Revised version of the paper presented at the conference What future for Social Security? Cross-national and multi-disciplinary perspectives, 15-17 June 2000. Published in Clasen, J. (ed.), What Future for Social Security? Debates and reforms in national and cross-national perspective, pp. 87-100, The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 2001. Support has been provided by the Spanish Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología (CICYT) under the research programme, Exclusion and Integration in the Welfare State: The ‘safety net’ of social protection in Spain (SEC97-1377).The process of Europeanization implies a certain confluence of resources and outputs among the diverse regimes of social security. This is mainly due to structural constraints (social dumping and relocation of industries) and institutional inputs (sentences by European Court of Justice). This paper reflects on two processes under way, which are apparently antagonistic: (a) the adjustment of national systems of social protection to operate on rather similar European bases; and (b) the decentralization of ‘safety net’ policies at meso-level in order to favour territorial subsidiarity and the development of welfare cultures, traditions and values in the EU.Peer reviewed