Network of Independent Social Inclusion Experts (download list) (as of March 2008)

The independent social inclusion experts consult all relevant public documentation at national level. They are also expected to obtain the perspectives of other sources (political parties or politicians, social partners, the news media, NGOs…), to draw where appropriate on research projects and studies, and to highlight differences of opinion among stakeholders.

They provide regular information covering new policy developments. Their contributions take the form of general periodic reviews on their respective countries, cross-country thematic reviews, surveys of innovative practices, and independent policy assessments.

An assessment of how the activities carried out in the framework of the Open Method of Co-ordination (OMC) contribute to the implementation of the revised Lisbon strategy is an integral part of the experts' tasks.

Semester reports

The independent social inclusion experts will provide twice a year reports on their respective countries. The reports will contain a detailed account of the recent developments, key trends and policy developments which are deemed relevant in the context of the EU policy coordination process on social inclusion – including any new evidence on key indicators. This includes an inventory of recent policy and legislative developments (including ESF and ERDF), changes in budgetary allocations to policy measures and other reforms so as to achieve the objectives, discussing developments in the role of main stakeholders, or any other relevant country-specific information taking into account the seven key priorities [1] identified in the 2005 and 2006 Joint Reports on Social Inclusion and Social Protection. The experts make use, wherever possible, of relevant statistics and indicators with particular focus being given to monitoring changes over time and differences between different groups of the population. Indicators are broken down wherever possible by sex and age. The EU commonly agreed indicators are used wherever possible. However, given constraints in relation to the timeliness of data, experts are also encouraged to use supplementary quantitative and qualitative data from national sources, and/or EU indicators calculated on the basis of national rather than EU standardised data sources. When non-EU data sources are used, general information on the source needs to be provided together with web-site address where more comprehensive information can be found.

One of these reports will in particular assess the national Lisbon reform programmes from the angle of social inclusion. These reports will be complemented by an analysis in greater depth of a specific topic of interest across the Union.

In the 2005 and 2006 Joint Report on Social Protection and Social Inclusion (JRSPSI), seven key policy priorities for tackling poverty and social exclusion were identified. At least four of these issues will be investigated more deeply:

• active inclusion and minimum resources;
• child poverty;
• mainstreaming social inclusion;
• integration of immigrants (first and second generation) and/or ethnic minorities. 
  

The 2006 and 2007 semester reports include at least one chapter specifically devoted to one of these priorities.

Contribution to the assessments of the National Strategy Reports for the Commission

The independent experts also give support to the Commission for the assessment of the “social inclusion strand” of the National Strategy Report on Social Protection and Social Inclusion that Member States have to submit under the new “streamlined” framework and of the national Lisbon implementation report. They contribute to assess how in each Member State the key challenges with regard to the overall objectives of the OMC on social protection and social inclusion, and in particularly those concerning the specific social inclusion objectives are addressed by social inclusion policies. They also give the Commission a clear insight on how policy approaches taken by the Member States support the Lisbon efforts in terms of employment growth and social cohesion and to what extent the feeding-in and feeding out mechanisms have been set up and are working.

For candidate countries, contribution to assessment of equivalent policy document (e.g. "Joint Inclusion Memorandum") will be carried out.

socialinclusion@oesb.at