Evidence gathered by Caritas Europa, a network of charities working with the most deprived, shows that the impact of austerity programmes in Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Romania has "disproportionately" hit the poor.
"Five years since the beginning of the crisis in 2008, there is little or no growth, there are ongoing massive increases in unemployment and millions of people are living in poverty," the Back our independent journalism by becoming a supporting memberGet EU news that matters