Challenges to European Welfare Systems

Thisbook provides the first comprehensive analyses of the challenges all Europeanwelfare systems have been facing since 2007, combining in-depth country-basedstudies and comparative chapters. It focuses on: 1) the economic and financialcrisis, 2) demographic change, and 3) the balance between avoiding risks andopening up opportunities in social policy. The results show that Europeanwelfare systems tend to face the same challenges in different ways and thatalso their responses to those challenges differ considerably. Although the EUalso plays a part in shaping national welfare systems, it becomes evident thatEuropean welfare systems are by no means converging: in terms of social policy,national diversity within Europe is still a major factor that will shape futuredevelopments in European welfare systems.