Lo scritto riprende ed amplia l’intervento svolto in occasione del convegno “La democrazia sociale: nuovi rischi nella trasformazione globale”, tenutosi a Milano il 16 giugno 2025.

The paper analyses the state of social policies in the European Union, arguing that in spite of the good achievements of the last Von Der Leyen presidency, serious shortcomings remain in the measures of social protection and of contrast to inequalities.
These policy weaknesses contribute to erode the support of citizens to the European institutions and to foster the economic and political nationalisms which are growing in Europe.
The new political composition of the European Parliament and of the commission risks to cause a rollback of the European social acquis, as shown by the recent proposals of the commission concerning the simplifications of many social regulations.
The paper argues for the necessity to prevent the reduction of the basic social protections and underlines the need to reinforce some major policy issues: measures to contrast poverty, beginning with minimum income, support to firms and employees during the economic transitions, control of the use of artificial intelligence in employment, full participation of workers in the major enterprise policies, enhancing the recent agreement on the promotion of social dialogue.