Martin Potůček policy measures to combat poverty and social exclusion in 2002. The agenda of social inclusion was formally set up with the preparation and approval of this document by the representatives of the European Commission and the Czech Government in 2004(Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, 2004). The preparation and approval of the National Action Plan of Social Inclusion 2004­2006 followed suit(Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, 2005). The document sums up other valid and prepared policies, action plans, strategies, programmes and governmental decrees that have some relevance to the issue of social inclusion. The soft spot of the document is the lack of explicit goals, a poorly defined responsibility for implementation, and missing links to the budgetary process. Significantly, the Ministry of Finance did not participate in the preparation of this document.(Atkinson et al., 2005; Potůček, 2005). Active and passive labour market policies The Employment Act came into force as of the start of 1991. The state employment policy, in accordance with this Act, is towards achieving a balance between labour supply and demand, towards the productive utilisation of the workforce resources, and towards securing the rights of citizens to employment. This is interpreted as the right of those who want and are able to work and are actually engaged in the process of seeking employment. These people have the right to have work brokered for them in suitable positions, the right to re­qualification as needed for such work, and to material security before starting a job and in the event of losing employment. By 1990 a network of regional Labour Offices was created to administrate state employment policy in the regions. The relevance of the EU as a partner in employment policy making became visible only with the innovation of domestic employment policy making, which started at the end of the 1990s: the annual elaboration and implementation of the National Employment Action Plans, guided by the European Employment Strategy(Ministerstvo práce a sociálních věcí, 2004). Inspired by and in consultation with the Commission and applying various schemes proved to be effective in other countries, this EU activity represents an added value- even if the country, along with the other member states, still faces an unacceptably high level of unemployment. The state of preparation and implementation of the national documents' standards is not advanced, either: poorly defined goals and responsibilities, lack of programme evaluation, poor inter-sectoral coordination, and missing links to budgetary resources leave enough room for further improvements(Jabůrková and Mátl, 2006). 140