Abstract. Common EU social policy does not presuppose considerable redistribution of financial wealth the way it takes place in Europe in national formats. At the supranational level we mostly observe legal regulation of the social sphere, which is subordinated to the aims of market integration. This article sums up the state of the EU social policy in the post-crisis period, when the European Social Model (combining a social state and a particular system of employment relations) came under attack. Support for the sustainability of the European Monetary Union, sought through implementation of financial stability, came to the forefront in the European discourse of the 2010s. It is likely to demand a decrease in social standards, acting as the main shock absorber against the possibility of future monetary upsets. The idea of social investments and plans for development of social dimension of Economic and Monetary Union, including social dialogue, envisage an alternative way for the survival of the ESM.