EEC Working Paper, No 129. http://www.cee-recherche.fr/fr/c_pub3.htm Employment policies have had to deal with the crisis after several years of reforms, including the development of activation measures, incentives to work, and the search for trade-offs between making the labour market more flexible and securing trajectories (“flexicurity”). These trends had been observed in most EU countries and partly stimulated by the European Employment Strategy since 1997, although differences between national models remain significant. However, the economic downturn in 2007 resulted in a very rapid deterioration in the labour market situation in some countries, with a sharp rise in unemployment, concentrated in particular on young and low-skilled men. In response to this situation, the responses of employment policies appear ambiguous. They are broadly in line with previous reforms, and in particular in the context of the “activation” of employment policies, which continues through institutional reforms of labour market intermediaries, as well as reflection on incentives to work. However, countries also use, on the one hand, tools to protect employment by increasing internal flexibility (in particular short-time work) and, on the other hand, short-term income support policies with no counterpart. These adjustments may have made it possible to limit the worsening of the labour market situation, particularly in continental countries, and also lead to the reintroduction of debates which seemed to be forgotten (on labour sharing, minimum wages), particularly in the new Member States of the European Union. However, the recent reversal (first half of 2010) of economic policies towards rigorous plans risks jeopardising these developments or even jeopardising the virtuous models of the last decade, such as Denmark.