Europeans expect a more difficult and uncertain future than their parents, involving working longer for less, according to an opinion poll released Friday (17 May). Europeans now expect the next generation to have less ...

Experts in the EU Council, the member states' secretariat in Brussels, have questioned the legality of new cuts to EU officials' benefits. EU countries formally proposed the austerity measures at a meeting in Brussels ...

European Commission vice-president Viviane Reding has proposed to extend EU nationals' welfare rights despite a warning on "benefit tourism" by major EU countries. Ministers from Austria, Germany, Netherlands, and the ...

European Commission boss Jose Manuel Barroso called on EU leaders to come up with a package against youth unemployment at the June summit, promising that the EU executive would do its bit to "revive hope, especially for ...

EU social commissioner Laszlo Andor has asked Germany to raise its wages in order to boost consumption and help other countries in the eurozone to export more. A shift from budget cuts and austerity towards economic ...

The economic crisis is leading to a rise in the number of people being trafficked for sex, hard labour or organ donation, the EU commission said Monday (15 April,) but the vast majority of member states have failed to ...

EU austerity programmes are putting the bloc's social model under strain by isolating trade unions and employers, a report by the European Commission indicated Thursday (11 April). Launching the 300-page report on ' ...

Eurozone unemployment reached a record high of 12 percent in February with national statistics confirming the discrepancy between the more stable northern economies and the struggling southern ones. Figures released the ...

Together with a long-standing attachment to politics by summit, the EU is fond of acronyms. How else can you describe a world inhabited by QMV, Coreper and co-decision, not to mention trialogues, comitology and the ...

Rising unemployment, bleak economic prospects and continued austerity is making people question the benefits of the EU, Europe's top trade unionist has said. Speaking ahead of Thursday’s (14 March) EU summit, Bernadette ...

Beppe Grillo's extraordinary success in the recent Italian elections tapped into anti-establishment feeling that is ripe for the plucking in other member states too, say analysts. Grillo's 5-Star Movement, established ...

In recent years, cases of doctors who are guilty of malpractice and then migrate to other European countries to continue their practice have been causing public outrage. Now, the European Commission wants to install a ...

February 22 was a black Friday wherever you were in Europe. The morning brought the publication of dismal economic data to the effect that the eurozone will remain in recession in 2013. Then, at 10pm Brussels time as ...

The eurozone economy will shrink by a further 0.3 percent in 2013, the European Commission said Friday (22 February), revising down a more optimistic previous estimate that had predicted 0.1 percent growth for this year ...

“...There is still no date for the hearing, although I have been inquiring monthly in the last 8 months. I do not know anything about my case, I do not get any information. There are many victims in the same situation, ...

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has put further pressure on governments to create a pan-European youth guarantee scheme to tackle record levels of youth unemployment. The scheme aims to ensure EU ...

National governments should offer their under-25s a guarantee of work, training or full-time education, according to MEPs and the European Commission. Under the Youth Guarantee scheme backed by MEPs on Wednesday (16 ...

The economic crisis, which has stripped the social welfare rights of millions, is contributing to a widening poverty gap between member states, the European Commission has said. The worst affected are young people, ...

The economic crisis and its social impact is a major concern for most EU citizens, according to a survey published Thursday (20 December) by survey-group Eurobarometer. “The proportion of Europeans who say that the ...

Governments should tax property and consumption ahead of income according to the Commission's 2013 Annual Growth Survey published on Wednesday (28 November). Tax framework should be revised to provide "more incentive ...

First, the figures. There are some 30 million blind and partially sighted people in Europe, according to the European Blind Union (EBU), an umbrella organisation. Of them, some three quarters do not have a job. ...

Austerity measures are reversing the welfare, educational and societal gains made by disabled people in recent years, a new study shows. The findings are "most evident" in Greece, Ireland and Portugal - countries which ...

The EU executive published its legislative plans for the final 18 months of the current legislative term on Tuesday (23 October) but MEPs gave only qualified support for the paper. Announcing the programme during a ...

The eight countries which make a net contribution to the EU budget want to cut EU officials' pensions. The group - Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK - put forward its ideas ...

The Bulgarian region of Severozapaden, meaning "northwest," is the poorest in the EU. The people there have little over a quarter of the average purchasing power of people elsewhere in the Union. By contrast, those who ...

