5.10pm:

A round-up of the day's events so far:

• Tens of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets across Europe as strikes and demonstrations have caused widespread disruption. The main action has come in Spain, Belgium and Greece, with trade unions arguing that countries' austerity measures will have devastating consequences for jobs.

• In Spain unions said 10 million people were on strike, although the government sought to play down the numbers. Flights in and out of the country have been severely disrupted, while trains and buses were also badly affected. The country has seen skirmishes in Getafe, while in Barcelona a police car was set on fire.

• Around 50,000 people took part in demonstrations in Brussels, some way short of the 100,000 expected. Demonstrators marched through the streets toward European Union buildings in bright red, green and blue labor union jackets, aiming to reinforce the impact of Spain's first nationwide strike in eight years.

• Strikes or protests have also taken place in Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Slovenia and Lithuania. In Dublin, a man rammed a cement mixer into the gates of the Irish parliament, in an apparent protest at the country's expensive bank bailout. Written across the truck's barrel in red letters were the words: "Toxic Bank Anglo."

4.29pm:

Photograph: Josep Lago/AFP/Getty Images

Reuters is reporting that in Spain – this picture shows a police car on fire in Barcelona – government and unions are giving "widely differing views" on the success of the strike in the country:

The two main unions said the strike was being heeded by 70 percent of employees and was a clear signal to the government to retract the reforms.

Labor Minister Celestino Corbacho declined to give an overall figure for strike participation, but said only 7 percent of civil servants had taken part and 20 percent of transport workers. But he acknowledged that energy consumption was down by 16 percent, levels typical of a Saturday.

4.10pm:

There might not be any strikes in France today, but that doesn't stop Nicholas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni getting a bashing.

Here's a snap of protesters in Belgium venting their fury at the French president and his lady wife through the medium of fancy dress.

Photograph: Thierry Roge/Reuters

This is Adam Gabbatt taking over from Matt, by the way.

3.35pm:

Trade Unionists from Britain have joined the protest in Brussels, according to the TUC.

It's general secretary Brendan Barber has also sent a message of support.

All across Europe governments have become obsessed with immediate deficit reduction and are embarking on cuts programmes of such magnitude that the fragile recovery of the continent's economies is threatened. Unions aren't asking governments to ignore the deficit, just to discard the timetable that demands deficit reduction now and instead to concentrate on boosting growth and jobs. We also need a fairer system of taxation so that Europe's economies can get back onto a firmer footing and avoid the risk of another recession. If there was ever a case why severe cuts in spending are not the answer we need look no further than across the Irish Sea where the spectre of a double-dip recession is looming large, and where despite huge cuts in spending, Ireland faces another austerity budget, its fourth in two years.

3.32pm:

The website of the Belgium newspaper Le Soir has a great photo gallery of today's protests in Brussels.

3.13pm:

Can a general strike really bring a country to a halt in the digital age? asks Giles Tremlett.



Spanish internet types doubt it, when everything from bank machines to online accounts and internet shopping can happily operate without personnel for a day.

Even newspapers that have not reached newsagents today can be read online, with El País providing a pdf edition.

For a strike to really work, internet companies would have to shut themselves down, they say. "We don't know of any hosting service that plans going on strike, and even if the workers in a digital company follow the strike, that doesn't prevent the company running its services," Spain's Internet Investors and Entrepenuers Association says.

3.01pm:

Ranjit Dhaliwal, one of our pictures editors, has just noticed that the faces of those policemen clashing with protesters below (2.08pm) have been disguised. He's trying to find out why the agency which supplied the pictured pixellated the faces (it goes against Guardian policy).

2.51pm:

More news of unrest and disruption in Spain, from AP.

In Getafe, a town outside Madrid, a police officer fired shots into the air to disperse protesters outside a factory, while in central Barcelona, students burned a police car and blocked streets with rubbish containers and officers fired rubber bullets, Corbacho said.

Four people were detained in the clashes. Spain's national carrier Iberia said it expected to operate only 35% of its scheduled flights. Ryanair said it canceled all its domestic flights in Spain and most international flights to and from the country. The protest left Madrid's Barajas aiport all but deserted of passengers. In the city, buses were extremely scarce but the subway appeared to be functioning almost as normal. Eight out ten of Spain's high-speed train trips were cancelled, all mid-distance were scrapped and only 25% of commuter trains were running. Garbage went uncollected in many areas Picketers roamed the streets of downtown Madrid, trying to go into offices with pamphlets explaining to workers why they should not work. At midday, a group of about 100 strikers blocked Madrid's Gran Via, a major commercial thoroughfare, and merchants shuttered their shops when picketers approached.

2.31pm:

The authorities in Madrid claimed that only 10% of public administration workers and 20% of transport workers are taking part in the strike, according to Reuters. The unions claim 10 million were on strike across Spain.

