The PROGRESS programme

Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion

The PROGRESS programme is a financial instrument supporting the development and coordination of EU policy in the following five areas:

• Employment
• Social inclusion and social protection
• Working conditions
• Anti-discrimination
• Gender equality

PROGRESS is open to:

• EU countries
• Candidate countries and potential candidate countries
• EFTA/EEA countries (Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein)

PROGRESS's ultimate objective is to help achieve the goals of the Europe 2020 Strategy.

3 intermediate objectives – milestones towards this goal:

1. Effective application of EU rules on worker protection and equality
   Promoting better standards of inspection, monitoring and enforcement by EU countries and reviewing how EU legislation has been applied
2. Shared understanding and ownership of EU objectives
   EU countries have agreed to common guidelines and goals to inform, coordinate and strengthen national-level reforms
3. Effective partnerships
   Involving stakeholders throughout the policy process: problem definition, information gathering, consultation, development of options, decision-making, implementation and evaluation

5 immediate objectives – met throughout the process:

1. Effective information sharing and learning
   EU and national policy- and decision-makers and stakeholders together identify best practice, and assessment tools to help improve policy-making, implementation processes and outcomes
2. Evidence-based EU policies and legislation
   Providing high-quality comparative policy research and analysis, collecting information that is relevant, credible and accurate in the interest of stakeholders
3. Integration of cross-cutting issues and consistency
   Incorporating equality issues (such as gender and disability) into all policy sections and activities and collecting data on gender participation when relevant
4. Greater capacity of national and EU networks
   Investing in the capacity of national and EU networks to participate in and influence decision-making and policy implementation at EU and national level.
5. High-quality and participatory policy debate
   Ensuring there is productive debate at EU and national levels on law, policies and objectives, including all those affected

For more information visit ec.europa.eu/progress