A/HRC/5/3 page 22 monitoring. They would contain commonly agreed EU indicators, national indicators based on commonly agreed definitions and assumptions and information better understood in the national context. 48. The Belgian Resource Centre For the Fight Against Poverty has conducted extensive research to refine the existing poverty indicators by involving those working in the field to combat poverty. Professor Nicaise from the Centre has emphasized in his communications with the independent expert, that a participatory process to eliminate conditions of social exclusion has been successfully initiated in Belgium. Mr. Nicaise highlights the fact that many of the grassroots organizations have agreed on a common method of operation based on principles of community development and poverty reduction and that dialogue groups , involving persons living in poverty and other stakeholders such as professionals, government agencies and other associations, have been set up. 49. Social protection systems are fairly well developed in the EU and they attempt to provide adequate coverage to at-risk-of poverty populations affected by unemployment, old age, ill health, inadequate income and parental responsibility. The member States are responsible for implementing and financing social protection programmes in their own countries. However, the EU coordinates these national social security schemes through EU legislation to ensure that persons may move freely within the region without adversely affecting their rights to social protection. It must be noted that the EU does not establish a common social security system for the region and allows the national security systems to operate on their own, so long as the basic principles of equality of treatment and non-discrimination are respected. 50. The EU has also been actively involved in the modernization of social protection systems in member countries. The Social Protection Committee established by the European Council after the Lisbon Summit in 2000, is mandated to work on policy challenges related to secure income, safe and sustainable pension systems, social inclusion and high quality health care. In March 2006, the European Council adopted a new framework for social inclusion and social protection which included the objectives of “ensuring access for all to the resources, rights and services needed for participation in society, preventing and addressing exclusion, and fighting all forms of discrimination leading to exclusion”. In 2005-2006, member States of the EU adopted legislative measures to incorporate the goals of the Lisbon Summit into their social protection systems. In 2005, the European Commission adopted the new Social Agenda 2005-2010, which focuses on two priority areas of action, employment and equal opportunities for all. In the 2005 and 2006 Joint Report on Social Protection and Social Inclusion, EU members pledged to develop policies in seven key priority areas as identified in the NAPS adopted by member States, namely, improving labour-market participation, modernizing social protection systems, tackling educational disadvantages, eliminating child poverty, improving housing standards, improving access to quality services and fighting discrimination and integrating ethnic minorities and immigrants.