Council Conclusions on access to services by people at risk of poverty or social exclusion, including Roma

On 2 December the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council adopted the Council Conclusions elaborated under the Hungarian EU Presidency on improving access to services to promote the social inclusion of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion, including Roma, by reducing territorial inequalities.

The conclusions encourage EU countries to ensure that all citizens, including Roma, have equal access to quality enabling services and to employment services.

They set out a range of potential measures addressed to Member States, to the European Commission and to the Social Protection Committee and the Employment Committee, to achieve this aim.

Member States

1.Promote the coherence, effectiveness and embeddedness of their regional development strategies and their local and micro-regional social inclusion policies, with particular emphasis on people at risk of poverty or social exclusion, including Roma, with the aim of ensuring equal access to quality enabling services and employment services for all, regardless of where people live, by:

supporting the preparation and implementation of place-based strategies or action plans, including, where relevant, territorial desegregation measures, and maintaining or gaining the necessary capacities and expertise for the development of those strategies or plans, for example by issuing guidelines;
ensuring adequate or strengthening existing multi-level governance and well-established consultation and participation mechanisms, enabling those working at different levels of government in all relevant sectors to collaborate in policy planning, implementation and evaluation, as well as to coordinate and mutually reinforce their interventions and adapt them, based on high-quality, timely and reliable data disaggregated by sex and age, to the local/micro-regional needs of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion, including Roma. Stakeholders such as civil society, representatives of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion, including Roma, organisations and experts working for social inclusion, social economy entities and the social partners, in line with their role and autonomy, should be involved in the consultation mechanisms;
supporting the territorial cooperation of local authorities, municipalities and territorial entities (including, where relevant, in cross-border and transnational contexts), so that the challenges in access to quality enabling services and employment services can be tackled through the more efficient use of available resources;
improving the identification and mapping of disadvantaged or residentially segregated territories (municipalities and/or parts of municipalities) where a high share of the population is living in poverty or experiencing social exclusion. This can be based, for instance, on an appropriate mix of social and economic indicators disaggregated by sex and age (e.g. including employment rate, level of income, material deprivation, education, training and skills, healthcare, housing, transport, or where relevant, indicators on persons with migrant background etc.);
Improving the knowledge and expertise among the relevant staff of service providers by raising awareness and offering training on equal treatment and combating discrimination.
supporting, with the use of existing EU and national funds, integrated local/ microregional developments that respond to complex challenges in disadvantaged or residentially segregated territories.
paying attention to the different characteristics of rural and urban areas, and making even more effective use of the opportunities provided by existing tools, such as community-led planning or social planning, including in developments aimed at the social inclusion of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion, including Roma.
making best use of all available funding, while ensuring complementarities and integrated approaches, as well as the long-term sustainability of the results.
regularly monitoring and evaluating the impact of the developments and funds used for social inclusion.

2. Pay attention to the territorial aspects of improving access to quality enabling services and employment services, and to tackling territorial inequalities that hinder social inclusion. As a possible means to this end, Member States could:

support integrated measures that combine developments in the field of employment, social inclusion, housing, health and long-term care and childcare, education and training to address the needs of members of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion, including Roma with a particular focus on young people, as well as women and where relevant persons with a migrant background;
make use of digital technology, including electronic public services, with a view to improving equality of access. In order to meet the needs of persons who face barriers to the use of online services, continue to ensure adequate provision of non-digital services and the availability of public transport;
support access to digital technologies for people at risk of poverty or social exclusion, including Roma, by developing infrastructure to improve internet connections and by taking concrete measures to improve digital skills, thereby reducing digital exclusion;
use the opportunities provided by digital technology to reduce disadvantages related to skills, particularly in peripheral and remote areas; and
involve the non-public sector in the design and delivery of service to promote social inclusion.

Member States and the European Commission

Ensure that community and place-based policies foster regional development while reducing internal disparities including spatial segregation and exclusion and supporting access to relevant services. Strengthening cooperation between relevant policy areas and between all levels of governance, ensuring gender mainstreaming as well as taking into consideration the specific needs of people living in the same disadvantaged territory (such as the needs of children or persons with disabilities) are also key factors in order to ensure that social inclusion aspects are well reflected and mainstreamed in regional, rural and urban development.
Strive to pursue a territorial approach and to assess the effectiveness of developments from a territorial perspective in national and EU-level reports on and evaluations of the implementation of national strategic frameworks, including for improving the situation of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion, including Roma, and their access to services.

European Commission

Consider the significance of the reduction of territorial inequalities in the new action plan on the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights and in the upcoming EU antipoverty strategy.
Consider reviewing the voluntary European Quality Framework for social services jointly with the Social Protection Committee, and in this context, consider the potential of social services for reducing territorial inequalities and the use of digitalisation to improve access to quality enabling services and employment services.

Social Protection Committee and Employment Committee

The Council Conclusions invite the Social Protection Committee and the Employment Committee, in accordance with their respective competences, to:

Consider the feasibility and the added value of improving the relevant EU social indicators, to support the Member States’ efforts in identifying disadvantaged territories, improving access to quality enabling services and employment services as well as monitoring developments targeting disadvantaged territories, while taking into account existing indicators and data disaggregated by sex and age.
Initiate and encourage, in cooperation with the Commission, knowledge sharing and exchanges of best practice between Member States, on a voluntary basis, as regards identifying, measuring and managing territorial inequalities including through local and placebased strategies and action plans based on high-quality data and evidence in order to support Member States in their national analytical efforts.