SAirGroup (formerly Swissair) was responsible for the bankruptcy of Sabena in November 2001, a Belgian court ruled, although it ordered a much lower payment than the claimants had sought, ATWOnline reported. It said the Swiss group, which held a 49.5% stake in the Belgian flag carrier, did not respect an August 2001 agreement to provide 60% of a €430 million ($589.4 million) cash injection needed to keep Sabena in business. The court ordered SAirGroup to pay Sabena’s creditors, its liquidator and the Belgian state €18.3 million in provisional damages.

The founders of Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products NV, once a global leader in speech-recognition technology, were found guilty by a Belgian court of fraud violations in the accounting scandal that led to the company's downfall a decade ago, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Jo Lernout and Pol Hauspie were each given sentences of five years, of which they were expected to serve three, a court spokesman said. Six other defendants in the case, including L&H's former chief executive, were also convicted.

Truvo Group's unsecured creditors say the European directory publisher's proposed plan to hand control of the company to its senior lenders is a "sham," Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. In papers filed Thursday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, the creditors allege that the Chapter 11 filing by Truvo USA and four other holding companies at the top of Truvo Group's corporate structure is a scheme to sever unsecured bondholders' liens against the company's operating assets and push through a debt-for-equity swap with secured lenders.

The European Commission Thursday cleared the €1.5 billion recapitalization given by Belgium to the insurance company Ethias for the company's restructuring, Dow Jones reported. The Commission concluded that Ethias' restructuring plan will restore the company's viability, without distorting competition due to the state support. In order to participate in the costs of the restructuring, Ethias will sell or wind down its retail life insurance business and a number of other assets, the Commission said. The insurer ran into severe difficulties in 2008 in the wake of the financial crisis.

Nationalised Dutch bank ABN Amro forecast more than €1 billion in second-quarter charges today, offsetting profitable results from both its units in the first quarter, The Irish Times reported. The Dutch government nationalised the local operations of former Belgian concern Fortis in October 2008, including both banks, amid a liquidity crisis. It has spent more than €26 billion on the nationalisation and subsequent support, making it one of the world's costliest rescues due to the credit crisis.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed a proposal to set up a European lender of last resort, saying that the European Union’s ability to act as a bloc is on the line over the Greek financial crisis, Bloomberg reported. “Our instruments are not sufficient,” Merkel told members of the foreign press association in Berlin today. “The European Union must be able to respond to the challenges of the moment.” Merkel was speaking after officials in Berlin and Brussels said European leaders are in talks to establish what may become the European Monetary Fund and limits on credit-default swaps.

Tens of thousands of Greeks took to the streets Wednesday as much of the country went on a 24-hour strike against government austerity measures, The Wall Street Journal reported. Public- and private-sector unions called the strike to protest a range of measures aimed at reducing Greece's budget deficit. The government has announced a freeze on civil-service wages, cuts in public-sector entitlements and the closing of tax loopholes for certain professions, including some civil servants. It has also announced a fuel-tax increase.

Workers at General Motors Co.'s European arm, Adam Opel GmbH, produced a list of demands Tuesday for managers, aimed at minimizing job losses as the business undergoes a mammoth restructuring, Dow Jones reported. Members of the European Metalworkers' Federation and affiliated unions in Belgium, Germany, Austria, Spain, the Netherlands and the U.K. gathered in Brussels to coordinate a response to measures drawn up by management to reduce a crippling overcapacity. Leading German trade unionist Klaus Franz complained at a lack of communication from GM. "There have been no discussions," he said.

Greece should lose voting privileges in the European Union if it gets a bailout from the 27-nation bloc, said the head of the business caucus of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, BusinessWeek reported on a Bloomberg story. As one of the EU’s 27 members, Greece would be able to block demands accompanying a rescue if the conditions are “too tough,” Kurt Lauk, the head of the CDU’s Economic Council, said.

European leaders said they wouldn't let Greece succumb to its credit crisis, in an unprecedented pledge of support that could push the 16 countries that share the euro currency closer to collective responsibility for their budgets and debts, The Wall Street Journal reported. Countries belonging to the euro "will take determined and coordinated action, if needed, to safeguard financial stability in the euro area as a whole," leaders of the European Union declared at a summit in Brussels on Thursday, after discussing Greece's budget crisis.