The European Central Bank has offered to help the EU redesign its financial transactions tax to avoid any ‘negative impact’ on market stability, highlighting official fears about the implementation of the levy. Proposals by 11 eurozone countries for a “Robin Hood tax” on trading in bonds, shares and derivatives have run into strong opposition from the financial industry, which has warned they could dry up markets, increase costs substantially for investors and erode bank profits. Publicly, the ECB has refused to take sides, pointing out it has no mandate in the field.

The European Commission will further shift the EU's policy focus from austerity to structural reforms to revive growth when it presents economic recommendations for each member state on Wednesday, officials said., Reuters reported. In its annual assessment as guardian of the EU's budget rules, the Commission will say that while fiscal consolidation should continue, its pace can be slower now that a degree of investor confidence in the euro has been restored.

The number of people with Irish addresses applying for bankruptcy in either England or Wales has risen significantly, according to figures from Britain’s Insolvency Service, the Irish Times reported. Last year, there were 75 bankruptcy cases involving debtors who gave an address in the Republic, compared with 28 in 2011 and just 15 in 2010. The figures from the Insolvency Service, however, do not necessarily indicate the number of debtors who have relocated from Ireland to the UK specifically to obtain a bankruptcy order.

Renault SA, France’s second-biggest carmaker, is ending a five-year partnership with Better Place LLC after the operator of electric-vehicle charging stations announced plans to shut down, Bloomberg reported. Better Place filed a motion for liquidation with an Israeli court yesterday after failing to attract new investments, according to a company statement. Renault and Better Place began working together in 2008 and said a year later that they aimed to sell 100,000 of the Fluence ZE, the French carmaker’s first electric vehicle, in Israel and Denmark by 2016.

Shares in state-owned lender Bankia could slide another 30 percent despite a multi-billion-euro cash injection, analysts say, with little hope of a quick recovery as tough business conditions and a challenging restructuring plan weigh, Reuters reported. More than 11 billion shares issued as part of a 15.5-billion-euro ($20 billion) recapitalisation of the Spanish bank are to start trading on Tuesday at 0700 GMT in what was meant to be a new beginning after a 24-billion-euro bailout last year.

Big companies’ tax affairs in Europe are to be opened up to greater public scrutiny with the EU rushing out a law compelling them to reveal corporate profits and taxes on a country-by-country basis, the Financial Times reported. Amid a political furore over allegations of tax avoidance by corporate-giants such as Apple, Starbucks and Google, the EU is extending transparency reforms for banks and resources groups to all large public and private companies.

Slovenian lawmakers approved changes to the country’s insolvency legislation designed to accelerate corporate restructuring and aid the ailing banking industry, Bloomberg reported. Lawmakers voted for changes the government said will lower the debt burden at companies and spur an economic recovery, according to a live broadcast on public broadcaster TV Slovenija in the capital Ljubljana.

Ireland's new insolvency laws will help distressed home-loan borrowers, but also help Irish taxpayers regain some of the huge sums the country has pumped into its banks during the country's deep financial crisis, Irish central bank head Patrick Honohan said Thursday, Dow Jones Newswires reported. Dublin last month detailed a new so-called Insolvency Service of Ireland agency, the centerpiece of new debt-solution laws that the government says will help distressed borrowers strike deals with their banks.

A Spanish High Court judge has charged the former chairman of fishing firm Pescanova, Manuel Fernandez de Sousa, with falsifying information and insider trading, according to a court document published on Thursday, Reuters reported. Pescanova, one of the world's largest fishing firms, filed for insolvency in April and the dealings of Sousa, who sold a large stake in the firm in the months before the insolvency petition, have come under scrutiny.

Ireland’s 850 hotels have aggregate debts of €6.7 billion and about 300 of them are in financial difficulty. These are the key points of a report on the health of the sector jointly commissioned by AIB and the Irish Hotels Federation, the Irish Times reported. The report also found that 54 per cent of hotels increased their turnover in 2012, while two-thirds of the 111 respondents expect tourism to improve here within the next three years.