Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on the Joint Report on Social Inclusion summarising the results of the examination of the National Action Plans for Social Inclusion (2003-2005)
Date: 2004-04-22
Institutions: European Committee of the Regions
Subjects: economic and social cohesion, poverty

C 121/32

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

30.4.2004

Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on the ‘Joint Report on Social Inclusion summarising
the results of the examination of the National Action Plans for Social Inclusion (2003-2005)’

(2004/C 121/08)

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS,

Having regard to the Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the
European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions entitled ‘Joint report on
social inclusion summarising the results of the examination of the National Action Plans for Social Inclu-
sion (2003-2005)’, COM(2003) 773 final;

Having regard to the decision of the European Commission on 12 December 2003, under the first para-
graph of Article 265 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, to consult it on this matter;

Having regard to the decision of its president on 6 November 2003 to direct its Commission for Economic
and Social Policy to draw up an opinion on the subject;

Having regard to the decision of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 October 2001 estab-
lishing a programme of Community action to encourage co-operation between Member States to combat
social exclusion;

Having regard to the European Commission Staff Working Paper entitled ‘E-inclusion – the potential of the
information society for social inclusion in Europe’ (SEC(2001) 1428);

Having regard to the European Parliament resolution on the Communication from the Commission to the
Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of
the Regions: ‘Draft joint report on social inclusion’ (COM(2001) 565-C5-0109-2002/2051(COS));

Having regard to its opinion on the Communication from the Commission – Building an inclusive Europe
(CdR 84/2000 fin) (1);

Having regard to the Council resolution of 6 February 2003 on social inclusion through social dialogue
and partnership (2);

Having regard to its opinion on the Proposal for a Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council
establishing a programme of Community action to encourage co-operation between Member States to
combat social exclusion (CdR 302/2000 fin) (3);

Having regard to its opinion on the Draft Joint Report on Social Inclusion (CdR 393/2001 fin) (4);

Having regard to its draft opinion (CdR 21/2004) adopted on 2 March 2004 by the Commission for
Economic and Social Policy (rapporteur: Ms Marin-Moskovitz, Deputy Mayor of Belfort, Vice-President of
the General Council of Territoire de Belfort (FR/PES));

Whereas the Communication is intended for the extraordinary European Council of 19 March 2004;

adopted the following opinion at its 54th plenary session on 21 and 22 April 2004 (meeting of 22 April).

(1) OJ C 317 of 6.11.2000, p. 47.
(2) OJ C 39 of 18.2.2003, p. 1.
(3) OJ C 144 of 16.5.2001, p. 52.
(4) OJ C 192 of 12.8.2002, p. 5.

30.4.2004

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Official Journal of the European Union

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1. The Committee of the Regions' views

The Committee of the Regions

welcomes the Commission's draft joint report on social
1.1
the review of
inclusion, which summarises the results of
national action plans since the launch in 2002 of the five-year
Community action programme to encourage co-operation
between Member States to combat social exclusion;

1.2
stresses the need for general mobilisation in order to
significantly reduce the proportion of the European population
at risk of poverty or extreme deprivation, which is currently
estimated at 55 million individuals, i.e. 15 % of the population
of Europe;

1.3
approves the consistency of the report, which takes into
account enlargement, national differences and the creation of
the new rationalised structure for policy coordination on social
protection at Community level, as agreed by the Council
in
October 2003;

1.4
recalls that social exclusion is affecting more and more
people, who need practical help to remain full members of
society. Social
inclusion must therefore become a collective
priority in combating the devastating effects of precariousness
and marginalisation, and must include the fight against all
forms of discrimination (racism, sexism, discrimination against
people with disabilities, homophobia, religious and age discri-
mination –highlighting the increasing difficulties a part of the
European population faces in staying connected with society);
however, a balanced social inclusion policy should give these
people economic and financial incentives to actively participate
in working life;

highlights the fact that the effects of unequal access to
1.5
employment, the instability of the labour market, relocations
and massive job cuts as a result of unanticipated structural
changes that may be linked to the globalisation of capital and a
downturn in the economic cycle,
impact on individuals and
societies and aggravate the process of social exclusion;

1.6
believes that the Community's social inclusion strategy
must take more account of the macroeconomic context and
the impact of economic, finance and fiscal policy on the func-
tioning of society;

supports the willingness of the Commission to encou-
1.7
rage ‘the interaction with regional and local authorities’
through an evaluation of national policies and of common indi-
cators in order to take, by 2010, the measures needed to fight
exclusion, as defined at the Lisbon summit in March 2000 and
agreed at the Laeken Council of December 2001 (18 common
indicators for measuring poverty and social exclusion);