Financial analysts said the strike was unlikely to make the government reverse its plans to meet European Union deficit reduction targets, Reuters said. It is a point echoed in a blogpost in the Economist.



Markets will be convinced by Zapatero's belated conversion to reform only if he hits his deficit targets. More cuts, or higher taxes, may yet be needed. Strikes look like the least of Zapatero's worries.

2.08pm:

With protests taking place in so many places in Europe, it's difficult to gauge the scale demonstrations. Most of the reports of unrest have centred on various Spanish cities. They include this photograph of police breaking up a picket line in Santiago de Compostela, in north-west Spain.

Spanish police break up a picket line that had entered a shop in Santiago de Compostela, Spain Photograph: Lavandeira Jr/EPA

1.58pm:

Video footage of the aftermath of that "toxic bank" cement mixer being driven into Leinster House in Dublin, has emerged on YouTube.

1.49pm:

About 50,0000 have been taking part in demonstrations in Brussels, a police official told Reuters.

Here's are some extracts from its latest report.



"The main feeling of the people is that for the banking system there are millions and billions of euros, but the social payments are being cut. That's not right," said protester Ralf Kutkowski, a German coal miner The protest was led by a group dressed in black suits with black face masks, carrying umbrellas and briefcases, acting as the head of a funeral cortege mourning the death of Europe. In Spain unions said 10 million people, or more than half the workforce, were on strike. The government gave no numbers. In Slovenia, about half of public sector workers remained on strike for the third day against a planned wage freeze, causing jams at border crossings with non-EU Croatia.

1.26pm:

Here's another aerial-view video of the protests, but this time in the southern Spanish city of Huelva. The crowds seems to be bigger here than in Brussels.

1.08pm:

Giles Tremlett has more conflicting reports on the scale of the general strike in Spain.

It is difficult to judge the success of Spain's general strike. State schools and universities appear to have backed it massively. Other public sector workers have followed suit, with Granada's Alhambra palace complex closed to visitors. That is not surprising, as they all took a 5% pay cut earlier this year and will have wages frozen in 2011.

The private sector is harder to judge. Spanish newspapers such as El País and 20 Minutos report that a third of their own workers have stayed at home, while the metal industry says 60% to 70% stayed away from big factories. But a senior manager at a branch of department store chain El Corte Ingles in Madrid told me that all his workers turned up this morning. A lone General Workers Union picketer on one of Madrid's busier shopping streets admitted he did not have much chance of closing shops down.

Meanwhile Spain's business federation (CEOE) claims that, by turning today's protest into a general strike, unions have made the country into "an island within Europe". It says 95% of businesses are open.

1.06pm:

This video of protesters gathering in Brussels was filmed within the last hour. It shows several hundred demonstrators making a lot of noise. There is no sign yet of the 100,000 protesters, which organisers had predicted.

(This is Matthew Weaver taking over again. Thanks Mark)

12.47pm:

About 30 people have been arrested, the Spanish newspaper El Mundo reports, most of them in Madrid. Some have been released. Union officials have complained about "police brutality", the paper says.

12.28pm:

Mark Tran here taking over from Matt while he goes for his soup and sandwich. The BBC has a very useful summary on austerity measures in Europe, country by country. The entry for Spain reads:

The Spanish government has approved an austerity budget for 2011 which includes a tax rise for the rich and 8% spending cuts. Madrid has promised European counterparts to cut its deficit to 6% of its gross domestic product (GDP) next year, from 11.1% last year. Government workers face a pay cut of 5%, starting in June, and salaries will then be frozen for 2011. A tax rise of 1% will be applied to personal income above €120,000. Smaller savings include an end to a €2,500 cash payout for new mothers, known as "baby cheques".

The UK's deficit also comes in at around 11% of GDP.

12.09pm:

Giles Tremlett has spotted an interesting way of trying to gauge the strike's impact in Spain.

How do you measure the impact of a general strike on the economy, when unions exaggerate and employers lie? Electricity consumption is one of the best indicators. Spain's consumption can be followed live here. The green line (left) shows expected consumption for the day, while the yellow line shows what is actually happening. While consumption was down almost 20% earlier this morning, it is now down by 16%. This can be compared with overall consumption on a Sunday, which is 23% down on a working day, or a Saturday, which is 14% down.

Demonstrators try to prevent the departure of buses from the parking lot of the Madrid transport bus company during the general strike in Spain Photograph: Pedro Armestre/AFP/Getty Images

11.53am:

Our picture desk has put together a gallery of some of the images of the protests in Spain so far today.

AP has this round-up of the day of action.

