France's Francois Hollande will push a proposal for mutualising European debt at an informal summit of EU leaders in Brussels this week, increasing pressure on German Chancellor Angela Merkel to drop her opposition to the idea, Reuters reported. The new French president raised the idea of bonds jointly underwritten by all euro zone member states during G8 talks at the weekend and intends to raise it again when EU leaders meet on May 23, even if it goes against Merkel's wishes.

Lenders are being pressed to identify borrowers who are unlikely to be able to repay mortgages and to push for agreed sales of properties and the repayment of any shortfall under plans being devised for the Central Bank, the Irish Times reported. The regulator said it was “not comfortable” with the level of mortgage arrears and wants the banks to do more to tackle the worsening mortgage crisis.

Two weeks have passed since Bankia was part-nationalized, yet Madrid still hasn't explained how it plans to recapitalize Spain's biggest domestic lender, The Wall Street Journal reported. That is a long time to leave a systemically important bank in limbo. Unless the government acts fast to end the uncertainty, confidence in its ability to handle the crisis will continue to evaporate. Madrid was poorly prepared to take control of Bankia, only hiring Goldman Sachs to advise on options two days after it agreed to convert €4.5 billion ($5.75 billion) of preference shares into equity.

As Greece girds for elections next month that could lead to its exit from the euro zone, economists are acknowledging an unsettling reality: No one knows what the bill will be, The Wall Street Journal reported. A wide range of potential price tags has been reported, anywhere from €150 billion to €1 trillion euros ($1.27 trillion). But none of these are comprehensive, nor are they meant to be—they don't, for instance, weigh the cost of an exit against the cost of avoiding one.

The head of German carmaker Opel, under pressure from parent General Motors to end losses, refused to promise workers at its plant in Bochum on Monday that their jobs would be safeguarded after 2014, Reuters reported. The plant, located in the rust-belt Ruhr region devastated by coal mine closures, is expected to shut after the company chose to build the next generation of its popular Astra compact in Britain and Poland where wages are cheaper.

In Ireland and across Europe, youth unemployment has become a social emergency, retarding economies and blighting lives. Job-creation policies are failing. Can anything reverse the trend? the Irish Times reports in an analysis. For many young people, qualifications, degrees and experience count for little in a distressed economy. About 30 per cent, or 80,000, are out of work; the rate is twice that of the general population.

A Greek exit from the euro zone could expose the European Central Bank and the currency bloc it seeks to protect to hundreds of billions of euros in losses, landing Germany and its partners with a crippling bill, Reuters reported in an analysis. A Greek departure would take Europe into uncharted legal waters. The size of the burden other euro zone states could bear gives them a powerful incentive to keep Greece in the currency club.

Spain's government said 16 of the country's 17 regions are on track to meet this year's budget targets, a key part of its efforts to slash a towering budget deficit and ward off an international bailout, The Wall Street Journal reported. Budget Minister Cristóbal Montoro on Thursday hailed the approval of the regional spending plans, which have implemented measures equal to €18 billion ($22.9 billion) of spending cuts and increased tax revenue.

Spain denied there was a deposit flight from troubled lender Bankia SA Thursday as shares in the partially nationalised bank plunged by as much as 30 per cent, the Irish Times reported. "It's not true that there is an exit of deposits at this moment from Bankia," economy secretary Fernando Jimenez Latorre, who reports to the economy minister, told a news conference. The government on May 9th took over Bankia, the country's fourth-largest lender, in an attempt to dispel concerns over the bank's ability to deal with losses related to the 2008 property crash.

The European Central Bank has reacted to uncertainty over Greece’s future in the euro zone by excluding four of the country’s banks from its regular liquidity-providing operations, The Globe and Mail reported. The move raises the pressure on Greece to stick to its international bailout by highlighting the risk that euro zone central bankers could pull the plug on its financial system. It reflected ECB fears that a planned recapitalization of Greece’s banks could be delayed.