Finland, one of the eurozone’s most ardent defenders of austerity, has entered its third technical recession since the start of the financial crisis, the Financial Times reported. The Nordic country’s economy shrank by 0.1 per cent in the first quarter compared with the previous three months and by 2.1 per cent versus a year earlier. Following revisions to earlier data, it emerged that Finland has been in recession for a year.

The Finnish parliament would find it all but impossible to approve any changes to the latest Greek bailout, according to senior politicians in Helsinki, the Financial Times reported. Leading figures in the two main parties in the six-party coalition government said that if Greece was given more time to cut its deficit it would impose additional costs on Finland, making parliamentary approval “very difficult”.

The surge in anti-European sentiment before the election in Finland last year may have quietened down, but promises to limit the country's exposure to weaker economies are continuing to have a big impact on how the eurozone tackles its sovereign debt crisis, the Financial Times reported. Finland rattled the bond markets last week after it threatened to block an agreement to use Europe's €500bn permanent rescue fund to start buying Italian and Spanish bonds in the secondary markets.

Finland and the Netherlands, the euro zone's most hardline creditor states, cast the first doubts on Monday on a European summit deal designed to save Spain and Italy from being engulfed by the currency bloc's debt crisis, Reuters reported. The Finnish government told parliament that Helsinki and its Dutch allies would block the euro zone's permanent bailout fund buying bonds in secondary markets. Euro zone leaders agreed last Friday that rescue funds could be used in a "flexible and efficient manner" to lower government borrowing costs. Their statement gave no further detail.

Finnish unemployment rose to the highest in six months at the end of last year, increasing more than economists estimated, as Europe's debt crisis sapped economic growth in the northernmost euro member, the Irish Times reported on a Bloomberg story. The jobless rate, which isn't adjusted for seasonal variations, rose to 7.4 per cent in December from 6.2 per cent in November, Statistics Finland said Tuesday. The rate topped all four economist estimates in a survey by Bloomberg.

Once an example of Finland's success in technology innovation, electronics manufacturer Elcoteq filed for bankruptcy on Thursday after failing to reverse a fall in sales and restructure its debt, Reuters reported. The assembler of cellphones and set-top boxes struggled after Nokia Oyj switched to cheaper Asian suppliers a few years ago. It also worked for Research In Motion , LG Electronics and others, but was unable to replace the lost business.

Elcoteq, the Finnish electronics manufacturer under insolvency proceedings, said on Tuesday it filed another subsidiary for bankruptcy, Reuters reported. The group that assembles cellphones and set-top boxes said Elcoteq Network S.A., which handled its material purchases and customer invoicing in Europe, was no longer able to continue its activities after lenders blocked its bank accounts. The parent company said insolvency proceedings continued in Luxembourg. Last month Elcoteq filed three subsidiaries for bankruptcy due to a lack of funding. Its chief executive resigned earlier in August.

Finland is stepping up efforts to find a compromise with Europe on its collateral demands amid International Monetary Fund opposition to forcing Greece to give euro members extra security for new loans, Bloomberg reported. “We will seek a solution together everyone can agree on and one that doesn’t hurt anyone,” Finland’s Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen told reporters Monday in Helsinki after meeting with European Union President Herman Van Rompuy.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is weighing whether to yield to a demand by some lawmakers for a bigger voice in future debt bailouts as a condition to win her party's approval for a stronger euro-zone rescue fund, as a parliamentary vote on the issue was delayed a week, The Wall Street Journal reported. Granting the German parliament the right to approve or reject future bailouts could trigger similar demands from parliaments across the euro zone, whose lawmakers are closely observing Berlin's actions. That could lead to further delays in the EU's approval for the Greek rescue.

France and Germany may effectively run the European Union, but Finland has been demonstrating how even a small country can disrupt their grand designs, the International Herald Tribune reported. By insisting that it receive collateral from Greece in return for aid, Finland is threatening to upend an agreement that euro zone countries, led by France and Germany, made in July to expand the E.U. bailout fund. Finland would contribute less than 2 percent of the guarantees provided to the fund, known as the European Financial Stability Facility.