(Reuters) - French unions staged a nationwide day of action on Thursday to denounce the government's economic policies and call for more measures to help consumers. The global financial crisis has sparked protests in many parts of Europe this year: BOSNIA -- Bosnia's Muslim-Croat parliament cancelled a session on Feb. 26 rather than confront protesters complaining about plans to cut benefits to narrow a big budget gap. BRITAIN -- British workers held a series of protests at power plants against the use of foreign contractors on critical energy sites. They voted to end strikes on Feb. 5 after French oil group Total agreed to hire more British workers at its Lindsey oil refinery. BULGARIA -- Hundreds of workers at Bulgaria's Kremikovtzi steel mill protested on March 9 over planned lay-offs and unpaid salaries, demanding the Socialist-led government find a buyer for the insolvent plant. -- Thousands of police officers marched in Sofia on March 15 to demand a 50 percent wage rise and better working conditions. CZECH REPUBLIC -- Thousands of farmers from the Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia and Poland marched through Prague on March 12 to demand higher milk prices and subsidies to boost incomes hit by the economic crisis. FRANCE -- Protesters took to the streets of France on Thursday in a second round of strikes and rallies called to denounce President Nicolas Sarkozy's handling of the economic crisis. Up to 2.5 million people demonstrated around France on Jan. 29 over pay and job protection. On March 5, unions and authorities signed a deal to end a six-week general strike over wages and prices that had paralysed France's Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. A union leader was killed, and shops were burned and looted in the protests. -- Thousands of workers marched in France's Indian Ocean territory La Reunion on March 5 and March 10 in a campaign of strikes and protests to push for wage increases.

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