Les modèles sociaux européens dans la tourmente : quel impact de la crise sur la pauvreté ?

We study the impact the current economic crisis has had on poverty in Europe. We focus on five countries, namely France, Germany, Spain, Sweden and the UK, each of them standing for a social model. Firstly, we observed the differences between models in terms of poverty and noted that in each country the strongest barrier against poverty remains employment. The economic downturn then increases the risk of poverty and challenges European models' capacity to contain that risk. We insist on the possible perverse effects of recent "activation" reforms on European labour markets given the lack of jobs in the current context. Secondly, we studied the way in which each country responded to the crisis and witnessed that activation principles are still called upon. However, it seems that social protection systems that were already at work before the crisis remain essential in the fight against poverty ; the measures implemented to face the crisis will only play a marginal role in this respect.