This book focuses on the effects of welfare state arrangements on the dynamics of poverty in Europe. The author contends that the EU is primarily based on economic integration and as a result social policy issues have remained secondary considerations. The question of whether or not there is a role for the EU to play in social policy is answered in Didier Fouarge's investigation of the constructive and restrictive characteristics of subsidiarity. Using long-running panel data from three distinctive EU welfare states (the Netherlands, Germany and Great Britain), as well as data from the...