Introduction

1. Today, there is a legal and political framework for conferring powers at a European level in matters of social inclusion. The Lisbon Council, and then the Council of Nice, laid the foundations for a European strategy on this topic, interconnecting national and European levels by a method known as the "method of open coordination" (MOC). In the manner of the Luxembourg process for European employment policy, this method requires the definition of common objectives and indicators, the development of national plans for implementing those objectives and the identification and appraisal of the best practice. In so doing, the mutually agreed indicators enable Member States to know where they stand and also serve to promote best practice. The Member States have a special responsibility in the struggle to achieve social inclusion and combat poverty. They are under pressure to translate this conviction as fully as possible into practical policy.

Participation in the European Process for Social Inclusion

2. The ETUC and its member organisations intend to participate in all phases of this process - including the follow-up and appraisal and selection of indicators - by means of true consultation and dialogue both within the Social Protection Committee (SPC) with regard to ETUC and at the level of the appropriate bodies with regard to its national organisations.

3. There is a second form of participation in which the social partners (SP) can act, namely through collective agreements. These agreements can promote diversity at the workplace. So for example, they can include access to jobs and training for the long-term unemployed and the jobless on income support or at minimum social levels. States can encourage such collective agreements with supporting measures, or by means of legislation introducing social provisions into public procurement contracts.

4. The ETUC is demanding that new financial resources be allocated, particularly at a national level, as a condition for the success of these plans. The new resources made available for implementing these plans must not, however, have the effect of jeopardising the means allocated to social security regimes. After a conciliation procedure, the European institutions have just agreed a 4-year, € 75 million, Community anti-poverty programme. This programme is designed to support research, the exchange of good practices and European networks promoting social inclusion. The ETUC wishes to underscore the importance of involving players from Eastern and Central European countries in the implementation of this programme and, in practical terms, in the annual round table that assesses progress in this area.

Appraisal of implementing measures

5. The ETUC supports the approach that seeks to find jobs for the excluded rather than leaving them dependent on welfare. Moreover, the ETUC believes that this approach must be capable of developing quality jobs to avoid such phenomena as the "working poor". Such jobs must be capable of meeting needs that are at present not fulfilled in our societies, thus contributing to improving the quality of life.

6. However, the ETUC and its member organisations must be careful to ensure that implementation measures, which are more specific than general, are not a pretext for undermining existing labour standards and do not have an indirect market eviction effect. That is why the ETUC is asking its member organisations to become actively involved and to be especially vigilant with regard to the measures proposed and their follow-up and implementation. Such measures must be appraised on the basis of the following criteria in particular:

  effectiveness: how many people have actually found a job? What type of job ? Do such jobs meet a need of society? etc.
  possible eviction effects (even if it is inevitable to a certain extent)
  compliance with labour law, pay and collective agreements
  evaluation of the effects of these measures on social security rights

Consistency of the European social inclusion process and employment

7. While the ETUC considers that the plans for social inclusion have helped draw attention to the plight of the more vulnerable and the measures in their favour, and to the necessity of coordinating services and the players involved, it argues in favour of the consistency of employment plans and social inclusion measures and for consistent follow-up and appraisal. Certain job quality indicators, for example, will have to be weighed against social inclusion indicators.

Access to resources

8. The ETUC refuses all arbitration between implementation measures and social security and welfare benefits. It is asking that future social inclusion plans attach greater importance to defining minimumincome, to the number of beneficiaries, to those not entitled to a guaranteed minimum income, and especially the young and the elderly.

Risk prevention

9. The ETUC is drawing attention to the fact that social protection, and social security in particular, is an effective tool for preventing social exclusion. It is asking that future plans contemplate measures designed to increase cover against the risk run by persons employed under atypical contracts. The visibility of these employees’ rights in each of the different areas of social security will help to clarify their situation.

The indicators

10. The ETUC is asking that comparable indicators be developed for the appraisal of social inclusion policies and that all the partners in general, and the trade union organisations in particular, be involved in the development and evaluation of those indicators. This evaluation may result in the revision of these measures, thus contributing to increased effectiveness in eradicating poverty.

For the ETUC, the following indicators, combined with those on job quality, are imperative:
 the poverty rate before and after social transfers
 the proportion of poor workers and old-age pensioners
 the percentage of employment contracts as a function of their duration
 the share of long and short part-time employment and risk coverage. Moreover, these indicators must be included in the annual review of the Lisbon strategy.

The gender dimension

11. The ETUC wishes to draw attention to a. the situation of elderly women and the need for an adequate minimum pension b. the need for free child-care services for low-income, one-parent families c. the need for suitable training programmes for migrant women

The Countries of Eastern and Central Europe

12. The Gothenburg Council asked the countries involved in the enlargement to undertake the same social inclusion exercise.

The ETUC and its member organisations are demanding that the trade union organisations in these countries be involved in a process of mutual learning, particularly with regard to the implementation of the European anti-poverty programme, and that the same forms of consultation and dialogue be introduced in the countries of Eastern and Central Europe as exist in the EU Member States.

E-inclusion

13. For the ETUC, access to new information technologies can play a significant role in the struggle for inclusion, especially as regards access to jobs (inter alia for certain categories of disabled persons) or to a social network via e-mail or the Internet. For the ETUC, new technologies are but one tool among others and are not to be considered as a magic wand for integrating the excluded. In any event, for new technologies to be an effective tool for inclusion, the ETUC is demanding that measures promoting access and training be adopted for the most disadvantaged categories of the population.