The big recession has struck South European economies both hard and long and it is still far from reaching an end. South European welfare states are undergoing stringent pressures and tensions stemming both from within and from without. The need to comply with the objective of attaining budgetary balances has been conducive to severe cuts in public budgets and the adoption of retrenchment measures. Moreover, the protraction of the crisis is posing challenges for the ability of social protection programmes to act as anti-cyclical stabilizers. This panel assesses comparatively the processes of policy reforms in the fields of pensions and health care, the evolution of the welfare-mix, as well as challenges to existing patterns of government and governance.