Studies

While it is true that these policies have allowed the country to get a handle on its finances, they have also exacerbated and multiplied social problems and triggered the second wave of emigration since Lithuania joined the EU.

Key words: labour market, employment, unemployment, active and passive labour market policy measures, social partners, social welfare reform, adaptation to the economic crisis.

Italy was severely hit by the global economic crisis in the second quarter of 2008. After showing tentative signs of recovery during 2010 and in early 2011, with the deepening sovereign debt crisis in some European countries and a growing lack of confidence towards Italy, a country with a high level of debt, the economy suffered another setback and has slipped into a new recession.

For the European institutions, the "Great Recession" officially began in March 2008, when the
word "crisis" first appeared in the Conclusions of the European Council (European Council, March
2008). In the four years since then, the European response to that crisis has not always been the
same; an analysis of European Union documents reveals at least three distinct stages.