This paper focuses on the regulatory paradigms to promote activation trajectories within the EU Social Inclusion Strategy, developed in line with the European Employment Strategy as a means to strengthen social cohesion and justice in Europe. These paradigms set the legal and operational trajectories of a European
social activation discourse, strongly influenced by the subsidiarity principle / model of social protection within the European welfare regime. The paper will deal with the institutional status of the European social activation discourse (a fundamental challenge of national Welfare states), discussing the performance of existing instruments in both primary and secondary European law (i.e. Treaties, Council legislation and Commission Communications) as well as new non-binding governance methods developed under the Lisbon process (i.e. Open Method of Coordination). It will also address issues about the ‘judicial empowerment’ of the discourse, presenting scenarios on the future development of hard and soft law paradigms within the revised EU Social Protection and Social Inclusion Agenda (i.e. activation rights and responsibilities for individuals, activation principles, objectives and Standards for national social policy makers).