Armstrong's exploration of EU interventions to combat poverty and social exclusion addresses the changing constitutional, policy and governance context in which these interventions have occurred. It traces the impact of debates surrounding the Lisbon Treaty and the Lisbon Strategy in framing the possibilities and limits of EU action. Drawing on primary documentary material, on interviews with key actors and on a wide range of academic literature, this study offers a socio-legal account of the successes and failures of a decade of EU policy coordination.

Utilizing the conceptual and theoretical tools associated with institutionalist analysis and experimental governance to develop the discussion of Europeanization, the book will be of value not only to scholars working on EU policymaking but also to those interested in changing patterns of public authority in the social sphere more generally.