1. Underlines the importance of the conclusions of the Special Lisbon European Council and stresses, in particular, the relevance of the decisions adopted regarding employment and social policy; these should be an essential reference for enhancing EU action in these fields and reflection should continue at the Nice European Council where an agreement should be reached on a European Social Agenda on the basis of the Commission's forthcoming communication;

2. Underlines the importance of strengthening the guiding and co-ordinating role of the European Council, together with the recognition of the importance of the different Council formations' contributions to the preparation of the Broad Economic Policy Guidelines (BEPGs); these guidelines should become more focused on the medium- and long-term implications, safeguarding the specificity of the Cardiff and Luxembourg processes;

3. Underlines as particularly relevant the holding of an annual Spring European Council dedicated to economic and social questions, which demands a timely organisation of both the upstream and downstream work linked to that session.

Notes as particularly important the participation of the Council (Employment and Social Policy) in the preparation of the Spring European Council to give an input into the paper setting out the key issues.

4. Regarding employment, during the second half of this year, the mid-term review of the European Employment Strategy should be concluded following the lines of the Lisbon conclusions; the results of this evaluation can consequently be taken into consideration in the autumn revision of the guidelines for employment. With regard to this, the Council recalls the overall objective to raise the employment rate from an average of 61% today to a rate approaching 70% by 2010 and to increase the female employment rate from 51% to more than 60%. To pursue this aim, differing regional situations have to be taken into consideration when developing specific and appropriate employment policies.

The Council underlines that the examination of the National Employment Action Plans and the preparation of the annual joint report on employment, already in progress, represent important contributory steps.

Special attention should be given, in this context, to the improvement of employability and lifelong learning, exploiting the complementarity between lifelong learning and adaptability through flexible management of working time and job rotation, bearing in mind in particular the challenges and opportunities arising from a knowledge-based economy, to modernising social protection as part of an active welfare state to ensure that work pays, to the increase of employment in services and to enhancing all aspects of equal opportunities and the reconciliation of family and working life.

The fixing of new quantified targets, as proposed at the Lisbon Summit, as well as the definition of more effective procedures for the participation of the different actors, in particular the social partners who should be more closely involved in the drawing up, execution and monitoring of the appropriate guidelines, will contribute to bringing about the goal of full employment;

5. With regard to social protection, the need to adapt social protection systems as part of an active welfare state which ensures that work pays, guarantees the long-term sustainability of the systems, promotes social inclusion and gender equality and provides quality health services are common challenges; increased co-operation between Member States could contribute significantly to responding to these challenges.

In this context, and taking account of the first report prepared by the High Level Working Party on Social Protection (HLWPSP), a progress report should be presented by the end of this year on the study of the future evolution of social protection from a long-term point of view, on the basis of a Commission Communication, giving special attention to the sustainability of pensions systems.

The setting up of a Social Protection Committee will be decisive and will also contribute to strengthening co-operation between the Member States in this field by means of exchanging experiences and best practices.

The Council (Employment and Social Policy) makes it known that it intends to hold regular debates on the modernisation of social protection systems;

6. Regarding the promotion of social inclusion, steps must be taken to make a decisive impact on the eradication of poverty by setting adequate targets to be agreed by the Council at the end of the year (paying particular attention to the need to mobilise a set of relevant policies with special consideration of the most underprivileged and/or vulnerable groups in society); a set of monitoring indicators should also be defined, in order that the Member States can present their respective action plans.

The presentation by the Member States of national reports by the end of June which include the targets they consider most relevant in their respective national contexts, together with indicators of results or means which could be included in an appropriate way in those targets and in the policies followed, as foreseen in the HLWPSP report, will represent a significant step in taking forward work on this matter which the Council registers with satisfaction.

Furthermore, the Commission’s initiative aimed at co-operating in this field, to be presented by the end of this semester, should be an important support instrument for the Member States in considering the implementation of the strategy for the fight against social exclusion;

7. With regard to the strengthening of the links between existing processes, and taking into consideration the new context of the BEPGs as well as the holding of an annual Spring session of the European Council dedicated to economic and social matters, the Council (Employment and Social Policy) should contribute from the outset to the preparation of the employment and social policy aspects of the BEPGs and should be directly involved in the preparation of this European Council.

Point 3 of the Presidency’s Conclusions ( 1) following the session of the Council (Employment and Social Policy) of 8th May, 2000 is an appropriate framework for this which will allow these links to be strengthened. It provides that: