The measurement of poverty and social exclusion is analytically and operationally relevant at all levels of policymaking. Here our focus is on national governments making policy in a global or multinational context such as the European Union (EU). In this process, social indicators are playing a growing role, and we need to stand back and examine their construction and use. In this paper, we argue on the basis of EU experience for a principle-based approach and explore the possible architecture of indicators of poverty and social exclusion in a multinational context. We consider the implementation of a set of indicators and their contribution to the policy process. (Contains 1 figure and 11 footnotes.)