Consumer goods giant Unilever is now offering smaller packages to keep pace with the thinner wallets of its European customers. The company says the strategy comes from the developing economies in Asia and is vital now that "poverty is returning to Europe," as one manager says, Spiegel Online reported. For all the negativity in Europe these days, the terms used in the euro-crisis debate have been surprisingly optimistic.

Switzerland-based trader Gunvor said on Monday that operations had resumed at its German Ingolstadt refinery, acquired from insolvent refiner Petroplus earlier this year, Reuters reported. Gunvor, which is co-owned by a Russian tycoon and chief executive Torbjorn Tornqvist, bought the 100,000 barrels per day plant in May from the insolvent Petroplus to build on its presence in Europe. "We intend to build upon the good and enduring customer relationships, and enlarge our trading activities in Germany and the Alpine region," said Tornqvist in an emailed statement.

Hanwha Group’s bid to buy the insolvent German manufacturer Q-Cells SE drew a competing approach from a Spanish power-plant builder that also wants to own what was once the biggest solar-cell maker, Bloomberg Businessweek reported. Isofoton SA was approved to bid for Q-Cells after Chief Executive Officer Angel Luis Serrano met with the German company’s insolvency administrator Henning Schorisch today, according to an e-mailed statement from Isofoton. Serrano will present the bid, to be made with a U.S. investor it didn’t identify, to Q-Cells’ creditors at an Aug. 29 meeting, it said.

As Europe's leaders struggle with a five-year-old economic crunch that has saddled Spain with the industrialized world's highest jobless rate, young Spaniards are increasingly embracing bottom-up self-help initiatives to cope, The Wall Street Journal reported. The diverse measures—some commonly associated with rural or disaster-zone economies—supplement a public safety net that is fraying under government austerity programs.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned her coalition partners advocating a Greek exit from the euro to “weigh their words,” as she signaled a renewed determination to keep the single currency intact, Bloomberg reported. Asked about comments by a leader of her Bavarian Christian Social Union governing partner calling for Greece to depart, Merkel told ARD television that such remarks were damaging as crisis fighting has reached a “decisive phase.” Alexander Dobrindt, the CSU’s general secretary, told Sunday's Bild newspaper that Greece wouldn’t be part of the 17-nation euro area next year.

Mouchel, the motorway maintenance company, has sold its assets to a new company owned by banks and management, ensuring the survival of the 120-year-old business, the Financial Times reported. KPMG, the administrator, said on Saturday that the assets had been sold to a newly incorporated company, MBRL Ltd, whose lenders include Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group. The banks will wipe out £83m of debt in exchange for an 80 per cent stake in the new, delisted company, while the existing management will own the remaining 20 per cent.

The past few months have been good for Belgium. Like France, the country has benefitted from being part of the euro zone’s so-called “soft core,” becoming a sort of second-best safe haven for investors keen to escape the risky states such as Spain or Italy, but unwilling to accept the super-low interest rates offered by the likes of Germany, The Wall Street Journal Real Time Brussels blog reported.

The European Commission has asked Spain to delay unveiling a banking reform by a week to allow it study the measures in more detail, the government said yesterday, the Irish Times reported. The conservative administration of Mariano Rajoy had been expected to announce the approval of several changes to the country’s struggling financial system after yesterday’s cabinet meeting. However, deputy prime minister Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría said the commission wanted to analyse the reform further before its presentation on August 31st.

South Korea's Hanwha Corp intends to buy solar Group Q-Cells, the insolvent German group said in a statement on Sunday, Reuters reported. Hanwha and Q-Cells' insolvency administrator Henning Schorisch had signed a contract, which needs to be approved by a creditors' meeting to be held on Aug. 29. Q-Cells, once the world's largest maker of solar cells, said Hanwha would take on liabilities, which amount to "the low hundreds of millions." In addition it would pay a "medium double-digit million-euro range" in cash," Q-cells said in the statement.

Spain is negotiating with euro zone partners over conditions for aid to bring down its borrowing costs, though the country has not made a final decision to request a bailout, three euro zone sources said on Thursday. The favored option being discussed is that the existing European rescue fund, the EFSF, would purchase Spanish debt at primary auctions while the European Central Bank would intervene in the secondary market to lower yields. No specific figure for aid has been discussed in the talks, which started several weeks ago, one of the sources told Reuters.