European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has announced that a political deal on the EU's hotly contested seven-year budget has been struck. He said that the deal on the 2014-2020 budget was reached between member states and European Parliament leaders. The 960 billion euro budget cuts real spending for the first time. The 2014-2020 budget was agreed at a summit in February but its ratification had been blocked by the parliament.Speaking in Brussels as EU leaders gathered for a summit, Mr Barroso said the deal would speed up spending on youth employment. Nearly a quarter of people aged 18 to 25 in the EU have no jobs, while in Greece and Spain it is more than half.Amid widespread resistance to the ongoing austerity measures in the eurozone, trade unions in Portugal began a 24-hour strike yesterday. Public transport crawled to a halt as a result of the action by unions representing more than a million workers.