The discord between Ryanair and Aer Lingus is the latest in a series of problems facing large companies to focus shareholders on the growing pension deficit problem in Ireland, the Irish Times reported. Aer Lingus, and others, made generous pension promises to employees without putting enough money aside to meet these obligations. Ryanair, as a significant shareholder of Aer Lingus, has warned that it will resist attempts to pass the shortfall onto shareholders. UK independent pension consultant John Ralfe believes pension deficits are a concern.

The Italian government has approved a new package of urgent measures aimed at restarting the country's economy, including a €3 billion ($4 billion) investment in infrastructure works and increased funding for small and midsize companies, The Wall Street Journal reported. The government decree, unveiled late Saturday after a six-hour cabinet meeting, is part of Prime Minister Enrico Letta's challenge to revive Italy's flagging economy which is now in its eighth consecutive quarter of contraction and facing record youth unemployment rates. Mr.

Europe's auto makers just keep sinking deeper and deeper into trouble, The Wall Street Journal reported. Passenger-car sales, stunted by the region's stubborn economic woes, have fallen five years in a row, and are on their way to a sixth consecutive decline this year. Many manufacturers are losing money, but governments and labor unions have fought off restructuring efforts. The result: the number of unprofitable auto plants is surging.

The Association of Financial Markets in Europe polled 75 companies, banks and investors for its report 'Unlocking funding for European investment and growth', which was published Friday, Financial News reported. A majority of respondents said regulation was a barrier for both issuers and investors, with 64% of investors, 88% of banks and 56% of corporates making that point. Of particular concern was the disparity of insolvency practice in Europe, which is keeping issuers from some countries out of the high-yield bond market.

The Montenegrin government filed a court motion on Friday to consider bankruptcy for the country's single biggest industrial employer, indebted aluminium plant KAP, which faces having its electricity cut off over unpaid bills, Reuters reported. Kombinat Aluminijuma Podgorica employs 1,200 people and accounted for 4.7 percent of the tiny Adriatic republic's economic output last year.

Senior euro-zone finance-ministry officials will polish by the end of this week crucial details of a plan to allow the bloc's bailout fund to directly support ailing banks, with the amount of funds dedicated to the task likely to be capped at €60 billion ($80 billion).

Ten years after its spectacular collapse in an accounting scandal, reborn Italian dairy firm Parmalat is still struggling to free itself from legal disputes that are clouding both its prospects and those of its new French owner, Reuters reported. In March, a local court put Parmalat under the oversight of a special commissioner as part of an investigation into its purchase of a business from its majority owner Lactalis - a deal which helped Lactalis to cut its debt, but which some minority investors say was overpriced and makes little strategic sense.

In the search for solutions to Europe's youth unemployment crisis, governments are blowing the cobwebs off a decades-old idea that many economists had hoped would remain in the attic for good, The Wall Street Journal Brussels Beat blog reported. Governments are considering using money from the European Union budget to fund early retirement for older workers. The idea is to free up positions for the millions of Europeans under 25 who can't find a job.

Galway hotelier and developer Michael Finn and his wife Claire, who are being pursued by the National Asset Management Agency for €108 million, have invested €600,000 in companies operating a high-end car resale business and transferred shares in their family home to their children, the agency has claimed at the Commercial Court, the Irish Times reported. The agency is seeking a €108 million summary judgment orders against the couple who, it alleges, have failed to use funds available to them to reduce their liabilities to it.

Greece's fragile governing coalition failed to reach a compromise Wednesday about the closure of the state-run ERT broadcaster. That left the government in a crisis that could lead to early elections, just a year after it was formed to save the country from bankruptcy, the Associated Press reported. The three-party government yanked ERT off the air late Tuesday, axing all 2,656 jobs as part of its cost-cutting drive demanded by international creditors.