Coordonarea politicilor de protecþie socialã la nivelul uniunii europene: metoda deschisã de coordonare (mdc)
The coordination of social protection policies at the europen union level: the open method of coordination (omc)

Summary/Abstract: Set up at the Lisbon European Council of March 2000, the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) is a new instrument that supports the Member States in their reform efforts, while respecting their legal competences. OMC provides this framework of political coordination without legal constraints. This is a flexible and decentralised method, which involves: agreeing to common objectives which set out high-level, shared goals to underpin the entire process; agreeing to a set of common indicators, which show how progress towards these goals can be measured; preparing national strategic reports, in which Member States set out how they will plan policies over an agreed period to meet the common objectives; evaluating these strategies jointly with the European Commission (EC) and the Member States. Depending on the areas concerned, the OMC involves so-called „soft law” measures which are binding on the Member States in varying degrees but which never take the form of directives, regulations or decisions. Thus, in the context of the Lisbon strategy, the OMC requires the Member States to draw up national reform plans and to forward them to the Commission. However, youth policy does not entail the setting of targets, and it is up to the Member States to decide on objectives without the need for any European-level coordination of national action plans.

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