Eight months after he lobbied on behalf of Greece's creditors during the biggest debt restructuring in the history of world finance, Charles Dallara launched a withering attack on the policies of austerity, saying a "new course" was needed to stop Greece's economic death spiral, The Guardian reported. As thousands marched through the streets of Athens on a day of co-ordinated pan-European protests against measures that have seen Greek wages drop by an average of 35%, the American head of the Institute of International Finance said a new strategy was vital.

The main donor and the main recipient of European Union subsidies, Germany and Poland differ on the need to cut the bloc’s budget for 2014-2020, their leaders said Wednesday ahead of an EU summit next week, the Emerging Europe blog reported. The bloc’s 27 members will likely struggle at a summit on Nov. 22-23 to agree on a proposed budget of some €1 trillion ($1.3 trillion). Germany and other states that pay more into the bloc than they receive from it would like to cut their contributions, lowering farm subsidies and funds for the less-affluent members. U.K.

Struggling paper, packaging and signage merchant PaperlinX has announced more restructuring and cost cuts in its business in the United Kingdom in response to depressed trading conditions in Europe, The Australian reported. The company said on Thursday that the UK restructuring would cost $3 million, but combined with cost cuts, would deliver $13 million in annual benefits.

Spanish and Portuguese workers will stage the first coordinated general strike across the Iberian Peninsula on Wednesday, shutting transport, grounding flights and closing schools to protest against spending cuts and tax hikes, Reuters reported. Unions in Greece and Italy also planned work stoppages and demonstrations on a "European Day of Action and Solidarity" against austerity policies, which labour leaders blame for prolonging and worsening the continent's economic crisis.

Europe’s diplomatic sprint to establish a single bank supervisor stumbled on Tuesday as EU finance ministers restated objections to fundamental elements of the proposal and raised doubts over reaching a deal in December, the Financial Times reported. In spite of almost 10 weeks of intense behind-the-scenes negotiations, the discussions laid bare stark differences between several member states over a proposal that is billed as a key plank of Europe’s response to the sovereign debt crisis.

The International Monetary Fund, criticized for decades for prescribing harsh medicine to heavily indebted governments, is pressing reluctant euro-zone governments to go easy on Greece, The Wall Street Journal Brussels Beat blog reported. It is a fight the IMF will be hard-pressed to win. It is scaling down the money it lends to Greece, and, as it does so, its influence weakens. It has lent Greece about €22 billion ($28 billion), and has set aside another €26 billion to lend until 2016.

SAS AB on Monday said it would cut salaries and more jobs as part of a new restructuring plan that is dependent partly on the support of labor unions, as the Scandinavian airline carrier tries to convince investors of its long-term future, The Wall Street Journal reported. The airline, partly owned by the Swedish, Norwegian and Danish governments, said its new plan will include cost savings of around three billion Swedish kronor ($445 million), outsourcing parts of customer service and improvements to information technology.

Years of poor governance and mismanagement have turned London's local government pension schemes into a "ticking time-bomb" that could mean a massive bill for taxpayers, a new report has found. The report by think-tank Pensions Institute published on Monday said that by "shopping around" for the most favourable actuarial assumptions, local government pension schemes were understating the real value of their pension liabilities and repeatedly deferring funding recovery plans.

Europe's biggest banks are continuing to stash more money at central banks, a move that reflects their lingering fears about the financial system despite signs of improvement. A dozen of Europe's largest banks reported holding a total of $1.43 trillion of cash on deposit at various central banks as of Sept. 30, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of the banks' third-quarter financial statements. That represents at least the sixth consecutive quarter that the banks have increased their overall central-bank deposits.

Spain's largest banks said Monday they had agreed to a two-year freeze on evictions of homeowners "in extreme financial need," amid a public uproar following the suicides of two homeowners facing expulsion, The Wall Street Journal reported. The decision by the Spanish banking association AEB, for what it called "humanitarian reasons," came as leaders of the governing Popular Party and the opposition Socialists were to begin working on a bipartisan deal to change Spain's mortgage laws, some of which date back to the early 1900s.