An Activating Social Security System

Convergence to the employment Lisbon targets requires absorbing large pools of long-term jobseekers, increasing labour force participation and dealing with a large informal sector, composed for the most of low-productivity jobs. The purpose of this paper is to review the main design features of an activating social security strategy reconciling higher participation to the labour market with the redistributive institutions characterising the European landscape. It is argued that EU supra-national authorities should confine themselves to promoting the exchange of information about best practices in welfare-to-work policies.