Greek doctors and railway employees walked off the job, Spanish workers shut down trains and buses, and one man even rammed a cement truck into the Irish parliament to protest the country's enormous bank bailouts. Tens of thousands of demonstrators poured into Brussels, hoping to swell into a 100,000-strong march on European Union institutions later in the day and reinforce the impact of Spain's first nationwide strike in eight years. In Spain, Zapatero's Socialist government is under severe pressure because of the hugely unpopular measures put in place to save Europe's fourth-largest economy from a bailout like one that saved Greece from bankruptcy.

The cuts have helped Spain trim its central government deficit by half through July but the unemployment rate stands at 20%, and many businesses are struggling to survive. Whistle-blowing picketers blocked trucks from delivering produce at the main wholesale markets in Madrid and Barcelona. Strikers hurled eggs and screamed "scabs" at drivers trying to leave a city bus garage in Madrid. Greece, which had to be rescued by the euro-nations this spring to stave off bankruptcy, has also been forced to cut deep into workers' allowances, with weeks of bitter strikes and actions as a result. Bus and trolley drivers walked off the job for several hours while Athens' metro system and tram were to shut down at noon. National railway workers were also walking off the job at noon, disrupting rail connections across the country, while doctors at state hospitals were on a 24-hour strike. Greece has already been suffering from two weeks of protests by truck drivers who have made it difficult for businesses to get supplies. Many supermarkets are seeing shortages, while producers complain they are unable to export their goods. Last night lorry drivers continued their protests against plans to liberalise their tightly regulated profession, despite a government threat to force them back to work or cancel their licenses. In Dublin, a man rammed a cement mixer into the gates of the Irish parliament on Wednesday in an apparent protest at the country's catastrophically expensive bank bailout. Written across the truck's barrel in red letters were the words: "Toxic Bank Anglo."

11.34am:

This story puts Spain's austerity drive into context, according to Mark Tran. It says that the Spanish economy is about to lose it top credit rating



The decision appears to be imminent as Moody's put Spain's debt on review for a possible downgrade on 30 June, saying it would conclude its analysis within three months. It said then that it would take Spain several years to recover from the collapse of its property market, with GDP growth seen at slightly above 1% between 2010 and 2014. Moody's senior credit officer Steven Hess warned at the end of July that the country was likely to lose its top credit rating.

11.22am:

Ian Traynor has been testing the mood in Brussels before the rally later today.

Large parts of Brussels this morning are a bit like the city's car-free day a couple of weeks ago. Very pleasant and quiet. The trouble, the blast from the past in the form of Europe's insurgent working class, is due this afternoon. Calm before the storm? We will see.

In the European quarter, the barbed wire, barriers, emergency vehicles are already in place. There are mounted police, leaving the pavements outside EU headquarters smeared with horse manure. Not a few of the protesters will see an apt metaphor there.

Just east of the European quarter is the Cinquantenaire Park, Belgium's pompous if pleasant answer to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. It was built to mark the country's 50th birthday and its nasty imperial heyday (The Congo). This is where the rage is to be vented this afternoon. Strolling through on the way to the office, Miguel, a Spanish NGO worker, whinged mildly that he had to take a taxi across town because of public transport disruption. Could've been worse.

"I understand their point of view though I'm not protesting myself," he said. "In some respects I share their point of view. And the right to strike is a democratic right."

Right now, the park bears all the hallmarks of getting ready for a festival, rather than battening down for a riot. The three-piece band is warming up on-stage, an earsplitting melange of pop reggae and 80s stadium rock. The vans flogging the ubiquitous Belgian waffles and chips are getting ready.

The police, of course, are taking no chances. "Normally it should be a clean demonstration," an undercover Flemish detective says.

"But there's a hardcore of 150-200 people who might be trying to cause trouble. They're not from Belgium but they've been in Brussels for a week. They're quite aggressive. We are expecting them to get involved."

Teams of young men and women in ETUC anoraks are blowing up giant balloons with large heavy cylinders.

The bilingual posters in Belgium's Dutch and French proclaim "No to Austerity", "Against a Europe of Insecurity", "Priority to Jobs and Growth."

And across the forecourt in front of the stage arrive a group of head-scarved Muslim women on bikes, with their instructor teaching them how to cycle safely in Brussels.

11.10am:

Protesters in Dublin are preparing to meet between 1pm and 2pm outside the Dail, to mark the return of government after its summer break.

A flyer for the event [pdf] says: "Taking money out of the economy in a recession causes job losses. Pay and welfare cuts were imposed in last year's budget and the numbers out

of work have climbed steadily since. The next budget will just add to that number."

The Irish Times reports that the prime minister Brian Cowen is coming under pressure from Europe for detailed plan for getting Ireland's budget under control by 2014.

10.47am:

A man has been arrested in Dublin for driving a concrete mixer marked "Toxic Bank" into the gates of Leinster House. (Thanks to martianwarrior in the comments section below for a tip off about the story).

10.37am:

The day of action has taught me some new words in Spanish: huelga general (general strike), sindicatos (unions) and piquetes (pickets). They are all featuring heavily on Twitter in Spain, according to the Trendsmap.

