This report contains the second generation of National Action Plans against poverty and social exclusion which have been prepared by the Member States and constitute a strong political acknowledgement, three years after the Lisbon Summit, of the continuing challenge to ensure social inclusion across the European Union.

This supporting document complements the 2008 Joint Report on Social Protection and Social Inclusion with a more detailed account of the work carried out in the framework of the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) on social protection and social incusion in 2007.

The Treaty of Amsterdam committed EU member states to tackle social exclusion. This book aims to explore, from an inter-disciplinary perspective, the possibilities and limitations of the attempts by the EU to co-ordinate and 'Europeanize' member states' strategies and policies.

Recoge: 1. The demographic and socio-economic context - 2. Social cohesion in the EU and its interaction with economic and employment trends - 3. Monitoring progress towards the social inclusion objectives - 4. Monitoring progress towards the pension objectives - 5. Health, health care and long-term care - 6. Annexes.