ABSTRACT
The European commitment to the themes of poverty and social exclusion may have led to some advancement in the delineation of a European social policy. Before establishing the link between social policy and the concepts of poverty and social exclusion one should consider the status of social policy in the European Union (EU). Policy analysts now claim that individuals' security depends less on protection from threats to male breadwinning and more on the capacity to confront problems and adapt successfully to challenges over the life course or challenges arising from unstable labour markets. The inadequacy of existing provisions, as testified by enduring and multidimensional situations of unemployment, poverty, deprivation and social exclusion, have prompted the EU to put social policy issues more explicitly on its agenda. The Lisbon Summit carried the commitment of the EU to poverty and social exclusion issues one step further by instigating the Social Inclusion Process for combating social exclusion and eradicating poverty by 2010.
