A programme of activities set up to provide sustainable growth in Europe, with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion.
The European Social Agenda was introduced at the EU Summit in Lisbon 2000. The so-called Lisbon-process - which also introduced the Open Coordination Method - aims to make the EU the most competitive and knowledge based economy in the world by 2010.
The methods proposed to achieve this are target-setting and benchmarking.
The future
Several members of the Convention pushed for the inclusion of the so-called Open Coordination Method as a decision-making method, but a direct reference was rejected.
Instead the principles behind the method has been included as a possible way of cooperating with some policy areas in the EU Constitution.
Links
http://europa.eu.int/comm/empl......ct/socpolag/20_21_conf_en.html
http://europa.eu.int/comm/empl......y_agenda/social_pol_ag_en.html