The Commission has called for citizen's opinions on Progress, EU's employment and social solidarity programme. The cuestionaire can be filled on line at the website of the Directorate General of Employment, Social Affairs and Public Opportunities.

Progress is the EU’s employment and social solidarity programme, set up to provide financial support for the attainment of the European Union’s objectives in employment, social affairs and equal opportunities as set out in the Social Agenda. In line with the Lisbon Strategy its mission is to support the Member States in delivering more and better jobs and a more cohesive society.

The Community Programme for Employment and Social Solidarity – Progress (2007-2013) was launched in 2007 and will run until 2013. This single programme replaces the four previous ones which ended in 2006, in a move to rationalise and streamline EU funding. It supports policy development and its delivery in five separate, yet closely interlinked, policy sections:

• Employment.
• Social protection and social inclusion.
• Working conditions.
• Anti-discrimination.
• Gender equality.

PROGRESS is strongly committed to results-based management, which is the continuous measurement of the programme’s achievements towards its objectives, reporting and taking action to fine-tune the programme in order to improve its performance. The performance monitoring framework relies on a variety of monitoring information sources, among them - a special survey of those who directly or indirectly benefit from the programme.

This Internet-based survey has been designed to collect data on the performance of the Progress programme in 2009. It is executed on behalf of the Commission by the external contractor, and it can be completed by 22 January 2009.