INDICATORS AND TARGETS FOR SOCIAL INCLUSION IN THE EUROPEAN UNION. ESRI WP151(?). 2003

Until recently, policy co-ordination at European Union (EU) level has mostly been applied to economic policy, with multilateral surveillance provided for in the Maastricht Treaty, and to employment, where the European Council agrees employment guidelines for the Member States and progress is monitored through regular reviews of National Action Plans. In December 2001, the European Council held at Laeken in Belgium adopted a set of commonly agreed and defined indicators, which should play a central role in monitoring the performance of the Member States in promoting social inclusion. These indicators are intended to allow the Member States and the European Commission to monitor national and EU progress towards the four key EU objectives in the area of social inclusion set by the Nice European Council in December 20002, and to support mutual learning and exchange of good practices in terms of policies. They can also prove useful for illustrating areas where more policy action is needed. The detailed content of those common objectives and the implementation arrangements endorsed at the European Council of Nice have been confirmed by the Council of Ministers for Employment and Social Affairs at their December 2002 meeting with a few amendments emphasising the importance of setting targets (following on the decision of the Barcelona European Council, as discussed below), of the need to strengthen the gender perspective in National Action Plans on social inclusion, and of the risks of poverty and social exclusion faced by immigrant