With the international crisis and the launching of a new strategy (Europe 2020) for the period 2010-2020, a cycle of the European policy came to an end. Now, probably it is the right time to reflect upon the achievements of the Lisbon agenda. As regards the social dimension, although there exists an extensive literature, it mainly reflects upon the innovations in terms of governance (in particular on the Open Method of Coordination) and the process of Europeanization of social policies. Assessing the Lisbon Strategy using empirical data is generally performed by the European institutions, which do not base their reports on a thorough theoretical framework. Given the challenges, the debate about strategies to combine employment, social cohesion and competitiveness through the transition to a knowledge-intensive economy has gained momentum. Our paper discusses the concept of activation and the role of active labour market policies. On the other hand, due to differences between the contrasting models, we analyse the different activation models. Thereafter, we put forward the conceptual parameters of our own approach, arguing that this paradigm shift (from the provision of welfare to the provision of activation) was not inevitable, choosing a social model is the result of political choices and the power relationships between the different social actors. We make an extensive statistical analysis, using both measures of descriptive statistics and panel data econometrics (using data for the period 2000-2010). We draw several conclusions, namely: social cohesion has tended to decline slightly over the period (to minimum threshold that do not undermine the core of European Project); there is a convergence process underway in terms of social cohesion – countries with stronger social cohesion in 2000 worse their situation (slightly), and those worst ranked improve their situation; and, finally, the employment rate and the expenditure in social protection are the key variables to explain the variation in social cohesion.

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Lisbon Strategy,Europe 2020,European Social Model,Activation,Social Cohesion

• Economics and Business - Social Sciences