines Member States' NAPs/incl focussing on the quality of analysis, the clarity of objectives, goals and targets and the extent to which there is a strategic and integrated approach. In doing this it demonstrates the commitment of all Member States to use the new social inclusion process to enhance their efforts to tackle poverty and social inclusion. This report documents a wide range of policies and initiatives in place or proposed in Member States. These will provide a good basis for co-operation and exchange of learning between Member States in the future. However, it has not been possible to identify examples of good practice as at present there is a general lack of rigorous evaluation of policies and programmes in Member States. The report thus identifies that an important challenge for the next phase of the social inclusion process will be to ensure more thorough analysis by the Member States of the cost effectiveness and efficiency of their policies to tackle poverty and social exclusion.
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