When Nortel Networks Corp. sought court protection from its creditors last January, its chief executive officer, Mike Zafirovski, promised creditors and employees that the telecommunications company would stanch its debt wounds and re-emerge in fighting form, The Globe and Mail reported in an analysis. But the pledge, like Mr. Zafirovski, was gone by summer.

Raffaella Prestinoni's sweaters business in Varese used to be one of the millions of family-run companies anchoring the European economy. Today, companies such as hers threaten to dent the Continent's recovery, The Wall Street Journal reported. Heavily dependent upon hard-to-get bank loans and shut out of Europe's embryonic corporate-bond market, small and medium businesses here have been hit hard. The result: widespread insolvencies, job losses and a cloud over Europe's growth prospects in 2010. As important as small businesses are to the U.S.

Greece was condemned by the European Commission on Tuesday for falsifying data about its public finances and allowing political pressures to obstruct the collection of accurate statistics, the Financial Times reported. In a damning report published as the eurozone grapples with its worst financial crisis since the euro’s launch in 1999, the Commission said figures from Greece’s were so unreliable that its budget deficit and public debt might be even higher than government had claimed last October.

he Dutch Finance Ministry is not involved in renegotiation talks with the government of Iceland over its debts related to the collapse of online bank Icesave, a spokeswoman for the ministry said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Iceland plans to hold a referendum in the next two months on terms for paying back Britain and the Netherlands more than $5 billion for money lost in high-interest Icesave bank accounts during a financial meltdown in 2008. The two countries compensated savers in full and want their money back.

Even in an era of bad banking deals, the case of Bayerische Landesbank, a bank based in Munich, stands out, The New York Times reported. Its ill-fated attempt to expand in Eastern Europe has cost Bavarian taxpayers €3.7 billion ($5.4 billion). It has also led to a criminal investigation of the bank’s former chief executive.

Bulgaria, the newest and poorest member of the European Union, is emerging as a fiscal model for a number of EU countries struggling to fend off debt crises, The Wall Street Journal reported. Despite Bulgaria's budgetary rigor, other EU members' swelling debt burdens may end up foiling Sofia's aspirations to join the euro in three years. Bulgaria joined the EU in 2007 and posted the smallest budget deficit among the 27 member states last year, according to the finance ministry. It is expected to be the only EU nation to balance its budget in 2010.

The incoming EU economic and monetary affairs commissioner Olli Rehn has dismissed suggestions that Greece could be thrown out of the euro zone if Athens fails to correct the crisis in its public finances, The Irish Times reported. Mr Rehn was speaking in a confirmation hearing at the European Parliament. Greek finance minister George Papaconstantinou has said that a new plan to cut the budget deficit will be submitted to the European Commission early next week and should sail through without problems.

There are many ways to decide whether to repay your debts but a national referendum is surely a first. That is what is going to happen in Iceland after its president refused to sign a bill paying €3.8 billion ($5.5 billion) to the British and Dutch governments over 15 years, The Economist reported in an analysis. Given that a quarter of the Icelandic population has signed a petition opposing such payments, it is not difficult to imagine how such a poll will turn out. “Vote for lower incomes” is not going to be a very popular slogan. And the Icelanders will only be the first.

A tough new requirement by Britain’s securities regulator that top banking executives and earners must defer 60 percent of their total compensation for a three-year period is pushing some American banks with extensive London operations to say that they just won’t take it anymore, The New York Times reported. Their taxes are on the rise, they have become political piñatas and now, just as one of the richer bonus seasons in recent years gets under way, they are being told by regulators how to pay — or not to pay, to be precise — their employees.

Iceland's efforts to join the European Union could be delayed by a referendum on terms for repaying Britain and the Netherlands following a banking collapse, the Spanish EU presidency said on Friday, Reuters reported. British and Dutch depositors in high-interest "Icesave" bank accounts lost their money when Iceland's entire financial system imploded in late 2008 under a heavy weight of debt. The government plans to hold a referendum on the issue late in February or early in March.