36. Following the Working Groups on Economic Governance and Simplification, both of which recommended conferring constitutional status on the open method of coordination, the Group returned to this matter.

37. The open method of coordination was established by the European Council held in Lisbon on 23 and 24 March 2000. It is a new form of coordination of national policies consisting of the Member States, at their own initiative or at the initiative of the Commission, defining collectively, within the respect of national and regional diversities, objectives and indicators in a specific area, and allowing those Member States, on the basis of national reports, to improve their knowledge, to develop exchanges of information, views, expertise and practices, and to promote, further to agreed objectives, innovative approaches which could possibly lead to guidelines or recommendations.

38. In Lisbon, the European Council extended the method incorporated in the Title on Employment of the TEC to other areas, such as the information society and research policy, enterprise policy, education and vocational training policy, combating social exclusion and social protection.

39. An empirical approach has been used to develop and adapt this method to the specific characteristics of each field of action. The method is therefore applied in different ways to different areas, with an ad hoc procedure being worked out each time. That is why we sometimes speak of open methods of coordination, in the plural.

40. The Group welcomed the usefulness and efficiency of the method, which enables Member States to create synergies within the Union in order to deal with matters of common interest together.

41. Although some members expressed doubts, most members requested the insertion into the Treaty of a horizontal provision defining the open method of coordination and its procedure, and specifying that the method can be applied only where no Union legislative competence is enshrined in the Treaty and in areas other than those where the coordination of national policies is governed by a special provision of the Treaty defining such coordination (in economic matters (Article 99) and in the area of employment (Article 128), in particular). Indeed, unlike the open method of coordination, the coordination procedures enshrined in the Treaty are compulsory and enable the Union institutions to make recommendations to Member States and even to impose sanctions on Member States which do not respect the line jointly adopted. The open method of coordination could nevertheless be applied to areas where coordination of national policies is provided for in the Treaty, but where the detailed arrangements are not laid down, such as trans-European networks (Article 155 TEC), enterprise policy (Article 157 TEC) and research and technological development (Article 165 TEC).

42. The Treaty provision on the open method of coordination should be embodied in the Constitutional Treaty, within the Chapter on Union instruments which constitute non- legislative measures. This provision should define the aims of the open method of coordination and the basic elements to be applied. These would include the identification of common objectives, establishing a timetable for action as well as, where appropriate, outcome indicators making it possible to assess whether national actions are able to achieve the objectives, and facilitating exchanges of experience between Member States. The precise nature of any Open Method of Coordination procedure would be guided by the nature of the issue involved, rather than be specified in detail in the Treaty.

43. At the same time, the scope and limits of the method would need to be specified by indicating that the open method of coordination is an instrument for achieving the Union's objectives; that the instrument can be implemented only where the Union does not have legislative competence, and where Union competence in the area of sectoral coordination is not enshrined in the Treaty (Articles 99, 104 and 128) or where the Union has competence only for defining minimum rules, in order to go beyond these rules. The open method of coordination constitutes an instrument which supplements legislative action by the Union, but which can under no circumstances replace it. It enables the Union to support and supplement Member States' actions.

44. While allowing for the flexibility of the instrument to be retained, incorporation of the open method of coordination in the Treaty would improve its transparency and democratic character, and clarify its procedure by designating the actors and their respective roles.

45. The method would in principle be implemented each time by a decision of the Member States meeting within the Council on the basis of the Conclusions of the European Council on the initiative of the European Commission , with notification of the European Parliament. National parliaments and regional or local authorities could be consulted during implementation, as could the social partners when the open method of coordination is applied to the social field. Civil society could possibly be consulted when the matter under coordination lends itself to that. The Commission would be responsible for analysing and evaluating the action plans. The outcome of the Commission's analysis could be discussed within the European Parliament and national parliaments. The Commission would have the power to make recommendations to Member States' governments and to inform national parliaments directly of their opinions in order to trigger a "peer review" procedure and to a national debate, the aim being to allow Member States, within the Union framework, to set themselves common objectives while retaining national flexibility in their implementation.

46. Although some members of the Working Group wished to include into the Constitutional Treaty not only the method, but also the list of subjects to which the open method of coordination could be applied, a consensus emerged against such a list.

47. Some areas to which the method could be applied were mentioned in the Group, such as education, tax harmonisation and the establishment of minimum social standards. Members of the Group thought social protection and inclusion was particularly well suited to this approach, and considered that a specific reference as to how the open method could be applied in this case could be inserted into the Constitution, building on the description of the role and functioning of the Social Protection Committee (as established under article 144 of the Nice Treaty).