10.17am:

Are today's protests a sign of things to come? James Shugg, senior economist at the bank Westpac thinks so, according to an explainer from CNN.

He said that as austerity begins to bite, as it has in Latvia, unrest will increase.

"Hospitals in rural areas were closed, pensions were cut, salaries were cut, basically mortality rates went up, more old people died in the winter because they couldn't afford to heat their homes. "You're actually starting to hear stories about people dying because of budget cuts there. That is the future for Greece, Portugal, Spain, and maybe to a lesser extent Italy as these cuts really start to bite."

9.58am:

Giles Tremlett describes the scene in Madrid today and the "divorce" between the Spanish unions and the Socialist prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. "He's been left with no choice after Spain ran into problems with its sovereign debt. He had to do what the markets wanted him to do," Giles tells me.

9.33am:

The airlines British Airways and Ryanair have cancelled a number of flights to and from Spain and Belgium today.

Flights to Barcelona, Madrid and Malaga were among the early-morning services BA had to cancel.

It also warned of disruption in Belgium and Luxembourg.

Ryanair, which had to scrap dozens of Spanish services, was also hit by the Belgian strike, with the Irish airline having to axe a number of services to and from Charleroi near Brussels.

9.30am:

My colleague Mark Tran has been scanning the Belgian press. He says Le Soir, is reporting that many flights in and out of Brussels have been cancelled or will be severely delayed because of strike action by air traffic controllers. European flights have been the most affected. Flights in and out of Liege and Charleroi have also been affected.

The paper also has a useful map of the route of the planned protest in Brussels today.

9.26am:

The European Trade Union Confederation has prepared a map of where it expects strikes and protests to take place today. It shows that action is planned in at least 14 countries across Europe.

Does this day of action represent the kind of "irresponsible strike" that Labour's new leader Ed Miliband condemned in his conference speech?

"I have no truck, and you should have no truck, with overblown rhetoric about waves of irresponsible strikes," he told delegates.

9.24am:

Giles Tremlett, our Madrid correspondent, says Spain's general strike has led to widespread disruption.

Spain's general strike kicked of this morning with uncollected rubbish piled up on the streets of Madrid, public transport reduced drastically, wholesale markets closed by union pickets and electricity consumption down.

Many large factories were closed but bakers, bars and banks were open in Madrid and traffic into major cities was intense, if lower than on normal working days.

Newspaper vendors in parts of Madrid had not received any papers, but said they also had not seen any union pickets.

Unions are already claiming 70% to 80% of workers have stayed at home, though the government says it will not give figures until this afternoon.

The Spanish strike differs from those around the rest of Europe as this is a general strike called by the two main trades unions, the General Workers Union (UGT) and the Workers Commissions (CC OO). It is only the fifth full-day general strike in 35 years.

Socialist prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has repeatedly said that he "respects" the trades unions and expects to start dialogue with them again tomorrow – though he will not shift on labour reform and austerity measures that have sparked the strike.

9.22am:

YouTube footage from Madrid last night shows the protests kicking off as shops began to board up in the Spanish capital.

9.01am:

Trade unions across Europe have launched a day of action against austerity measures that could herald a season of discontent across Europe.

"The cities of Europe are braced for scenes of protest, gridlock and mayhem," writes our Europe editor, Ian Traynor.

John Monks, general secretary of the European Trades Union Confederation, called for workers across the continent to take part in the protests.

"Fight for growth, fight for jobs, fight to protect social Europe. Don't go down the austerity route. That's our message come and join us," he said in a video address.

Brussels could see its biggest protest in years as disgruntled workers descend on European Union buildings to protest against the cuts. The unions are angry with European commission proposals that they say will penalise members states who run up deficits to fund welfare and jobs programmes.

The Brussels demonstration, which is expected to involve 100,000 workers, coincides with general strikes in Spain and Portugal and another wave of industrial action in Greece. Protests are also expected in Poland, Romania and Serbia.

In Spain the walkout disrupted deliveries to wholesale markets in Madrid and Barcelona this morning. Strikers hurled eggs and screamed "scabs" at drivers trying to leave a garage housing city buses in Madrid. It is Spain's first general strike since 2002 and marks a split in the close relationship between unions and Spain's Socialist government.

The strikes take place against a backdrop of cuts across Europe, forced on many government with high levels of debt.

Greece, which had to be rescued by a European bailout this spring on the condition of making hugely unpopular cuts in welfare provision, will see more protests today.

Transport workers are scheduled to stage a series of walkouts, with buses, trams, the Athens metro and national railway all halting services for several hours. Hospital doctors plan to hold a one-day strike, and unions are planning demonstrations in Athens tonight.

Earlier this month prime minister George Papandreou had a shoe thrown at him as 20,000 people took to the streets.