1.9
repeats its appeal to take better account of national
good practice and innovative processes in terms of respecting
and guaranteeing everyone's fundamental rights, which is the
very basis of social inclusion and the fight against precarious-
ness;

1.10
with regard to the 2003-2005 second generation NAPs/Incl:

welcomes the six key priorities defined by the Council

— increased investment

in measures to promote an active
labour market and adapting to the needs of the most disad-
vantaged and those who have the greatest difficulties in
accessing employment;

— access for all to appropriate social protection schemes;

— increasing the access of the most vulnerable and those most
at risk of social exclusion to decent housing, quality health-
care and lifelong learning opportunities;

— implementing a concerted effort to prevent early school
leaving as a defence against systematic and terminal exclu-
sion;

— priority eradication of child poverty;

— reducing poverty and social exclusion among immigrants

and ethnic minorities;

notes that significant advances have been made that
1.11
strengthen the coherence of
the method of coordination
(between states, local and regional authorities, and the Euro-
pean Union), particularly in terms of the supply of essential
public services to the individual such as education, health,
housing,
transport, equal opportunities between men and
women, access to knowledge, to leisure and culture, to justice
and the protection of individual rights;

would like to see a more coherent strategy for fighting
1.12
poverty being
applied between Member States. Having
compared the approach of the different national action plans
set out in the document, it is deeply regrettable to note that the
most persistent forms of poverty (unemployment, single-parent
families, elderly people living alone, people with disabilities,
unqualified youngsters, large families) have got worse;

highlights the importance of social protection for those

1.13
who are unable to work;

1.14
believes that the developments that are taking place
within the Union, particularly the rapid changes in the labour
market, the development and widespread use of new informa-
tion and communication technologies, and the changes linked
to new demographic developments and increased migratory
flows, bring about a need for vigilance so that risks can be
turned into new opportunities for social inclusion;

1.8
considers it necessary to take into account the impact of
the accession of ten new Member States on the Community's
future social
the
evaluation in 2005 of the method for coordinating the fight
against poverty;

inclusion strategy, particularly because of

welcomes the success of e-Inclusion and of its strong
1.15
potential to become, through ICT, an effective way of making
services accessible to all sections of the population and thus
promoting active, participatory citizenship;

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Official Journal of the European Union

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1.16
highlights the driving role played by the State at
national level in the workings of tax systems, social protection,
education and programmes, housing benefit and the right to
information, and equal
freedom of
housing, public health,
opportunities,
in response to the universal needs of citizens.
Local and regional participation is also an essential tool for
ensuring the effective coordination of these services;

1.17
notes that the joint Commission and Council docu-
ment does not give sufficient attention to the real budgetary
efforts needed for actions promoting social exclusion;

1.18
supports the proposal to define quantifiable goals and
measurable targets, following the example of the eight national
plans already started by certain Member States.

2. The Committee of the Regions' recommendations

The Committee of the Regions

2.1
is convinced, in the light of the joint communication on
social exclusion, that efforts made, whether at local, regional,
national or European level, since the Lisbon summit, should be
underpinned by the adoption of national plans for the ten new
Member States;

large disparities in levels of relative poverty, which vary enor-
mously from one State to another;

2.8
encourages the continued integration of social inclusion
criteria defined in the NAPs into the review of the Structural
Funds; this will need to take into account changes in their allo-
cation from 2006 onwards;

2.9
calls for urgent action against the most serious conse-
quences of social exclusion and persistent poverty (such as
over-indebtedness and homelessness) as defined in objective 3
Helping the most vulnerable;

2.10
supports the recommendations made by the European
Commission – whilst awaiting the evaluation planned for 2005
– and calls for their uniform and balanced implementation,
namely:

— continue to promote the mobilisation and participation of
all the stakeholders in civil society, as well as marginalised
people themselves;

— fully recognise the urgent need to reduce, as a matter of
priority, discrimination against the most vulnerable (asylum
seekers, refugees, immigrants, ethnic minorities);

notes that enough time must be allowed for the integra-
2.2
tion of the NAPs in the Member States at the national, regional
and local level before there is an assessment of their effect;

— continue and monitor the development of

the national
statistical base, with the aim of effectively following the
social inclusion strategies defined by the EU-SILC statistics
on income and living conditions;

recommends that

the indicators used be limited in
2.3
number in order to be compatible and valid in all the countries
of the Union. To this end, the Committee of the Regions notes
that, since the end of the first generation NAPs/Incl, and as
strongly recommended in its two previous opinions on social
exclusion, significant efforts have been made to identify these
indicators at Community level;

