This book, deriving from an independent report produced in the context of the Luxembourg Presidency of the European Council in the first half of 2005, provides a detailed analysis of the current state of the EU Social Inclusion Process and makes suggestions for moving towards evidence-based policies and improving the policy impact of the process. The book is aimed at ‘the many people who will be active and interested in the future implementation of the (social inclusion) process’ (p. xx), seeking ‘a diverse readership’ (p. 14) including the European Commission, Member States, NGOs, and the social science research community. The authors, described on the back cover as ‘informed outsiders’, have produced a comprehensive, readable and reasoned text, which, whilst more descriptive than analytical, offers something of a definitive guide to the principles, practices and policy implications of the European Union's commitment to challenging poverty and social exclusion. The authors deserve praise for steering readers through the maze that is the EU social inclusion process, up until the latest developments in June 2006, in a way that allows for a more objective engagement with the issues.

Chapter 2 provides an historical overview of EU cooperation in social policy, tracing the major initiatives from the mid-1970s to the late 1990s. Most of the chapter is devoted to the EU Lisbon Strategy outlined in March 2000, which the authors see as the first time that ‘social policy has truly become a specific focus of attention for EU cooperation’ (p. 17). The authors do not discuss the fact that the refocusing of the Lisbon strategy on growth and jobs, agreed in March 2005, may further de-link and marginalise social policy from economic and employment goals. They choose instead, within a self-stated value position of ‘cautious optimism’, to focus on how to take up the EU social challenges within the new EU governance context.

In Chapter 3, the authors demonstrate what can be learnt about poverty and social exclusion in the different Member States from the existing common EU social indicators. The chapter shows the diversity of rates of poverty risk, itself not greatly affected by enlargement, and the variability of country performance across various EU poverty and social exclusion indicators. The correlations between levels of social expenditure and poverty rates is demonstrated, at least in terms of their being no EU country that has managed to attain low or moderate poverty rates without significant social spending.

Chapter 4 provides a valuable overview of the need to strengthen policy analysis in the various reports produced both by the EU and the member states and, in particular, to clarify and strengthen the understanding of the link between policies and outcomes. A review of the existing literature on the strengths and weaknesses of model family analysis and of micro-simulation models is presented, useful in terms of alerting policy makers to these tools. The text notes, but does not give sufficient attention to, some of the problems with the indicators, including the failure to incorporate fully the effects of inter-household distribution, in terms of both age and gender, and intra-household distribution, especially in countries where the extended family remains important, on poverty and social exclusion. The call to develop more holistic policy analysis tools linking policies themselves, vulnerable groups, and indicators is well made, and merits greater elaboration.

Chapter 5 focuses on the EU social indicators, providing an overview of their evolution and suggesting improvements that can be made in the light of new realities and in order to enhance their policy relevance. The elaboration of the new EU-SILC data set, and of the new approach to the measurement of household income in this context, is illuminating as is a discussion of trends in the context of enlargement. The chapter makes the case for greater use of non-monetary indicators under the broad concept of deprivation. Chapter 6 presents recommendations for taking the EU social inclusion process forward, which argues for the further development of policy monitoring and assessment tools (at EU, national and sub-national levels); the setting of quantified targets, as well as the restructuring of the main reporting instrument; countries' National Action Plans on Social Inclusion, in terms of the holistic approach to strategic and evidence-based policies advocated throughout the book.

A major strength of the book is its emphasis on new perspectives for research and policy development. The way in which the issue of child mainstreaming is highlighted throughout the text both as an example of what could be done, and as a major focus for a renewed EU social model, is particularly helpful. What is lacking, at least for this reader, is a theoretical analysis of the nature of the social dimension of the EU and a discussion of the political constraints it is faced with, especially since the refocusing of the Lisbon Strategy. The book could also have provided more recommendations on how to strengthen the active participation in EU processes by groups in civil society, including people experiencing poverty and social exclusion. Overall, the book offers a description of current realities, and seeks to persuade key stakeholders of the need for incremental change by analysing the challenges ahead and suggesting possible responses to them. In this sense, the book performs a valuable service in covering so much ground so thoroughly.