Building a stronger Social Inclusion Process

Newsletter 2008-2

Publication date : 2008-07-29

As part of the Revised Social Agenda package, the Commission adopted a Communication on Reinforcing the ‘Social OMC’ on 2nd July 2008.

In order to assist the Commission in the preparation of this Communication and to inform the subsequent debate, the EU Network of Independent experts on Social Inclusion examined the impact of the social inclusion strand of the OMC and, in particular, the extent of public awareness of the OMC and what it involves, the place of the OMC in the political discourse as well as its effectiveness in tackling and preventing poverty and social exclusion.

The experts’ analysis suggests that awareness of the social inclusion strand of the OMC in most Member States is limited mainly to a narrow band of senior officials, decision-makers and politicians and to the NGOs which are directly involved in the process. There is very little media or public awareness of the OMC and quite limited political debate about the process. In only a few countries does there appear to be much interest amongst the academic community or significant social partner engagement.

The impact of the OMC on policies, as well as the perception of its effectiveness in this regard, varies widely across countries. The process is perceived as being really effective and as an important part of the policy-making process in only a small number of Member States, these being in most cases those where there is significant political leadership on issues of poverty and social exclusion in general and the Social OMC in particular.

Despite often being criticised for its low political status and importance, its low visibility and failure to spark public debate, and in spite of the failure of most countries to integrate it into their national policymaking processes, the Social OMC is frequently perceived as having had an indirect and gradual impact on policy development – in particular through promoting the circulation of ideas and concepts and helping countries to identify and agree on key social priorities. It is also credited with helping to keep poverty and social exclusion on the EU agenda during a difficult period. It has also helped highlight the importance of ensuring that economic, employment and social policies are made mutually reinforcing.

According to the experts' report, if the process is to be significantly strengthened, action is needed in five key areas:

• raising the political status and importance of the Social OMC;
• increasing the awareness of the process at both EU and (sub-)national levels;
• making the process more rigorous, challenging and comparative;
• strengthening governance in relation to social inclusion issues;
• increasing the exchange of learning and good practices.

Suggestions for action

The national experts’ analysis and the Network Core team’s assessment of the Social OMC identify 12 main actions to address these challenges. If implemented as an integrated package, these could be the basis for a roadmap to achieve a substantial strengthening of the process:

• Instituting a political dialogue involving Member States and the EU institutions to ensure that the objective of social cohesion is put at the core of the EU’s post-2010 strategy and with the same status as the growth and jobs objectives.
• Ensuring a better integration of the process into national policy making, for instance by reassessing the timing and structure of the social OMC cycle (e.g. by extending it to four years after 2010, with progress reports in the intervening years).
• Promoting more high-level political debates and discussions of the EU Social OMC objectives and activities.
• Developing a proactive communication strategy at EU, national and sub-national levels targeting the media, which would highlight countries’ progress in achieving their social objectives.
• Agreeing and setting appropriate national (and, when relevant, subnational) targets based on robust analysis which would represent individual countries’ commitments and which would be strictly monitored.
• Introducing a much more rigorous approach to monitoring and evaluation with an increased focus on results and more independent analysis of progress made in achieving objectives.
• Building on the experience of the focus on child poverty and well-being in 2007, deepening the analysis of (thematic) issues and EU policy learning while ensuring a broad approach to poverty and social exclusion.
• Making clear recommendations to Member States on actions needed to achieve their agreed national targets.
• Developing an agreed guidance note on effective mainstreaming of social inclusion objectives in all relevant (sub)national policies highlighting the key role of social impact assessment.
• Agreeing a guidance note on preparing effective and coordinated regional and local action plans on social inclusion.
• Agreeing minimum standards for countries on the effective involvement of stakeholders in all phases of the preparation, implementation, evaluation and monitoring of social inclusion policies in general and of the Social Inclusion Process in particular.
• Enhancing exchange and learning as an integral element in the EU Social Inclusion Process by resourcing an increased range of opportunities for exchange and learning under the 2007- 2013 Community Programme for Employment and Social Solidarity (PROGRESS) and improving dissemination of results.
  

The report concludes that, while all these measures are important, unless efforts to raise the political status of the Social OMC are successful then the other actions will either not happen or will only have a limited impact.

http://www.peer-review-social-inclusion.eu/network-of-independent-experts/2008/first-semester-2008