In the general election last weekend, the nationalist and populist True Finn Party emerged from political obscurity after largely campaigning on the evils of the European Union and its bailouts of Greece and Ireland. It claimed 39 seats in Finland’s Parliament — almost eight times the number it won in the 2007 election — and it is likely to become a partner in any coalition government, the International Herald Tribune reported. The elections drove the governing Center Party from power and left this small and prosperous country reeling.

Saab Automobile Thursday moved a step closer to resolving the short-term financing problems that have brought production to a halt after the Swedish National Debt Office said the car maker's funding plan meets the terms outlined by the Swedish government and the Debt Office, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Saab, owned by Dutch car maker Spyker Cars NV, urgently needs fresh funds to pay its suppliers and resume production. Production came to a halt in recent weeks because of parts shortages after some suppliers stopped deliveries.

China could continue to invest some of its enormous reserves in European government debt, its ambassador to the European Union said Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported. China has recently bought chunks of Spanish and Greek debt, and its companies are investing across broad sectors of the European economy, including in ports, chemical firms and car makers. Two weeks ago, when Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero traveled to China, Premier Wen Jiabao pledged his support for Spanish public finances and its banking sector.

Seán Quinn and his family will no longer have a role in the management or ownership of the Quinn Group after Anglo Irish Bank appointed a share receiver to take control of the family’s stake in the business, InsolvencyJournal.ie reported. Anglo Irish Bank is owed €2.8 billion by Seán Quinn and his family, while other lenders to the Quinn Group are owed almost €1.3 billion. Anglo Irish Bank chief executive Mike Aynsley said that the bank was owed an enormous amount of money by the Quinn family, of which there was little prospect of recovery.

The prospect of an increase in U.K. borrowing costs any time soon diminished Wednesday following the publication of a dovish set of minutes from the Bank of England's April policy meeting and a survey showing a drop in Britons' inflation expectations, The Wall Street Journal reported. The hawks on the rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee have appeared tantalizingly close to winning over enough colleagues to secure a rate rise in recent months, but in April their arguments for tighter policy were overshadowed by worries about the U.K.'s hard-pressed consumers.

Portugal raised euro1 billion ($1.4 billion) at a short-term debt auction at higher interest rates as it negotiates terms of a badly needed bailout to avert bankruptcy, the Associated Press reported. The government debt agency said it sold euro680 million in 3-month bills at an average interest rate of 4 percent, up from 3.7 percent at the last such auction in January. Demand for the debt was double the amount sold. The agency also sold euro320 million in 6-month bills at an average rate of 5.5 percent, up from 5.1 percent on April 6. It was 3.7 times oversubscribed.

Greece's finance ministry asked a prosecutor to launch an investigation into debt restructuring rumours that helped drag Greek stocks down on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Greek bank stocks fell 4.58 percent on Wednesday and the broader Athens bourse index lost 2.62 percent, underperforming pan-European indices on what traders said where rumours, spread by email, that the country would soon restructure its debt. The Greek government has repeatedly said it would not restructure the country's debt, in defiance of market sentiment that such action was increasingly likely.

Lower credit standards, the introduction of high-risk products and access to credit on international money markets contributed to the Irish banking crisis, a new report found today, the Irish Times reported. The Nyberg report says while international developments helped trigger the crisis in Ireland, they did not cause it, and its origins were the result of "domestic Irish decisions and actions, some of which were made more profitable or possible by international developments".

The Swedish National Debt Office said Monday that Saab Automobile has reached an agreement in principle with financiers regarding a solution to the company's acute liquidity crisis, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. "The information that Saab has presented to us looks good and they will now have to present us a contract that is signed," said Unni Jerndal, a spokeswoman for Sweden's NDO. She said all conditions set by the Swedish government to reach an agreement have been met, and Saab is now working on the last details to secure the deal.

A Milan court on Monday acquitted four international banks and six managers on criminal charges related to the 2003 collapse of the Parmalat dairy empire, the Associated Press reported. The banks all immediately issued statements expressing satisfaction with the ruling, which brings to an end the 2-year-old trial, one of a series seeking to assign blame in the stunning corporate failure that still ranks as Europe's largest. Parmalat collapsed under the weight of its euro14 billion mountain of debt.