10
3. The Open method of co-ordination (OMC) regarding old-age security
During the Lisbon Summit in March 2000 the EU decided on the strategic aim to become “the
most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable
economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion”27. The ‘open method of
co-ordination’ (OMC) was established as one tool to reach this ambitious goal. The conclusions of
the Lisbon Council stipulate that the OMC is a decentralised but carefully co-ordinated process as
a means of spreading best-practice and achieving greater convergence towards EU goals. The
OMC is supposed to help member states to develop their own national social policies.28 The whole
process involves the following four elements:
• “fixing guidelines for the Union combined with specific timetables for achieving the goals
which they set in the short, medium and long terms;
• establishing, where appropriate, quantitative and qualitative indicators and benchmarks
against the best in the world and tailored to the needs of different Member States and sectors
as a means of comparing best-practice;
• translating these European guidelines into national and regional policies by setting specific
targets and adopting measures, taking into account national and regional differences;
• periodic monitoring, evaluation and peer review organised as mutual learning processes”29.
A key component of the OMC is its decentralised approach in which various actors, especially the
European Commission and the member states, have an active function with regard to the principle
of subsidiarity as implemented in article 5 EC-Treaty of Amsterdam. The conception of the OMC
implies a high importance for a supranational exchange of information, experiences and views.
The OMC is supposed to reach a higher level of transparency concerning necessary reform meas-
ures through an intensified political co-operation between member states in the Council of the EU.
By this means the OMC is supposed to be conducive to the convergence of the different old-age
security systems. In view of the European Council, a necessity for the usage of this method in
social policy respectively old-age security policy is rooted in the common problems and develop-
ments - especially the ageing of the European population due to demographic reasons - within the
EU member states that (could) constitute a potential disadvantage with regard to the increasing
intensification of global competition.30 Moreover, the (official) aim of the OMC does explicitly
not consist in the legal and/or formal harmonisation of European old-age security systems by the
27
28
29
30
European Council (2000: 2).
Cf. Gesellschaft für Versicherungswissenschaft und -gestaltung e.V. (2001: 9 ff.).
European Council (2000: 12).
Cf. European Council (2001: 1).