It covers employment, education, health care, housing policy,judicial protection,
culture and regional differences andit targets groups living in poverty or social exclusion. Itis part of the EU policy for fighting poverty and social exclusion. The EU member states are obliged to planmeasures related to this field. Individual strategic
directions are defined in recommendations for formulating national programmes that are transferred to
the member state policies using the open coordinationmethod. The EU implements the open coordinationmethod in relation to issues that are not binding on the