Germany’s banks are facing an even tougher outlook thanks to a combination of negative interest rates and a slowing domestic economy, the Bundesbank and rating agency Moody’s warned on Thursday.

Germany has long stood accused of being the main obstacle on the road to complete Europe’s monetary union. Yet, after a constructive proposal from Finance Minister Olaf Scholz over the creation of some form of joint deposit insurance, it is hard to treat Berlin as the grudger-in-chief of the euro region, a Bloomberg View reported. In fact, Italy could soon become a bigger hurdle on the way to a stronger and safer single currency. Italy has traditionally been a strong supporter of the European project.

PizzaExpress Ltd.’s Chinese owner is set to become one of its biggest individual creditors, giving it a stronger hand in any battle to overhaul the struggling U.K. restaurant chain, Bloomberg News reported. Hony Capital, the private equity group that bought PizzaExpress in 2014, has secured a controlling majority of its unsecured bonds, according to a document seen by Bloomberg.

Loss-making Norwegian Air has appointed Jacob Schram as chief executive to take charge of the budget carrier’s restructuring as it struggles with a low-cost, long-haul model in an overcrowded industry, Reuters reported. Schram, who does not have a background in aviation, joins Norwegian from management consulting company McKinsey and was previously a top executive in the petrol retail industry, Norwegian’s board said on Wednesday.

Brussels has warned France and Italy that they are running stubbornly high levels of public debt, meaning their future budgets risk breaching EU rules and alarming investors, the Financial Times reported. The European Commission on Wednesday published its opinion on the 2020 draft spending plans of all eurozone member states.

Italy’s fractious government may try to delay an agreed-upon plan to overhaul Europe’s bailout fund, throwing efforts to shore up the institutional set-up of the euro area into disarray, Bloomberg News reported. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, under pressure from one of his government’s coalition partners, the Five Star Movement, may ask European Union leaders to postpone a final sign-off on the reform at a December 12-13 summit, according to an official familiar with the matter.

The companies involved in trying to save Alitalia SpA got cold feet before a crucial deadline, throwing the mess back into the government’s hands. Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane SpA, the railway operator leading the effort to find a solution, said Wednesday that conditions aren’t in place to form a consortium meant to save the national flag carrier from liquidation, Bloomberg News reported. This follows a similar statement Tuesday by the Benetton family’s Atlantia SpA. A third potential partner, Deutsche Lufthansa AG, isn’t ready to commit equity, FS Italiane said.

Ukraine is finalising changes to legislation on bank insolvency in consultation with the International Monetary Fund as part of efforts by Kiev to secure a new loan programme, a senior state official told Reuters. Ukraine wants an IMF deal worth around $5 billion-6 billion over three years to support its economy and signal to investors that the new government of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is committed to reform, Reuters reported.

Whether Brexit purists or radical socialists win Britain’s election next month, a deluge of fresh debt is set to bloat the country’s 1.6 trillion pound ($2.1 trillion) government bond pile, Reuters reported. But the permutations around the Dec. 12 election - and the implications for Brexit - make it tough for holders of British government debt to predict just what the borrowing bonanza will mean for them. In 2010, Bill Gross - then cast as “king of the bond market” - warned that British government bonds were “resting on a bed of nitroglycerine” because of Britain’s large budget deficit.

Proposals to reform the euro zone’s bailout fund are creating a political storm in Italy, where parties and institutions are battling over whether Rome should try to block the reform at the EU level, Reuters reported. A draft of the reform was agreed by euro zone finance ministers in June and is due to be finalised by leaders next month, but senior Italian officials, including its central bank chief, have warned some measures are financially dangerous.