Germany

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's eight months in power have been tumultuous from the start but September and October may be even tougher, with the Spanish leader assailed on all sides, Reuters reported. Internationally he is caught between diverging pressures from Germany and France, and at home he faces protests over spending cuts sought by the euro zone's big powers. France wants Rajoy to request an international bailout to prop up Spanish finances and stop the debt crisis deepening.

German shipbuilder P+S Werften has filed for insolvency, a court in Stralsund, northern Germany said on Wednesday, after P+S came away without a deal with some of its customers for advance payments to bridge a liquidity shortfall, Reuters reported. The company, which operates two of Germany's biggest shipyards, had last week approached Danish shipper DFDS , passenger ferry operator Scandlines and Greenland's Royal Arctic Line, to ask for advance payments as it worked on a rescue plan. P+S employs around 2,000 people.

Switzerland-based trader Gunvor said on Monday that operations had resumed at its German Ingolstadt refinery, acquired from insolvent refiner Petroplus earlier this year, Reuters reported. Gunvor, which is co-owned by a Russian tycoon and chief executive Torbjorn Tornqvist, bought the 100,000 barrels per day plant in May from the insolvent Petroplus to build on its presence in Europe. "We intend to build upon the good and enduring customer relationships, and enlarge our trading activities in Germany and the Alpine region," said Tornqvist in an emailed statement.

Hanwha Group’s bid to buy the insolvent German manufacturer Q-Cells SE drew a competing approach from a Spanish power-plant builder that also wants to own what was once the biggest solar-cell maker, Bloomberg Businessweek reported. Isofoton SA was approved to bid for Q-Cells after Chief Executive Officer Angel Luis Serrano met with the German company’s insolvency administrator Henning Schorisch today, according to an e-mailed statement from Isofoton. Serrano will present the bid, to be made with a U.S. investor it didn’t identify, to Q-Cells’ creditors at an Aug. 29 meeting, it said.

South Korea's Hanwha Corp intends to buy solar Group Q-Cells, the insolvent German group said in a statement on Sunday, Reuters reported. Hanwha and Q-Cells' insolvency administrator Henning Schorisch had signed a contract, which needs to be approved by a creditors' meeting to be held on Aug. 29. Q-Cells, once the world's largest maker of solar cells, said Hanwha would take on liabilities, which amount to "the low hundreds of millions." In addition it would pay a "medium double-digit million-euro range" in cash," Q-cells said in the statement.

Germany's Hahn airport needs government funding to avoid insolvency, a shareholder representative was quoted as saying on Wednesday, as falling passenger numbers exacerbate losses, Reuters reported. Jochen Riebel, a former local secretary of state who represents minority shareholder Hesse on the airport's board, said Hahn would use up all its cash within about six months without more finance.

Troubled German shipbuilder P+S Werften, which operates two of the country's biggest shipyards, has asked some of its customers to pay for ships in advance to bridge a liquidity shortfall and avert insolvency, Reuters reported. New Chief Executive Ruediger Fuchs has approached Danish shipper DFDS, passenger ferry operator Scandlines and Greenland's Royal Arctic Line, a P+S spokesman said on Wednesday. P+S had planned to file for insolvency on Wednesday, the spokesman said, the possibility of receiving funds from customers gave Fuchs a couple more days to come up with a rescue plan.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel faces one of the toughest choices of her career in the coming weeks: whether to risk the unraveling of the euro zone—or her government, The Wall Street Journal reported. After a summer lull, Greece is again Ms. Merkel's biggest headache. The Greek government, struggling with depression-like conditions that have pushed the economy to the brink, is likely to need many billions of euros of additional aid to avoid bankruptcy.

The German government stuck to its insistence yesterday that Greece must comply with the reform and austerity conditions agreed in its €130 billion rescue package, but Berlin did not flatly reject any extension of the debt-repayment terms it faces, the Irish Times reported. Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, will meet Antonis Samaras, the Greek prime minister, for bilateral talks in Berlin next week, at which “everything can be put on the table”, according to Steffen Seibert, the chancellor’s spokesman.

A new challenge to the European Stability Mechanism, the eurozone’s permanent €500bn rescue fund, has been filed in the German constitutional court, seeking to delay ratification by Germany until it has sought the opinion of the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, the Financial Times reported.