2.4
reaffirms, in line with the 2003 White Paper on Euro-
pean Governance for employment, the importance of coopera-
tion at all administrative levels, among all actors involved in
social inclusion, whether they are institutional or part of civil
society;

welcomes the acknowledgment by Member States of the
2.5
need to complement their national action plans with local and
regional measures, although it is important to avoid national
plans becoming overloaded with measures that are purely
regional and adapted to the local procedures of welfare admin-
istrations, which would tend to complicate and hinder compar-
ison between the Member States and the use of fewer, more
informative and comparable indicators;

encourages

local and
2.6
regional authorities more systematically in the monitoring of
methods to reduce social exclusion;

the Commission to involve

welcomes the prominence given by the majority of
2.7
Member States
to ambitious, quantified, poverty-reduction
goals that are multidimensional, well-thought-out in terms of
their progressive implementation, and take into account the

— promote the sharing of good practice,

following the
example of the Community Action Programme to combat
social exclusion;

— ensure that the Community objectives for social inclusion
are scrupulously included in the preparation and follow-up
of the June 2004 European Council, giving particular atten-
tion to the need for coherence between these objectives, the
economic policy guidelines and the European Employment
Strategy launched at
the European Council of Nice in
December 2000;

— encourage the integration of countries joining the EU into
this process by using the Joint Inclusion Memoranda (JIMs,
signed jointly on 10 December 2003), which prefigure the
adoption of national action plans by the ten new Member
States;

2.11
social integration processes to the new Member States;

calls for the necessary steps to be taken to extend the

emphasises the fact that although social

2.12
inclusion is
about the concept of poverty in the economic sense, it includes
other forms of deprivation, such as those linked to exclusion
from employment, education and training, and culture, and can
be affected by discrimination based on sex, age, social class,
education,
language, nationality and physical and mental
disability - hence the need for a holistic approach to its causes
and solutions;

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C 121/35

urges

2.13
the European Commission to continue and
extend its dialogue with social inclusion actors and victims of
social exclusion so that all parties have an opportunity to be
heard and to exercise their citizenship;

2.14
welcomes the organisation each year, as in Århus in
October 2002, of a round table on poverty and exclusion to
coincide with the world day on exclusion on 17 October this
year. This event has been made necessary as much by enlarge-
ment, by new national practices for fighting social exclusion,
and by the Nice criteria for the objectives of equality, preven-
tion, action and mobilisation in connection with processes for
inclusion and integration, as by the increase in the number of
players involved in social dialogue and the partnership for jobs;

2.15
highlights the difficulty for each Member State in
jointly defining criteria for social inclusion or exclusion that
can at the same time be applicable, applied and exported at the
local, regional, national and European level; this emphasises the
ongoing need for coordinated dialogue at EU level;

2.16
recalls the role of local and regional authorities in inte-
grating those at risk of exclusion and marginalisation into the
labour market and society in general;

2.17
calls on the European Commission to include the ques-
tions raised in this opinion when presenting the joint report to
the March 2004 European Summit.

Brussels, 22 April 2004.

The President

of the Committee of the Regions

Peter STRAUB

Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on the ‘Proposal for a Directive of the European
Parliament and of the Council on batteries and accumulators and spent batteries and accumulators’

(2004/C 121/09)

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS,

Having regard to the ‘Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on batteries
and accumulators and spent batteries and accumulators’, (COM(2003) 723 final - 2003/0282 (COD));

Having regard to the decision of the Council of 11 December 2003 to consult it on this matter under the
first paragraph of Article 175 of the Treaty establishing the European Community;

Having regard to the decision of its Bureau of 12 March 2002 to instruct its Commission for Sustainable
Development to draw up an opinion on this subject;

Having regard to the European Commission's staff working paper on the Directive of the European Parlia-
ment and of
the Council on batteries and accumulators and spent batteries and accumulators,
SEC(2003)1343;

Having regard to Directive 91/157/EEC of 18 March 1991 on batteries and accumulators containing
certain dangerous substances;

Having regard to Directive 2003/108/EEC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 December
2003 amending Directive 2002/96/EC on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE);

Having regard to Directive 2002/95/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 January 2003
on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances (RoHS) in electrical and electronic equipment;

Having regard to Directive 2000/53/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 September
2000 on end-of life vehicles (ELV);

Having regard to Directive 98/34/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 June 1998
laying down a procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical standards and regula-
tions;