Europe has returned to the signature brinkmanship of the debt crisis that brought its currency union close to collapse five years ago: France and Germany are again warning Greece it is putting its eurozone membership at risk, The Wall Street Journal reported. With a Greek election looming this month, and a party hostile to European-imposed austerity apparently poised to win, French President François Hollande on Monday raised the possibility of Greece exiting the 19-member bloc—departing from the traditional stance that euro membership is irrevocable.

Germany has insisted that it expects Greece to stay in the eurozone, despite a news report claiming Berlin was ready to see Athens quit the common currency if the populist Syriza party wins this month’s snap election and reneges on the country’s reform programme, the Financial Times reported.

Allianz could be exposed to claims of at least $100 million linked to the AirAsia jet missing off the Indonesian coast with 162 people on board, which would be the third major airline accident it has been exposed to this year, the Irish Times reported. Allianz said it was lead reinsurer on the flight, having previously been the main reinsurer to Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 which disappeared over the Indian Ocean in March, as well as to flight MH17, shot down in July while flying over Ukraine.

German developer and publisher BitComposer has filed for insolvency. The studio claimed its own problems stemmed from “the financial difficulties of its suppliers in game development”. As a result, it said, it could not complete work on its new titles and subsequently missed financial targets. BitComposer had applied for a protective shield procedure on September 26th. This protected the company from foreclosure from creditors, while also allowing it to develop an insolvency plan. During this period the firm was able to publish additional titles.

Germany could be left with a €500 million compensation bill after a Munich court ruled that property lender Hypo Real Estate (HRE) falsified accounts and misled investors about its exposure to the financial crisis, the Irish Times reported. The German lender and its Dublin subsidiary Depfa went into a tailspin after the collapse of Lehmann Brothers in September 2008. The HRE group survived only after a state-led bailout before it was eventually nationalised.

German Burger King restaurants that were shut down last month in a row between their operator and the U.S. fast food company will re-open this week, Burger King Germany said on Monday, Reuters reported. Twenty-six of the 89 outlets will open their doors again on Monday and the rest by Wednesday, it said in a statement. Burger King had told Yi-Ko Holding, formerly the biggest operator of the restaurants in Germany, to shut down the restaurants immediately last month, saying the franchisee had violated its rules on the treatment of employees.

Germany’s family-owned companies, the backbone of the country’s economic strength, fear they may have to scale back investments and cut jobs if a top court this week orders an overhaul of inheritance tax rules, the Financial Times reported. The federal constitutional court in Karlsruhe is set to decide on Wednesday whether it is fair that beneficiaries of inherited corporate wealth in Germany enjoy sweeping tax exemptions. Around 90 per cent of businesses in Germany are family-owned, providing about 60 per cent of jobs with social insurance.

Germany's Yi-Ko Holding, formerly the biggest operator of Burger King restaurants in the country, has filed for insolvency, Yi-Ko's lawyers said, putting 3,000 jobs at risk. Burger King had told Yi-Ko three weeks ago to shut down its 89 restaurants across Germany immediately, saying the franchisee had violated its rules on the treatment of employees. The move did not affect the remaining 599 Burger King restaurants in Germany.

Berlin has backed the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council’s warning about the dangers of the Government departing from its path of consolidation and reform, the Irish Times reported. In a paper the federal finance ministry said Ireland’s “awareness of its problems and reform courage” were crucial in identifying and tackling its challenges. All the more reason, it added, not to let up now with consolidation. “I would be unrealistic to expect macroeconomic imbalances built up over a long time to be addressed in a short period,” the paper noted.

Four months before he aims to become prime minister of Greece, Alexis Tsipras is using the example of Germany’s post-World War II debt relief to bolster his case for a writedown on his country’s liabilities toward euro area member states and the European Central Bank, Bloomberg News reported. “While generosity was extended to Germany, Germany refuses to extend the same generosity,” the 40-year-old opposition leader said in a speech in Athens today, referring to a 1953 deal to write off 50 percent of some of Germany’s external debt.