This article examines the impact that the economic crisis has had on pension systems and how it has influenced the development of pension policies in the EU, and particularly in Spain. It is divided into two parts. The first one focuses on the main challenges currently faced by pension systems in Europe – the threat of ageing populations and its implications for the long-term sustainability of public finances – and the process of pension reform that originally started a long decade ago, and that has in recent years gained intensity due to the economic crisis. As an illustration of the intensity of this process, the second part specifically deals with the latest pension reform trajectory in Spain critically examined from a legal and constitutional perspective. [---]