An Assessment of the Implementation of the Lisbon Strategy in the EU : 9783639458114 : 12 Nov 2012 : Europe is facing the challenges of internationalised competition and demographic change. In order to cope with the new conditions globalization presents, most countries seek to reform their labour markets and thus their social security systems. The European Union concretes itself to the cause of assisting its member states in this task through combining employers' demand for more flexibility in corporate personnel planning and employees' request for a secured subsistence. The keyword flexicurity conjoins these two requirements. The move towards flexicurity configurations has to entail compensations for workers' higher risks of job loss and introduce tenure tracks to the labour market, preventing the development of dual labour market structures. Altered forms of employment and people's claims towards work, such as compatibility of family and career, raise several issues. They compete wit