1. The new Social Agenda, adopted by the Commission on February
9, 2005, will cover the 2006-2010 period and will form the second
phase of a passage initiated at the European Council of Lisbon
in March 2000. In the Lisbon conclusions, at the end of the chapter
dedicated to the need to “modernize the European social
model investing in persons and building an active social state”,
the Employment and Social Affairs Council was charged with “launching
the works on the basis of a communication by the Commission in
the prospective of reaching an agreement on the European Social
Agenda at the European Council of Nice”.
2. The European Council of Nice (December 2000) thus adopted
the first European Social Agenda 2000-2005, which was intended,
within the framework drawn up in Lisbon, to realize a positive
and dynamic interaction between the economic, social and employment
policies, and to mobilize all participants for the attainment
of this strategic objective, underlining the twofold purpose of
social policy as a factor of competitiveness and solidarity.
3. The new Social Agenda is part of the framework of the medium-term
revision of the Lisbon strategy, with the objective of improving
the realization of actions provided for by the first Agenda, especially:
• guaranteeing an interaction of economic, employment and
social policies;
• promoting the quality of work and of industrial relations,
and to develop human capital;
• modernizing social protection systems.
4. It is useful to underline that the new Social Agenda:
• Accentuates the intergenerational approach: it provides
for a Green Paper which will analyze demographic changes of European
populations, and a European Youth Pact. This is in line with Italian
attention to demographic problems, to active maturing, and to
pension reforms;
• Provides for a Green Paper on labor law, with the objective
that it answer to the needs of a more modern labor market;
• Desires the simplification, modernization, and codification
of existent legislation in the matter of transfer of businesses
and collective work suspensions;
• Aims to the continuation of actions relating to the improvement
of mobility of workers;
• Determines 2006 as the European Year of Workers’
Mobility;
• Promotes the strengthening of the network of European
Employment Services (EURES);
• Provides for the continuation of modernization in the
regulation of coordination of the social security regimen.
