The article concerns the most important determinants and challenges of social policy in Poland. They include the social and economic transformation, the economic crisis, demographic changes and Europeanization. They enforce rationalization of expenses, adjustment of the solutions to the existing economic and financial possibilities of the State, as well as consideration of the present and the future population age structure. Europeanization made it possible, on the one hand, to benfit from the EU resources dedicated to the development of social infrastructure. On the other hand, a real challenge is to avoid the negative consequences of the economic crisis and of depopulation.