The European Union coordinates and encourages Member State actions to combat poverty, and to reform their social protection systems on the basis of policy exchanges and mutual learning ('best practices'). This paper analyses the effectiveness of welfare state policies and especially social...

The European Union coordinates and encourages Member State actions to combat poverty, and to reform their social protection systems on the basis of policy exchanges and mutual learning (‘best practices'). Some EU countries are more effective in poverty reduction than others. What can explain...

In 2000, the European Council set its sights on becoming the world’s top knowledge-based economy. To that end, they aimed to achieve a goal of spending 3% of GDP on research and development by 2010. Their Lisbon Strategy recommended a number of efforts on the European Union and national...