More than a week into the strike by French pilots against Air France-KLM, the two sides are stuck in a holding pattern. The only certainty seems to be that the dispute is doing severe financial damage to the airline, the International New York Times reported. With the cost of the pilots’ walkout now approaching 20 million euros, or $26 million, per day, investors and politicians can only wonder whether the opposing parties’ shared commitment to the airline’s survival will prove strong enough to avert disaster.

Air France pilots rejected a proposal from management on Monday and vowed to extend indefinitely a strike that has grounded tens of thousands of passengers over the last week and threatens to wipe out tens of millions of dollars in revenue, the International New York Times reported.

France announced on Wednesday it was breaking the latest in a long line of promises to European Union partners to cut its public deficit, conceding it now would take until 2017 to bring its finances in line with EU rules, Reuters reported. The statement by Finance Minister Michel Sapin follows weeks of hints by Paris that weakness in the euro zone's second-largest economy would prevent it bringing the deficit below the EU ceiling of 3 percent of output next year as promised.

French wind farm operator Theolia has agreed with its main creditor to restructure its convertible bonds, which it would be unable to cover in full at the next repayment date, it said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Theolia said that investment group Boussard & Gavaudan, which holds 33.35 percent of its of Oceanes 2007 convertible bond, had agreed to extend the conversion schedule in exchange for better conversion terms. In April, Theolia had said that if bondholders were to ask for early repayment by Jan.

The French economy will keep expanding at a slow pace in the third quarter of the year, the Bank of France said today, while other statistics showed industrial production rising more than expected in June, but no improvement in public finances, the Wall Street Journal reported today. France's economy will grow 0.2 percent in the third quarter from the second, the Bank of France said in its monthly business climate survey. That follows the same quarterly expansion in the second quarter, according to the central bank's previous survey.

Zodiac Pool Solutions SAS, the Paris-based swimming pool and spa manufacturer, filed Thursday for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. as part of its debt-restructuring effort now under way in the U.K., The Wall Street Journal reported. Formerly known as Zodiac Marine & Pool, Zodiac Pool filed for protection under Chapter 15—the section of the Bankruptcy Code that deals with international insolvencies—in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del.

Workers at France-Corsica ferry operator SNCM must end their strike and let the troubled company undergo a restructuring to secure its future, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Loss-making SNCM, whose unions have been on strike since June 24, risks bankruptcy and needs to be placed under court protection, Valls told TV station TF1 in an interview. "This situation cannot go on and there needs to be a court-ordered restructuring, because this company is sinking, and in fact the days of strike that accumulate are only putting it more into trouble," Valls said.

Troubled France-Corsica ferry operator SNCM needs to go under court protection to shield itself from a European Commission order to repay 440 million euros ($600.2 million) in state aid, France's transport minister was quoted saying, Reuters reported. Frederic Cuvillier told French daily La Provence that the loss-making firm, whose unions have been on strike since June 24, cannot continue its activities in its current form without risking bankruptcy and needs an ordered restructuring.

France and Italy, still struggling to meet the euro zone’s tough budget targets, may be gaining support for an effort to relax the rules, the International New York Times reported. The effort, backed by Socialists in the newly elected European Parliament, could color discussions in Luxembourg on Thursday and Friday, when the bloc’s finance ministers gather for their monthly meetings. The European Union is finally emerging from a six-year economic crisis that threatened to destroy the euro currency.

Competition to acquire the French energy equipment maker Alstom was expected to intensify on Monday, as Siemens of Germany and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan were said to be preparing to make a joint offer that could pressure General Electric to improve its $13.5 billion bid, the International New York Times DealBook blog reported. G.E.’s bid for Alstom’s power generation and transmission business, made in April, has been opposed by French government officials even though Alstom’s board approved the deal.