Plevneliev argued that his country - whose prime minister resigned last month - had the internal budgetary resource to deal with unemployment and improve the social situation in general.

He called his country “an island of fiscal discipline”, with a deficit in 2012 of 0.5% and a planned deficit for 2013 at 1.3%.

“If you have a deficit like this, you could do some social policies and some employment policies … Within the budget, there is a smart option to do more for social policies,” he said.

Kartika Liotard is a Dutch MEP with the European United Left / Nordic Green Left group.

"When I was still a law student in the Netherlands and had just received my driver's licence but didn't have even a quarter of the cash to buy myself a new car, I purchased a scrap Volkswagen Beetle. Proudly, I started it up one day only to watch it fleetingly sputter, and then die. Clearly not ready to say goodbye to my first car, I gathered my courage and screw drivers and fixed my Beetle all by myself.

The new scheme, to be introduced by each EU country according to its individual need, will apply to young people who are out of work for more than four months. It aims to give them a real chance to further their education, or get a job, apprenticeship or traineeship.

The retirement age is being debated in the Swedish parliament ahead of an expected pension reform package in April.

In its proposal, the government wants to give people the right to remain at work until 69 instead of the current 67 cut-off age. Meanwhile, the right to early retirement would be delayed by two years, to 63. 

However, Reinfeldt said in several interviews over the weekend that Sweden must consider taking the step even further by raising the retirement age to 75.

Ska Keller is a Green MEP and Terry Reintke is spokesperson of the Federation of Young European Greens. Together with others, they have launched the web-based project www.youthincrisis.eu.

"To be young in the European Union is currently not a pleasure. Instead of opportunities and open doors awaiting you, the risk of ending up unemployed, dependent on your parents and without prospects is high.

British new media reported that new documents would be introduced to make it harder for Bulgarians and Romanians, who will be free to settle in the UK after January 2014, to obtain social benefits.

On Monday (25 February), the Home Office published a new price list for the documents it issues, including “European Residence Documents”. Its price from 6 April will be £55.

Giuseppe Porcaro is the secretary-general of the European Youth Forum.

"Young people in Europe are living in a context of ever greater political and social uncertainty. Europe’s weakening economy is disproportionately affecting its youth. Unemployment has reached almost epic proportions across the EU, with one in five young people in the labour market unable to find a job.

Some 7 million people work in the European digital sector, which creates around 120,000 new jobs every year, but women comprise 30% of the workforce and many of them are in junior roles.

The European Commission will use the survey to launch an attempt to reverse this trend and to encourage young people, particularly women, to take up an ICT-related career.

“My motto, my dream, my bumper sticker is to get every European digital and my ambition is to get more women into ICT,” said Neelie Kroes, the EU's Digital Agenda Commissioner.

Klaus Busch, Christoph Hermann, Karl Hinrichs and Thorsten Schulten work at the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.

The harsh austerity measures that, according to official policy, are supposed to overcome the euro crisis have once again plunged Europe into recession in 2012.

Austerity policy has proved – in Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain (GIPS) – to be primarily an attack on wages, social services and public ownership.