Social exclusion: Community action programme 2001-2005 to encourage cooperation between Member States

This amended proposal for a Council decision presented by the Commission concerns establishing a programme of Community action to encourage cooperation between Member States to combat social exclusion. The following are the main amendments incorporated into the Commission's amended proposal: - the link with the Lisbon European Council conclusions on combating social exclusion have been reinforced; - stronger emphasis on improvement of indicators and assessment criteria, and the development of comparable parameters to support cooperation between Member States in the context of the open method of coordination; - in line with the Lisbon conclusions, further references to poverty have been incorporated where possible; - the role of the Social Protection Committee has been underlined; - it is proposed to reflect progress achieved under the programme in the Commission's Annual Synthesis Report in the Spring European Council; - specific references have been made to the revised Social Charter of the Council of Europe, Council Recommendations 92/441/EEC, and 92/442/EEC as well as to the Council conclusions of 17.12.1999; - the involvement of all relevant actors at all levels and the importance of reflecting experience on the ground as well as of people affected by poverty and social exclusion has been stressed while making clear that the programme of Community action will focus on transnational cooperation and support networking at EU level only; - provisions with regard to consistency and complementarity with other Community policies, instruments and actions have been strengthened; - reference has been made to the role of the Committee established for the programme; - finally, in the annex, specific attention has been drawn to the multiple dimensions of social exclusion, transnational exchanges between national observatories or similar recognised bodies, consultation of all relevant actors in preparing the EU Round Table Conference and the possible funding of up to 90% of the running costs of European networks when justified by their financial situation.