11 Social protection and inclusion
| (a)
(27304)
6399/06
COM(06) 62
(b)
(27318)
6800/06
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+ ADD 1
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Commission Communication: Draft Joint Report on social protection and social inclusion 2006
Draft Joint Report on social protection and social inclusion 2006
Annex to the Joint Report — country profiles
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| Legal base | — |
| Document originated | (a) 13 February 2006
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| Deposited in Parliament | (a) 22 February 2006
(b) 1 March 2006
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| Department | Work and Pensions
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| Basis of consideration | EM of 7 March 2006
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| Previous Committee Report | None
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| Discussed in Council | 10 March 2006
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| Committee's assessment | Politically important
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| Committee's decision | (Both) Cleared
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Background
11.1 In March 2000, the Lisbon European Council set the goal for
the EC to become the world's most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based
economy by 2010, capable of sustained economic growth and with
more and better jobs and greater social cohesion. It said that
policies to counter social exclusion should be based on an open
method of co-ordination.
11.2 The aim of the open method of co-ordination is to help Member
States develop their own policies by: agreeing European guidelines,
with timetables for achieving goals; establishing indicators and
benchmarks for the comparison of performance; translating the
European guidelines into national and regional policies, with
specific targets; and periodic monitoring, evaluation and peer
review.
11.3 In 2003, the Commission published a Communication on Strengthening
the social dimension of the Lisbon strategy: streamlining the
open method of coordination in the field of social protection.[30]
It proposed that Member States should agree common objectives
for the three pillars of social protection (social inclusion,
pensions and health care) and report regularly on their progress
in achieving the common objectives.
11.4 In February, we considered a Commission Communication which
proposed that the common objectives for social protection should
be to:
- promote social cohesion and equal opportunities for all;
- interact closely with the Lisbon objectives for growth and
jobs and with the sustainable development strategy; and
- improve the processes for designing, executing and monitoring
policies.[31]
The proposed common objectives seemed so bland that we wondered
whether they would have any practical value.
11.5 In February 2005, our predecessors considered the first Joint
Report on social protection and social inclusion.[32]
They concluded that it did not appear to contain anything new
and questioned its value.
Document (a)
11.6 Document (a) is the Commission's draft of a Joint Report
from itself and the Council to the Spring meeting of the European
Council. It has been superseded by document (b), which was approved
by the Employment and Social Policy Council on 10 March 2006.
The two documents do not differ in substance.
Document (b)
11.7 The Joint Report for 2006 is based on Member States' most
recent:
- national action plans for social inclusion;
- national strategy reports for pensions;
- preliminary national policy statements on health care and
long-term care; and
- Lisbon strategy national reform programmes.
11.8 The Joint Report gives an overview of the present position
in the EU and of likely trends. It is in three parts. The commentary
in the first is structured under the headings of the three common
objectives for social protection that we considered in February.
The second part contains sections on poverty and social exclusion;
pensions; and health care and long-term care. The third part contains
"key messages" distilled from the analysis in the preceding
parts. The Annex to the Joint Report contains summaries of the
present situation in each Member State and of the social protection
policies of each government.
11.9 The Joint Report says, for example, that:
- "Pension reforms affect employment directly, by strengthening
incentives to work longer and restricting early exit from the
labour market. By tightening the links between contributions and
benefits, they also encourage activity and declared work across
the whole working life cycle. … Good healthcare improves
the quantity and quality of the labour force, and in particular
the employability of older people."[33]
- "For pensions, it is essential that reforms, given their
long-term impact, are built on consensus. Transparency in decision-making
is needed so that citizens can have certainty and understanding
in the often complex task of planning retirement. Commitments
to automatic or regular review mechanisms help citizens to plan.
