The fight against poverty and social exclusion is one of the key commitments of the European Union and its Member States.

The Amsterdam Treaty in 1997 added new provisions on the fight against social exclusion to the existing fields of activity covered by the social policy provisions of the EC Treaty, in particular Articles 136 and 137, and provided a new legal framework and basis for new policy commitments in this area.

The European Council meeting in Lisbon on 23 and 24 March 2000 recognised that the extent of poverty and social exclusion was unacceptable. Building a more inclusive European Union was thus considered to be an essential element in achieving the Union’s 10-year strategic goal of economic growth, more and better jobs and greater social cohesion.

The Lisbon European Council invited Member States and the Commission to take steps to make ‘a decisive impact on the eradication of poverty’ by 2010. The Lisbon European Council thus agreed to adopt an Open Method of Coordination (OMC) in this area.

From the outset, the OMC on Social Protection and Social Inclusion has been an important tool for supporting this political commitment and strengthening the capacity of the EU to support Member States in their drive for greater social cohesion in Europe.

The OMC helps to deepen mutual learning and has increased awareness of the multidimensional nature of exclusion and poverty. The OMC thus creates the conditions to produce more impact on the ground and to make the EU’s attachment to social values more visible to its citizens.

Despite these achievements, significant parts of the population are still suffering from deprivation or limited and unequal access to services, or are excluded from society. The Joint Report on Social Protection and Social Inclusion 2008 highlights the fact that 78 million people in the European Union live at risk of poverty, 19 million of whom are children. The gender gap is approximately two percentage points.

In addition, wealth inequalities and severe poverty are matters of growing concern across the Union.

There is a need, in the interest of social and economic cohesion, for support to be provided for less-favoured regions, for areas with permanent structural disadvantages, for outermost regions, for certain islands and island Member States and for areas that have been affected by recent deindustrialisation or industrial conversion.

Social exclusion damages the well-being of citizens, hampering their ability to express themselves and to participate in society. This aspect should therefore be given appropriate visibility in the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion (hereinafter, the European Year).

In its Resolution of 15 November 2007 on social reality stocktaking, the European Parliament stressed that the strengthening of social cohesion and the eradication of poverty and social exclusion must become a political priority for the European Union.

The fight against poverty and social exclusion is to be pursued both within the European Union and externally, in accordance with the UN Millennium Development Goals to which the European Union and the Member States have subscribed.

The problem of poverty and social exclusion has broad, complex and multidimensional forms. They relate to a large number of factors, such as income and living standards, the need for educational and decent work opportunities, effective social protection systems, housing, access to good quality health and other services, as well as active citizenship. Stakeholders across all relevant policy areas should therefore be involved.

Consequently, the prevention of and the fight against poverty require multidimensional policies at national, regional and local level which ensure a balance between economic and social policies and targeted strategies for groups or persons in particularly vulnerable situations. The European Year may help to stimulate such multidimensional policies as well as the further development of relevant indicators.

The Social Agenda 2005-10, which complements and supports the Lisbon Strategy, has a key role in promoting the social dimension of economic growth and the active participation of citizens in society and in the labour market. One of the priorities of the Social Agenda is the promotion of equal opportunities for all as a vector for social and intergenerational solidarity and the creation of a poverty-free and more inclusive society.

In their National Action Plans on Social Inclusion, several Member States highlight the high poverty and/or exclusion risk faced by particular groups, including children, early school-leavers, single parents, large families, families with a single income, young people, in particular young women, older people, migrants and ethnic minorities, people with disabilities and their carers, the homeless, the unemployed, in particular the long-term unemployed, prisoners, women and children who are victims of violence, and severe substance abusers. National policies and supporting measures targeted at the most vulnerable groups could play an important role in fighting against poverty and social exclusion.

Decent employment can significantly reduce the poverty risk for the individual. However employment in itself is not always a sufficient condition to lift people out of poverty, and the at-risk-of-poverty rate is still relatively high even for those in work. In-work poverty is linked to low pay, the gender pay gap, low skills, limited professional training opportunities, the need to combine a job with a family, precarious employment and working conditions, and also to difficult household conditions. Quality employment and social and economic support are thus essential for lifting individuals out of poverty.

