This article analyses the rise and consolidation of neoliberalism in the European Union and highlights the neoliberalization of its social and employment policies with reference to member states and accession candidates. It focuses on two different cases in terms of status, Greece and Turkey, and scrutinizes their historical specificities and class formations in a comparative manner. The aim is to demonstrate that transformations in their economic policies and labour market structures are compatible with a neoliberal strategy. From this analysis, it emerges that Turkey’s social and employment policies are more closely aligned with those of the European Union, and neoliberalism is more firmly consolidated, than in Greece. This is confirmed by evidence of the asymmetry in the impact of the economic crisis on the Greek and Turkish economies, and contrasts in the scope of recovery policies.