Greece is the EU Member State most impacted by the 2009 financial crisis (Giannitsis and Zografakis, 2015), given that there were neither primary social safety nets for those unable to meet their needs through market or family settings, nor supplementary policies in case of specific needs (Amitsis, 2015). The national social protection model was strongly fragmented, and public spending was focused on civil servants’ salaries and state pensions.Gaps in the development of the rudimentary national welfare schemes (cash benefits, care and integration services for persons at high risk of poverty and social exclusion) could not be addressed within the context of the EU Social Inclusion Strategy, as part of the EU 2020 Strategy, due to certain legal and operational barriers of the hybrid European social welfare discourse (Heidenreich and Zeitlin, 2009; De la Porte 2017: 141), strongly influenced by the subsidiarity principle/model of social protection within the EU.