ABSTRACT
To sum up, while Portugal has showed more success in the approximation of social protection expenditure to EU standards as a percentage of GDP, Spain continues to show a higher intensity of protection (per capita expenditure on social protection) than that of Portugal, although no significant effort in approximation to EU standards may be ascertained. From the financing point of view, the Spanish welfare state still relies heavily on employers’ contributions, whereas the Portuguese one has come to use a large proportion of public revenues for the financing of social policy.
