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Working Together to Tackle Poverty: Open Method of
Co-ordination

With more than 72 million people living in poverty across the European Union (EU) there is an urgent need to find better ways of tackling and preventing the problem. Action to tackle poverty and social exclusion is the responsibility of EU member states. However, Members States have agreed that there should be greater co-operation approach across the EU to work toward the shared goal of 'making a decisive impact on poverty' by 2010. To help achieve this goal an 'open method of co-ordination in the field of social exclusion was developed which consists of:

  • Common Objectives on poverty and social exclusion. These were agreed at the Nice summit in December 2000 and revised in December 2002. New Common Objectives for the social protection and social inclusion process were agreed by the European Council in Spring 2006
  • Commonly agreed indicators of poverty and social exclusion to provide a means of monitoring progress and comparing best practice;
  • Publishing National Reports on Strategies for Social Protection and Social Inclusion, published every two to three years with annual updates on progress. (These are often referred to as National Action Plans - the NAP)
  • Joint Reports on social Inclusion which include monitoring, evaluation and peer review, prepared by the Commission in consultation with the Member States and based on the National Action Plans; and
  • Community Action Programme - supporting improved data collection, transnational studies and a process of policy cooperation and peer review of learning and good practice across the Union.

Bridging the Policy Gap is raising awareness of the Social Inclusion and Social Inclusion process and how it is applied in the UK. In doing so it hopes to contribute towards a better understanding of what works in tackling poverty and why.

Further information on the European Social Inclusion and Social Protection process can be found at http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/social_inclusion/index_en.htm
Bridging the Policy Gap, C/O The Poverty Allaince, 162 Buchanan Street, Glasgow, G1 2LL, Tel: 0141 353 0440, email: admin (at) povertyalliance.org
This Project received funding from the European Community under the community Action Programme to Combat Social Exclusion 2002 - 2006
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