A European Parliament vote on the EU budget for 2013 and a multi-billion euro European Commission proposal to create more jobs dominate this week’s agenda. On Tuesday, the commission will unveil its so-called Connecting ...

Plans to re-write rules to restrict the right to strike were dropped by the European Commission on Tuesday (11 September) in the face of sustained criticism by national parliaments. Parliaments in 12 member states used ...

Doing business and working outside government regulation and tax systems in eastern Europe is so widespread that it risks undermining the region's long-term growth potential, says a World Bank report released on Monday ...

The European Commission has indicated it is going to delve further into the employment, social and education policies of member states as it seeks to tackle the job crisis in the EU. "We need to aim for an integrated EU ...

The rise in youth unemployment in some member states could pose a “serious threat to social cohesion,” the European Commission warned Friday (31 August). “EU institutions, governments and businesses and special partners ...

Greek youth unemployment figures released on Thursday (9 August) by the Hellenic Statistic Authority marked another record high at 54.9 percent in May compared to around 41 percent to the same period last year. “It is ...

The European Commission wants the European Investment Bank and member states to back stimulus measures on public works and infrastructure projects in a bid to kick-start the European economy. In a paper released earlier ...

We are now 7 billion people living on this planet. But populations are not growing everywhere. Most of the affluent countries are expected to face severe demographic challenges due to ageing and shrinking workforces. In ...

Europe should pursue an open-ended immigration labour policy to help tackle the economic crisis and ensure its working age population is maintained, according to a report presented by the Paris-based economic club the ...

William E. Kennard's day can range from speaking at a seminar on trans-Atlantic relations, to offering advice to young congress staffers at lunch or picking up an award at a black tie do. He told EUobserver that ...

A draft EU law governing the right to strike is set to be reviewed after complaints by national law-makers that the issue is best dealt with nationally. The so-called Monti II law which attempts to clarify the balance ...

US leader Barack Obama has effectively taken France's side against Germany in the EU debate on the financial crisis. Speaking to press in off-the-cuff remarks after a Nato summit in Chicago on Monday (21 May), he ...

The European Commission launched a €4 million pilot project on Monday (21 May) to help 5,000 young people find jobs in other EU countries. With youth unemployment twice as high as the EU average, the initiative aims to ...

A pilot phase for European infrastructure projects - part of plans to kickstart growth in Europe - is expected to be agreed ahead of a mid-week meeting of EU leaders in Brussels where jobs and the economy take top ...

The EU commission on Friday (11 May) confirmed earlier predictions that the eurozone economy will contract by 0.3 percent this year, with worsening forecasts for Greece, Spain and the Netherlands. In its so-called ...

EU austerity measures are helping to feed racism and intolerance, according to a report by the Strasbourg-based human rights watchdog, the Council of Europe. In its annual survey out on Thursday (3 May), the council's ...

There was more grim news for the 17-nation eurozone on Wednesday (2 May) as new figures showed that the unemployment rate reached 10.9 percent in March with a further 169,000 people losing their jobs compared to ...

Demonstrations linked to the Occupy movement have been announced in Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona and London for International Workers' Day on (Tuesday) 1 May. The European Trade Unions' Confederation (ETUC) said it ...

MEPs have backed changes to working conditions for EU officials designed to save over €1 billion a year and to improve ethical standards. The legal affairs committee in Brussels on Tuesday (25 April) voted through the ...

“Discipline must be accompanied by convergence and responsibility must be matched by solidarity", European Commission President Barroso said on Wednesday (18 April) during his address at the European Parliament's ...

The European Commission on Wednesday (18 April) published an ideas paper to get Europe's record number of unemployed into jobs and boost growth, including setting an appropriate minimum wage and shaming member states ...

The EU will on Thursday (19 April) present proposals on how to get Europe back to work and increase economic growth. Some 10.8 percent of the eurozone population is unemployed - a record high since the euro was ...

Prime Minister Enda Kenny says voting in favour of the fiscal compact treaty on 31 May will secure Ireland's role in the eurozone and give the country access to the EU's long term bailout fund, the ESM. Others, such as ...

Eurozone unemployment reached 10.8 percent in February, the highest level since the currency was introduced in 1999, according to the latest Eurostat data. The statistics office estimated that more than 17.1 million men ...