Brussels, 26/02/2001 (Agence Europe) - On the initiative of Anna Diamantopoulou, the European Commission has just adopted its first "Scoreboard on implementation of the Social Policy Agenda". This Communication is part of the package the Commission is putting forward to the European Council of Stockholm (see EUROPE of 7 February, p.8 for "Achieving the EU's potential: consolidating and broadening the Lisbon Strategy"). As the Commissioner stressed, it emerges that "Despite the fact that the Social Policy Agenda is still in its early days, significant progress has already been made. However, complete implementation of the agenda depends on full commitment of all actors to take up their responsibilities and engage in moves aimed at sustainable economic growth, more and better jobs and greater social cohesion. Social partners have a crucial role to play and should fully use their powers to make rapid progress in their areas of competence".
The European Council of Nice invited the Commission to present an annual a "Scoreboard" outlining the progress made in implementing the Social Policy Agenda, beginning with an initial report on the occasion of the Stockholm Summit. Presentation of this Scoreboard only a few months after the Agenda's endorsement in Nice, means that a number of initiatives are only at a first stage while some achievements are the result of initiatives launched before the Social Policy Agenda, says a Commission press release.
In it, the Commission stresses that the format and content of the Scoreboard, which comes very early on in the process, in no way prejudge the model to be used for future scoreboards that will be drawn up in the framework of monitoring the Agenda. Likewise, the role of each actor concerned will be defined and formulated with increasing precision as the process moves forward.
The European Council of Nice had set out six main guidelines for social policy to which the Scoreboard refers: 1) promoting more and better jobs so that society is better adapted to the personal choices of both men and women, as well as promoting worker mobility and facilitating the transition to a knowledge economy; 2 ) anticipating and managing change in the working environment by developing a new balance between flexibility and safety, one field that is particularly suited to initiatives taken by social partners at both sectoral and inter-professional levels; 3 ) combating poverty, exclusion and discrimination; 4 ) modernising social protection; 5 ) promoting gender equality; 6) strengthening the external dimension of employment and social policy, in particular for EU enlargement.