Abstract

The socio-economic and financial crisis, which is affecting Europe since 2008, is spreading its influence to all European Union member countries. However, as the welfare models are different, the consequences could also be different. Therefore, in this paper we try to make an assessment of this diversity with the following aims: to analyze the weakening of European Welfare States, using as models the Central European (represented by German, Spain and Sweden); and to make a comparison between these three countries, belonging to disparate socioeconomic models. For this we have used a methodological triangulation from the analysis of three elements: semi-structured in-depth interviews (29) to experts in the three contexts under study; Analysis of official data from secondary sources; documentary review of paper related to the topic. The results, which show disparities between countries, have been grouped into four categories: (1) the lack of effective social policies; (2) adaptation strategies; (3) prominent factors in the three contexts -focusing on employment/unemployment-; and (4) the protective ability -changes in the swedish system-.