The lack of basic competences and qualifications adapted to the changing needs of the labour market is also a major barrier to inclusion in society. There is a growing danger of new cleavages in society emerging between those who have access to lifelong learning to enhance their employability and adaptability, and to facilitate their personal development and active citizenship, and those who remain excluded and face various forms of discrimination. Those without adequate skills find it more difficult to enter the labour market and find a quality job, are more likely to spend long periods out of work and, if they do work, are more likely to find themselves in low-paid jobs.

The availability of and the ability to use information and communication technology (ICT) is increasingly becoming a prerequisite for inclusion. A ministerial declaration approved on 11 June 2006 in Riga calls for an information society for all.

Key to the successful impact of Community action to fight poverty and social exclusion is the extent to which it enjoys broad popular and political support. Moreover, the effective implementation of EU legislation on equal opportunities and non-discrimination also supports the aims of the European Year. The European Year should, therefore, act as a catalyst for raising awareness, for building momentum and for exchanging best practices between the Member States, local and regional authorities and international organisations involved in the fight against poverty. It should help to focus political attention and mobilise everyone concerned in order to drive forward and strengthen the OMC on Social Protection and Social Inclusion as well as to promote further actions and initiatives at Community and national level in that field, in association with the people affected by poverty and their representatives.

The European Year should boost active inclusion policies as a means of preventing poverty and social exclusion and should help to promote best practices in this field within the OMC.

The varying levels of progress made at national level and the differing national socioeconomic and cultural contexts and sensitivities call for a considerable part of the activities of the European Year to be decentralised at national level, through a system of indirect centralised management in accordance with the procedures laid down in Article 54(2)(c) of Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 of 25 June 2002 on the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities4 and in Commission Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2342/2002 of 23 December 2002 laying down the detailed rules for the implementation of Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 on the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities5.

However, the definition of policy priorities at national level should be monitored by the Commission with a view to guaranteeing consistency with the strategic objectives agreed for the European Year and ultimately with the Common Objectives established for the OMC.

Effective coordination of all partners contributing at Community, national, regional and local level is a fundamental prerequisite for ensuring the effectiveness of the European Year. Local and regional partners have a particular role to play in promoting the interests of people living in poverty or social exclusion.

Participation in the European Year should be open to the Member States, the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) States that are parties to the European Economic Area (EEA) Agreement, in accordance with the provisions of that Agreement, to the candidate countries benefiting from a pre-accession strategy and countries from the Western Balkans, in line with the conditions laid down in their respective agreements, and to the countries covered by the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), in accordance with the provisions of the May 2004 Strategy Paper and the Country Action Plans.

The European Year can help to improve the coordination between existing programmes and initiatives for fighting against poverty and social exclusion at Community level, including the OMC on Social Protection and Social Inclusion.

Consistency and complementarity with other Community action should be ensured, in particular with the PROGRESS programme, the Structural Funds and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), action to combat discrimination and to promote gender equality and fundamental rights, and action in the areas of education and training, culture and intercultural dialogue, youth, citizenship, immigration and asylum, and research.

The European Year should continue the best practices derived from previous European Years, including the European Year of Equal Opportunities for All (2007) and the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue (2008).

This Decision establishes a financial envelope for the entire duration of the programme, which is to be the prime reference for the budgetary authority within the meaning of point 37 of the Interinstitutional Agreement of 17 May 2006 between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on budgetary discipline and sound financial management6.

The measures necessary for the implementation of this Decision should be adopted in accordance with Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission7.

Since the objectives of this Decision cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States due to the need, among other things, for multilateral partnerships and for the transnational exchange of information and the Community-wide dissemination of good practice, and can therefore, by reason of the scale of the action, be better achieved at Community level, the Community may adopt measures in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Decision does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve those objectives,