This report has been commissioned by the European Commission, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, under the service contract signed with IRS- Istituto per la Ricerca Sociale in association with The Tavistock Institute, The Research Institute for Quality of Life and The Rehabilitation Foundation.

With the creation of the Lisbon strategy the EU triggered a process that interconnects social protection and social inclusion policies (based on OMC Social Protection Social Inclusion) with those for employment and growth: “the interaction between the OMC and the revised Lisbon process should be a dual one – social protection and inclusion policies should support growth and employment objectives, and growth and employment objectives should support social objectives” .

The main objective of this evaluation was to assess the support ESF during the 2000-2006 programming period provided to the SPSI OMC at four levels: objectives, interventions, stakeholders/ target groups and indicators.