Britain launched legal action against Brussels on Friday in an aggressive move to block an EU levy on financial transactions, which traders fear could have a devastating impact on the City of London, the Financial Times reported. George Osborne, the UK chancellor, said London would challenge the levy at the European Court of Justice on grounds that the tax to be implemented in 11 EU member states would be unfair to countries unwilling to take part.

U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne suggested a vote for Scottish independence next year would imperil the use of the British pound as the new state’s money because political union is needed to operate a single currency, Bloomberg reported. The U.K. government on Tuesday, April 23, will publish a study on the implications for the currency of Scottish independence. Osborne made the comments today in a joint article with Danny Alexander, chief secretary to the Treasury.

The High Court has confirmed court protection for companies in the Barna Waste group, the largest domestic waste and recycling operator in the west of Ireland, employing 270 people, the Irish Times reported. Mr Justice Brian McGovern yesterday confirmed chartered accountant Neil Hughes as examiner to Bruscar Bhearna Teoranta and its subsidiary, Joe McLoughlin Waste Disposal Ltd. The court also heard it is hoped the companies will be sold in a relatively short period. Mr Justice Brian McGovern said he considered that confirming Mr Hughes as examiner was “the right thing to do”.

Flaws found last week in an academic treatise on the effect of high public debt on economic growth have heaped pressure on governments to relax austerity, above all in crisis-stricken Europe, long seen as an incubator for austerity-driven policies, the Financial Times reported. But even before the arguments among economists over the merits of expansionary fiscal contraction reached a new pitch, policy makers in the eurozone had begun to ease up – with the tacit approval of disciplinarian Germany.

Russia wants to play a bigger part in talks over solving Cyprus' financial problems but will only restructure its loan to the island if its interests here, especially those related to VTB Bank, are protected, Moscow's finance minister said, CyprusMail reported. Russian banks and companies have poured money into Cyprus since the 1990s, taking advantage of low taxes and relaxed business regulations.

German lawmakers approved a rescue for Cyprus as Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble warned that refusing aid to a fifth crisis-ravaged state risked triggering a sovereign default and contagion to other euro nations, Bloomberg reported. The lower house, or Bundestag, backed German participation in the 10 billion-euro ($13 billion) financial lifeline by 487 votes to 101 with 13 abstentions in Berlin today, almost three years after the euro-area debt crisis first required lawmakers to act in May 2010. Lawmakers also approved extending aid terms for Ireland and Portugal.

Minimum income guidelines for people entering the State’s new insolvency process have not been set in stone or at “subsistence level living or anywhere close to that”, the head of the agency overseeing the process has said, the Irish Times reported. Lorcan O’Connor of the Insolvency Service of Ireland (ISI) said the new guidelines would be flexible and would not see people’s finances being “micro-managed” by banks or new Personal Insolvency Practitioners (PIPS). However, he admitted many people would be forced to give up private health insurance, cars and holidays.

SolarWorld and its creditors are aiming to strike a deal on the restructuring of the ailing Germany-based maker of solar panels within the next 2-3 weeks, two sources familiar with the talks said on Thursday, Reuters reported. "We are looking at a reasonable, sustainable solution that would not require SolarWorld to file for insolvency," one of the people said. Creditors would cancel some debt and swap some loans for equity, the sources said. Shareholders will likely be left with significantly less than 10 percent of the equity, one of the sources said.

With few exceptions, senior European policy makers agree that the euro zone needs a "banking union" to correct flaws in its makeup that have been laid bare by the region's financial crisis. Trouble is, they don't agree what "banking union" means, The Wall Street Journal reported. Most academics suggest the banking union requires three pillars: a single euro-zone bank supervisor; a single "resolution authority" to deal with failing banks; and a single safety net to protect small depositors.

When Wolfgang Schäuble, the German finance minister and war horse of European politics, celebrated his 70th birthday at a theater in Berlin last September, two of the most powerful women in the world offered warm words in his honor, the International Herald Tribune reported. One was Chancellor Angela Merkel. The other, delivering the keynote speech, was Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund. Ms. Lagarde’s presence reflected her close, longtime friendship with Mr. Schäuble. But it also was a confirmation of the enormous stature that Ms.