Greater decentralisation of funds and increased choices regarding
investment vehicles or retirement ages all increase complexity
and need to be accompanied by means to provide information and
guidance to citizens."[34]
- Member States' reports "highlight the concentration of
multiple disadvantages in certain urban and rural communities
and among some groups. Member States need to develop integrated
and coordinated responses to multiple disadvantages and the needs
of groups at particular risk such as people with disabilities,
migrants and ethnic minorities (including the Roma), homeless,
ex-prisoners, addicts and isolated older people. There needs to
be both improved access to mainstream provision and, where necessary,
targeted measures."[35]
- Commenting on health care and long-term care, the Report says
"policy measures, which can either prevent disability, support
informal care for elderly citizens with disabilities, or which
favour formal care at home rather than in institutions can have
a very large impact on public spending."[36]
11.10 The Joint Report concludes with six "key messages":
- A more strategic approach is needed to the formulation of
social inclusion policies, including greater attention to the
role of education and training in preventing the transmission
of poverty from one generation to the next.
- Policies on pensions should take account of the need for pensions
to be adequate, sustainable and relevant to foreseeable circumstances;
and people should be encouraged and helped to work beyond current
retirement age.
- Pension systems should reflect new working patterns and ensure
that women can build up their own pension rights.
- Future discussions between Member States about health care
and long-term care should focus on "how to ensure access
[to services] and reduce inequalities; on adapting to evolving
needs and increasing patient choice and involvement; promoting
quality; securing sound financing of efficient systems and appropriate
aggregate cost containment; improving the coordination across
different levels of government; strengthening incentives to users
and providers for rational resource use; promoting prevention,
active life-styles and healthy ageing; and developing human resource
strategies to meet future staff-shortages".
- It is vital that the Lisbon strategy process and the open
method of co-ordination in social protection reinforce each other.
Monitoring and evaluation of social policies should be strengthened
to enable assessments to be made of, for example, the efficacy
of policies to promote employment for the people who are at highest
risk of poverty and social exclusion.
- "Looking across social protection systems as a whole,
there needs to be a long-term and holistic approach which focuses
on sustainability as a challenge not just for pensions and health;
on indicators to monitor the effectiveness and efficiency of systems,
policies and funding mechanisms; and on the distribution of spending
across different branches and the balances to be struck between
public provision and self-reliance."[37]
11.11 The section in the Annex dealing with the UK, concludes
with the following "challenges ahead" for the UK:
- reduce inequalities in, for example, income and health;
- "tackle levels of economic inactivity by engaging those
people traditionally hardest to reach via a holistic and tailored
approach";[38]
- deal with the pensions gap; and
- improve the quality and capacity of health care services without
increasing the proportion of GDP consumed by public expenditure
on health rising to more than the average of the EU and OECD.
The Government's view
11.12 The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department
of Work and Pensions (Mr James Plaskitt) tells us that the Commission
consulted Member States about the drafting of the Joint Report
and that the Government is content with document (b). The Government
is also content for the proposed "six key messages"
to help to inform future EU-level co-operation between Member
States; and that the proposed "challenges ahead" are
consistent with the Government's policy priorities.
Conclusion
11.13 We have quoted extensively from document (b) to illustrate
the banality of the Joint Report. It does not appear to us to
have any practical value. (Our predecessors reached the same view
on the Joint Report for 2005.) We recognise that useful things
can be learned from exchanges between Member States. But we question
whether such exchanges need culminate in, or be preceded by, trite
documents such as this one. We hope, therefore, that the Minister
will argue robustly against the production of similar reports
in future.
11.14 We clear documents (a) and (b) from further scrutiny.
30 See (24615) 10158/03: HC 63-xxviii (2002-03), para
15 (2 July 2003). Back
31
See (27150) 5070/06: HC 34-xviii (2005-06), para 18 (8 February
2006). Back
32
See (26331) 5826/05: HC 38-ix (2004-05), para 13 (23 February
2005). Back
33
Joint Report, page 5. Back
34
Joint Report, page 6. Back
35
Joint Report, page 7. Back
36
Joint Report, page 9. Back
37
Joint Report, page 10. Back
38
Annex to the Joint Report, page 59. Back
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