Network of Independent Experts on Social Inclusion

A Network of Independent Experts assists the European Commission, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities in monitoring and evaluating the implementation of Member States’ National Action Plans on Social Inclusion (part of the National Strategy Reports on Social Protection and Social Inclusion), an assessment in Social Inclusion sub-programme has also been set up.

Assessments are carried out by a Network of Independent Experts from the EU Member States and from candidate countries (Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Turkey). To download the current list of experts (as of March 2009), please click here.

The experts are in charge of collecting up-to-date information on innovative practices in their countries and on any changes made to national policies, basing themselves on all relevant public documentation, but also on reports or studies by political parties, social partners, NGOs, research institutes or the media.

Experts provide each year:

• two reports on their respective country. The reports contain detailed analyses of certain themes that have been singled out as priority issues under the Social Inclusion Strategy and regular accounts of recent policy developments and key trends and statistical evolutions deemed relevant in the context of the EU policy coordination process on social inclusion.
• an independent assessment of the “social inclusion strand” of the National Strategy Report on Social Protection and Social Inclusion that Member States are required to submit to the Commission under the Social Open Method of Coordination.

For more information on the Network’s activities, please consult the Operational Guide.