L 314/8 Official Journal of the European Union 13.10.2004 II (Acts whose publication is not obligatory) COUNCIL COUNCIL DECISION of 4 October 2004 establishing a Social Protection Committee and repealing Decision 2000/436/EC (2004/689EC) THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 144 thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission, Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament ('), Whereas: (1) In its Communication ‘A Concerted Strategy for moder- nising social protection’ of 14 July 1999 the Commission made suggestions for the enhancement of cooperation in the field of social protection by, among other things, @ setting up a group of high-level officials. (20  In its Resolution of 16 February 2000, the European Parliament welcomed the Commission’s communication and the creation of such a group. () (3 In its Conclusions of 17 December 1999 on the strengthening of cooperation for modernising and (") Opinion delivered on 10 February 2004 (not yet published in the improving social protection (), the Council supported the Commission’s proposal to establish a mechanism for enhanced cooperation, brought about by the work of the group of high-level officials, for the implementation of this action. The Council stressed that this kind of cooperation should cover all forms of social protection and, where necessary, help the Member States to improve and strengthen their social protection systems in accordance with their national priorities. It also recalled the competence of the Member States for the organi- sation and financing of social protection and endorsed the four broad objectives within the overall challenge of modernising social protection systems as identified by the Commission: namely to make work pay and provide secure income, to make pensions safe and pension systems sustainable, to promote social inclusion and to ensure high quality and sustainable health care; it also underlined that equality between women and men must be mainstreamed in all activities aiming at these four objectives. Finally, the Council recognised that the aspects relating to finance are common to all the objectives. The Conclusions of the Lisbon European Council on 23 and 24 March 2000 acknowledged the importance of social protection in further developing and modernising an active and dynamic welfare state in Europe, and called upon the Council to strengthen cooperation between Member States by exchanging experiences and best practice on the basis of improved information networks. At Nice and at its subsequent meetings, the European Council has regularly endorsed the work done by the Social Protection Committee in promoting the Community policy exchange on social protection. Official Journal). (® OJ C 8, 12.1.2000, p. 7.