(The Aectu jjork Elmo January 10, 2013 Europe's Debt Crisis: No Relief on the Horizon European Union officials have struggled to turn things around — debating new treaties, shoring up banks, securing more funding. Looking ahead to 2013, the European Commission offered nothing close to good news: "The economic and employment outlook is bleak." — Text by Suzanne Daley When the economic crisis erupted in 2008, many Europeans assumed they were facing a couple of bad years. But the crisis, now in its fifth year, seems to go on and on, using up unemployment benefits, eating through savings accounts and dashing dreams of an easy retirement. Over the past year, the countries hit hardest by the crisis — Greece, Spain, Portugal and Ireland — have struggled to bring down their debts. They have raised taxes, laid off workers, reduced services and have begun charging for medical care that had been free for decades. Each country had its own formula. But they were joined in the misery of trying to make do on less — and then even less. No amount of cutting seemed to be enough. Businesses continued to fail at a rapid pace. Even many of those Europeans who thought they were safe lost their jobs. Those who had work saw their salaries reduced. Parents watched their children fly off to other countries looking for employment — or welcomed them back into their childhood rooms because they were losing their homes to foreclosure. Spain Spain abandoned housing projects, where rotted, waist-high weeds sprouted from cracks in the sidewalks. Soup kitchens strained to feed all who arrived. A growing number of people have turned to scavenging outside supermarkets and wholesale food distribution centers looking for edible throwaways. One Spanish town, Girona, found the practice such a health risk that it issued an ordinance to lock the city's garbage bins. Spain continued to wrestle with the collapse of its housing boom. Its banks tried yet again to get a handle on their t