At the turn of the 21st century, the European social policy marked a notable turning point in comparison to previous phases when it had concentrated efforts on achieving a rise in the blanket protection of the workforce. From the year 2000, in fact, with the introduction of the Lisbon Strategy, the main aim of the EU became to make the European labor market more flexible in order to raise both levels of employment and productivity, focusing on what is termed “decent work”, meaning jobs capable of expressing a higher level of added value in order to gain competitiveness in the global market.