The involvement of local and regional authorities in the social inclusion strand of the open method of coordination (OMC)

The purpose of this file note is to assess the impact of recent developments within the social inclusion strand of the "social OMC", in particular, the adoption of the Europe 2020 strategy and the setting up of a quantitative target of reducing poverty by 25% (20m people) by 2020, and the establishment of a new flagship initiative to achieve this aim, the European Platform against Poverty (EPAP). EPAP was set up in conjunction with the 2010 European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion. The paper explains that a key challenge for the Platform is to build shared ownership by developing more systematic dialogue with a wider set of key stakeholders, particularly at regional and local levels so as to strengthen multi-level governance.