This book challenges the common view that social protection is exclusively a national concern, with European Union (EU) social policy fragmented and merely symbolic. Through eleven country studies, it reveals that EU-level developments increasingly interact with social protection in all countries – a remarkable transformation from ten years ago. Using the same thematic framework, the book systematically compares how Europeanisation of social protection differs across countries chosen to reflect increasing EU diversity. For each country, specialists in social protection evaluate the form and ex ... More

This book challenges the common view that social protection is exclusively a national concern, with European Union (EU) social policy fragmented and merely symbolic. Through eleven country studies, it reveals that EU-level developments increasingly interact with social protection in all countries – a remarkable transformation from ten years ago. Using the same thematic framework, the book systematically compares how Europeanisation of social protection differs across countries chosen to reflect increasing EU diversity. For each country, specialists in social protection evaluate the form and extent of Europeanisation, comparing national strategies with the European social model. They examine recent reforms and responses to EU initiatives, including the Lisbon strategy and the open method of coordination, the extension of the internal market to services, the Economic and Monetary Union, and EU enlargement. Differences in Europeanisation reflect not only different political legacies, but also different adjustment pressures in terms of national welfare regime and degree of competitiveness. The book brings together both new evidence and new perspectives of the changing patterns of social policy in Europe.