On the convergence of social protection systems in the European Union

Member states of the European Union are autonomous when it comes to the design of their social protection systems. However, they are committed by a Recommendation accepted by the European Council addressing the convergence of social protection objectives and policies. Beside that, it is expected that convergence of social protection systems could come about as a result of economic integration. In this paper we have examined whether such convergence has occurred during the past decades, using data on replacement rates and social expenditure ratios. We find a rather strong trend of relative convergence, but it does not follow that this trend is the result of the European integration.