Germany

Germany's economy contracted in the fourth quarter, putting it at risk of a shallow recession at a time when euro-zone countries struggling with their debts are looking to the bloc's biggest economy to give the region a lift, The Wall Street Journal reported. Germany's stagnation, after two years of strong growth, could fuel further international calls for the country to stimulate growth. Economists said Germany's nearly balanced budget and ability to borrow money at low cost gives it the scope to boost growth that few others in Europe have.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's party will push for a financial transaction tax in Europe even though opponents of the levy include her junior coalition partners, a senior lawmaker from her Christian Democrats (CDU) said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. "It will happen," Michael Meister, the conservatives' deputy leader in parliament, said a day after Merkel acknowledged resistance in her coalition to the "Tobin tax" plan being pushed aggressively by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Merkel favours such a tax with or without support from all 27 members of the EU.

Germany and France on Monday pressed Greece and its bondholders to agree on a reduction of Athens's debt burden, warning that Greece's bailout loans from the euro zone and the International Monetary Fund are on hold until a deal is reached with private investors, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The insolvency administrator of Manroland said on Wednesday it was homing in on an investor for the German printing machine maker and saw a deal feasible by the end of the month, Reuters reported. "We now have parties seriously interested in all three production sites in Augsburg, Offenbach and Plauen, with whom we are involved in ongoing negotiations," Werner Schneider of law firm Schneider, Geiwitz & Partner said in a statement, without naming any possible buyers. The firm said no orders had been cancelled and production would continue beyond Jan. 31 based on the current backlog.

Solar Millennium, which has its U.S. headquarters in downtown Oakland,, Calif., filed for insolvency in a German court, the Oakland Tribune reported today. In May, Solar Millennium said it was awarded a $2.1 billion loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy. The money would have been used to underpin the company's construction of a solar energy complex in the California desert community of Blythe, using its solar trough technology. However, Solar Millennium on Aug. 18 abandoned its focus on the cutting-edge technology that was the basis for the loan guarantee.

The European Commission Tuesday approved a plan to split up German state-controlled lender Westdeutsche Landesbank, or WestLB, leading to a change in ownership, an eventual winding down of its banking activities and the disappearance of a once prestigious name, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The plan, submitted by the bank's owners---the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and regional savings banks---and Germany's federal government at the end of June, "is in line with EU state aid rules," the commission said.

Solon SE’s insolvency, the first of a publicly traded solar company in Germany, won’t affect its units in Italy, France and the U.S., Bloomberg Businessweek reported. The insolvency is for now confined to the holding company and its German units with 532 of a total 800 employees, said Moeller PR, which represents the administrator Ruediger Wienberg of law firm HWW Wienberg Wilhelm. Wienberg will contact customers and suppliers to maintain production and order processing, it said. Wages are secured through February.

The insolvency administrator of Germany's Manroland is still scouting around for parties potentially interested in buying or investing in the world's second biggest printing machinery maker, a German daily said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. "There are other candidates who are better but there are not many of them," administrator Werner Schneider said in a prereleased version of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung's Wednesday edition. Schneider said he had therefore mandated investment bank Lazard to assist in the search for potential candidates.

A day ahead of a crucial gathering of European Union leaders in Brussels, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have outlined their plan for solving the euro crisis through deeper fiscal integration, The Wall Street Journal Euro Crisis blog reported. In an open letter to European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, Mr. Sarkozy and Ms. Merkel issued an ultimatum to the 27 EU governments, saying they must decide whether they will accept greater central control over their national budgets.

If Commerzbank CEO Martin Blessing could make one wish, he would presumably ask for a few billion euros, or that someone would take the bank's ailing subsidiary Eurohypo off his hands, or that the entire sovereign debt crisis would simply disappear, Spiegel Online reported. But banks, along with their managers and owners, are not allowed to pin their hopes on miracles. They need money, as quickly as possible.