Fine Gael’s policy of continuing austerity is expected to get a boost from Brussels today when recommendations on member states’ budgets for next year are rolled out.

Europe correspondent, Ann Cahill, delivers her weekly briefing on Euro affairs from the European Parliament.

More than half the days employees take off work are due to stress, mostly in the workplace, while fear of losing a job has increased the levels.

Irish households have lost a sixth of their disposable income due to government changes to benefits and taxes over the past five years, according to an EU study.

The European Commission’s assessment of our economy makes for sobering if not dispiriting reading.

Ireland’s unemployment rate is better than the eurozone average for the first time since 2008, according to the latest figures released by Eurostat, the European Commission’s data service.

The Government has been allocated over €63m by the EU to help with its youth employment initiative and is expected to double that amount with money it receives from the Social Fund.

British threats to deprive EU workers of allowances, including child benefit, would hit Irish families worst after the Poles, according to the latest available figures.

The EU has sought to calm fears in countries such as Britain, France, and Germany that they face a mass influx of Romanians and Bulgarians following the lifting of restrictions, a change that risks fuelling anti-immigrant sentiment in Europe.

The EU is to investigate Germany’s economic policies, including its massive export surplus, with Berlin warned that it had better co-operate or risk undermining the credibility of the economic oversight it fought so hard to impose.

Eurozone inflation dropped sharply to nearly four-year lows in October and unemployment stuck at record highs in September, increasing pressure on the European Central Bank to do more to protect economic recovery.

The latest eurozone unemployment figures, showing an increase of 1m more people out of work, has caused global alarm.

One step forward on tackling poverty

Employment was flat in both the eurozone and EU28 in July with the percentage of young people out of work continuing to rise.

Ireland had one of the biggest increases in employment in the EU in the last number of months, but the eurozone generally saw a drop in employment.

There is a greater risk of social and unemployment crisis among countries in the eurozone than those outside it, and this threatens to undermine the euro itself, warns employment and social affairs commissioner László Andor.

Our treatment of Roma and Travellers is under the spotlight across Europe and needs to be improved, says Ronnie Fay

Emily O’Reilly eyes up EU ombudsman role

One in 10 of Ireland’s workforce is working in another EU country, putting the Irish well ahead of the Poles and Lithuanians and reflecting the ongoing emigration.

There is no evidence that migrant workers within the EU are taking jobs from nationals of the country they move to, the European Commission claimed today.

Footing the bill of the Cypriot bailout

The euro fell against the majority of its 16 most-traded peers as a report showed unemployment in the eurozone climbed to a record in February, adding to concerns that the economy will struggle to emerge from recession.

The eurozone economy has passed another bleak milestone with official figures showing unemployment across its 17 countries has hit 12% for the first time since the currency was launched in 1999.

Almost two in five children are at risk of poverty in Ireland, despite the country still ranking among the three wealthiest in the EU.

Ireland has the highest proportion of children in jobless households in the EU, and they are threatened with a poverty-filled future as austerity damages their prospects, a report has said.

All shareholders must work together to tackle the EU’s long-term youth unemployment crisis, writes Rolf Dorig

A total of €2.6m has been offered to the Government by the EU to help put 432 redundant workers from call centre, TalkTalk, back to work.

A scheme to guarantee everyone under 25 work, training or an educational opportunity within six months of coming on the jobs market could cut social welfare costs considerably, according to the EU.

Despite the rising numbers of unemployed throughout Europe, there is a shortage of workers in many countries and in many skills — and a revamped jobseeker network aims to help bridge the gap.

Too much austerity is being prescribed in the current crisis and a better way must be found to ensure growth, the European Commission’s employment and social affairs commissioner, László Andor, has said.

Just 560 former Dell workers found work again despite more than €13m of EU and state funds being spent on them.

Up to two-thirds of young men are now out of work in some of the country’s main urban centres, adding to the growing bill for social welfare payments and threatening the country’s recovery.

The battle lines between France and Germany were last night threatening to scupper an outline for fiscal, banking, and political union in return for joint responsibility for debt that is aimed at restoring some market confidence in the eurozone.

When Irish finance ministers are smiling

Diesel exemption from carbon tax upheld

The EU jobless rate is at an all-time high, the European Commission warned today.

A case involving an Irish company where Polish workers at a €5bn nuclear plant construction site were exploited has inspired a change in EU legislation.

Ireland was one of just four EU countries with tax on low-incomes at under 30%, and was an example for others countries on how tax could be used to help create employment and fight against poverty.

Irish pensioners are projected to suffer the biggest fall in the real value of their occupational pensions in the EU over the next few decades, according to European Commission figures.

ONE-IN-FIVE young Irish people aged 15 to 25 years are not in work, education or training, the third highest proportion in the EU.

A RECESSION is now very likely in the EU next year, and the outcome of last week’s summit is unlikely to change this, according to Laszlo Andor, Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion.

The President of the European Council has said a new EU treaty might not be needed to put tighter fiscal rules into action.

THE Government has just seven months in which to spend the latest money approved under the European Globalisation Fund.

DESPITE Ireland’s dire economic state, more than 90% of its people say they are happy with their lives, and more than half say they are in fact very satisfied.