Social policy: scoreboard on implementing the agenda

The committee adopted the report by Marie-Thérèse HERMANGE (EPP-ED, F) on the Commission communication. It took the view that the scoreboard should include all activities scheduled for the period 2001-2006, making it possible to check the stage reached in implementing the objectives, but warned that the scoreboard should not be a mere summary record of Commission activities. The aim was for it to make operational those policy initiatives announced in the social policy agenda, which should be based on a dynamic approach enabling continuous adjustments to be made. The European Parliament should be involved in the development of indicators for monitoring and assessing different operations carried out under the agenda. Furthermore, the report reiterated the view that the EP should also have a role in the open method of coordination, and pointed out the importance of involving all the social partners in implementing the social policy agenda. As far as the content of the agenda was concerned, the rapporteur regretted that the Commission had failed to take into consideration any of Parliament's additional requirements set out before the Nice Summit. The report listed, among other things, the need to have a legislative framework for the development of the social economy, the need to integrate the social dimension into competition policy and the need to introduce at European level the right to take collective action. It also called on the Commission to submit a proposal for a directive on social security covering new forms of employment and another proposal concerning individual dismissals. �