Tracing the historical process that, with the Lisbon Treaty, has at last led to the affirmation of an explicit guarantee of fundamental social RPS rights at the level of the European Union, the author reflects on the limits of a protection that is essentially entrusted to the maieutic properties of the so-called «dialogue between the Courts», in the absence of an adequate strategy of European social policy, and underlines, on the other hand, the need for a fresh political drive, and in this sense of a «re-politicization» of the social questions that the present dramatic crisis has once again placed at the centre of public debate in the member nations.only subscribers can see the full article