# Council Decision of 4 October 2004 establishing a Social Protection Committee and repealing Decision 2000/436/EC (2004/689/EC), Introduction: Introductory text

Extent: E+W+S+N.I.

Council Decision
of 4 October 2004
establishing a Social Protection Committee and repealing Decision 2000/436/EC
(2004/689/EC)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 144 thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament,
Whereas:
(1)
In its Communication ‘A Concerted Strategy for modernising social protection’ of 14 July 1999 the Commission made suggestions for the enhancement of cooperation in the field of social protection by, among other things, setting up a group of high-level officials.
(2)
In its Resolution of 16 February 2000, the European Parliament welcomed the Commission's communication and the creation of such a group.
(3)
In its Conclusions of 17 December 1999 on the strengthening of cooperation for modernising and improving social protection, the Council supported the Commission's proposal to establish a mechanism for enhanced cooperation, brought about by the work of the group of high-level officials, for the implementation of this action. The Council stressed that this kind of cooperation should cover all forms of social protection and, where necessary, help the Member States to improve and strengthen their social protection systems in accordance with their national priorities. It also recalled the competence of the Member States for the organisation and financing of social protection and endorsed the four broad objectives within the overall challenge of modernising social protection systems as identified by the Commission: namely to make work pay and provide secure income, to make pensions safe and pension systems sustainable, to promote social inclusion and to ensure high quality and sustainable health care; it also underlined that equality between women and men must be mainstreamed in all activities aiming at these four objectives. Finally, the Council recognised that the aspects relating to finance are common to all the objectives.
(4)
The Conclusions of the Lisbon European Council on 23 and 24 March 2000 acknowledged the importance of social protection in further developing and modernising an active and dynamic welfare state in Europe, and called upon the Council to strengthen cooperation between Member States by exchanging experiences and best practice on the basis of improved information networks.
(5)
At Nice and at its subsequent meetings, the European Council has regularly endorsed the work done by the Social Protection Committee in promoting the Community policy exchange on social protection.
(6)
The Social Protection Committee set up by Council Decision 2000/436/EC of 29 June 2000 has clearly demonstrated its utility as an advisory body for both the Council and the Commission and has contributed actively to the development of the Open Method of Coordination, as established in the Lisbon European Council.
(7)
Following the entry into force of the Treaty of Nice on 1 February 2003, a Social Protection Committee with additional tasks should replace the existing Committee of the same name, in order to permit the work already done by the latter to be continued. Decision 2000/436/EC should therefore be repealed as from the date on which the new Social Protection Committee takes up its functions,
HAS DECIDED AS FOLLOWS:

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eudn/2004/689/introduction (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/eu-decision-2004-689/introduction
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.