European Commission seeks to improve co-ordination of national social protection policies, May 2003

The European Commission adopted a proposal on 28 May 2003, which aims to make the co-ordination of Member States' policies in the field of social protection more effective thereby contributing to strengthening the social dimension of the Lisbon strategy.

The Communication, Strengthening the social dimension of the Lisbon strategy: streamlining open co-ordination in the field of social protection' seeks to make greater use of the open method of co-ordination in order to integrate co-ordination in the fields of pensions, social inclusion and combating poverty, healthcare and care for the elderly, social security systems and how they encourage people to work, into a single framework by 2006.

The principle of the open method of co-ordination was first defined at the Lisbon European Council in March 2000. It aims to 'help Member States to progressively develop their own policies' by fixing guidelines, exchanging best practice, establishing indicators and benchmarks and setting up monitoring and evaluation. National, regional and local authorities as well as the social partners and civil society are consulted as part of the method, in line with the principle of subsidiarity. The open method of coordination is especially well adapted to policy-making in those areas in which responsibility is shared between the Union's institutions and those of the Member States, making it particularly appropriate for use in the field of social policy.

According to the European Commission's Communication on social protection, the open method of co-ordination will be put into practice through the establishment of a single set of objectives covering the different policy areas outlined above. These objectives would be adopted in 2006 following an in-depth evaluation of the progress achieved through EU policy co-ordination in each of the above policy areas. Once the objectives have been identified then the European Commission proposed that they should be synchronised with the Broad Economic Policy Guidelines and with the European Employment Strategy.

In addition to streamlining co-ordination on social protection, the European Commission also proposed simplifying the EU's work in this area by establishing a single reporting operation to replace the current separate policy reports in each policy area of social protection. In addition, a full report on economic, employment and social protection co-ordination will be submitted by the European Commission and the Council every three years, with shorter annual updates in the interim.

Commenting on the proposals, Anna Diamantopoulou, European Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs, said:

'Member States will always retain the power to design, manage and deliver their own social protection policies. However, the EU can and must add value by helping governments to co-ordinate the reforms necessary to face the pressure of demographic trends and globalisation...Without effective EU co-ordination of social protection reforms, we risk reforming too slowly, too ineffectually and too unfairly'

The proposals follow calls from EU leaders at the Brussels European Council in March 2003 to improve the co-ordination of social protection at the EU level. The proposals will now be sent to the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union, where they may be discussed on 3 June 2003 at a meeting of the employment and social affairs ministers.

Links:
European Commission:
	28.05.03:	Press Release: Commission adopts proposal for better and more visible co-ordination of social protection at EU level [IP/03/771]
	Communication: Strengthening the social dimension of the Lisbon strategy: Streamlining open coordination in the field of social protection
	DG Employment and Social Affairs: Social Protection
The Centre for European Policy Studies:
	Constitutionalising the open method of co-ordination: What should the Convention propose?
European Sources Online: In Focus:
	The European Union's social policy agenda

Helen Bower

Compiled: Thursday, 29 May 2003

The European Commission adopted the Communication 'Strengthening the social dimension of the Lisbon strategy: streamlining open co-ordination in the field of social protection' on 28 May 2003 with a view to increasing co-ordination between the EU's Member States in this area.