ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the ongoing debate about the rationale and functions underpinning the engagement with social policy in the Lisbon strategy, as well as the political factors underlying the process. It explores that detailed assessments of the impacts of Lisbon strategy on social policy outcomes at the national level across three different groups of countries related with the European Union (EU). The chapter provides assessments of the repercussions of the global financial crisis on social policy outcomes, and how their theoretical viewpoints contribute to understanding multiple dimensions of European integration. It also analyses the pension reforms in a group of continental European countries, where hitherto earnings related public pension schemes played a predominant role in pension provision. The chapter points out to the internationalization of the poverty regime in low to middle income countries including Turkey.
