BRUSSELS — In Greece, taxes are up and so is the age of retirement. In Spain, civil servants have taken pay cuts. In Britain, spending on welfare, the military and education could be chopped by a quarter.

Despite mounting public protests across the Continent, an austerity drive unparalleled in modern, united Europe is building.

In Brussels, meanwhile, the bureaucracy that runs the European Union is haggling over how much to increase next year’s budget.

In 2011, the European Union will pour billions more euros into the Continent’s regions for infrastructure and other projects. Spending on justice and security is set to rise sharply, while even purely administrative costs are expected to increase by more than 4 percent.