Praktiker AG, the struggling German DIY chain, and its major investors struck a compromise late on Wednesday in a last-ditch attempt to stave off bankruptcy, Reuters reported. Fund manager Isabella de Krassny, whose backers held a majority at Praktiker's annual shareholders' meeting on Wednesday, said she was now backing management's restructuring plan after insisting earlier for approval of her own plan. In return, Praktiker bowed to shareholders' demands to replace two supervisory board members with candidates backed by de Krassny.

Germany's parliament ratified the euro zone's permanent bailout fund late Friday, as well as rules that enshrine German-style budget discipline in euro-zone countries and most other European Union members, despite widespread criticism of Chancellor Angela Merkel upon her return from a European summit where she made major concessions on support for Spain and Italy, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Germany may be willing to move sooner than expected to accept shared liability of euro-zone debt and would support short-term measures to deal with the acute financing problems facing some of the region's governments, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal ahead of Thursday's European summit. Mr. Schäuble said Germany could agree to some form of debt mutualization as soon as Berlin is satisfied that the path toward establishing centralized European controls is irreversible.

Greece appears headed for a new clash with Germany over its rigid bailout program as the winners of Sunday's Greek election prepare to ask Europe for more time to cut public spending, The Wall Street Journal reported. Greece's conservative New Democracy party and its likely Socialist coalition partner, known as Pasok, are working on a proposal to ask other euro-zone countries for an extra two years to meet Greece's fiscal targets, officials involved in the preparations said.

Creditors of Ssangyong Engineering & Construction (E&C) have decided to relinquish a controlling stake in the company by means of a private contract after open bids failed to achieve this end, The Korea Times reported. A German engineering firm, which took part in three previous bids, has emerged as the most likely to acquire one of Korea’s largest builders, according to industry officials Monday.

The administrator of insolvent German chipmaker Qimonda has almost doubled his demands for payment from former parent company Infineon Technologies to 3.35 billion euros ($4.22 billion), Reuters reported. "The insolvency administrator continues to base a substantial part of his alleged payment claims on so-called liability for impairment of capital," Infineon said in a statement on Friday. Infineon had said in February the administrator was demanding 1.7 billion euros, claiming Qimonda paid Infineon for a business in 2006 that was negative in value.

When primary-school teacher Vanessa Kuhn-Baumann opens her pay statement every month, she thinks dark thoughts about Spain and Greece. Despite the prosperity of her country, her bank statements and tax returns feel like a constant reminder of the price of European solidarity and economic unity, The Globe and Mail reported. Like all Germans, Ms. Kuhn-Baumann has a 5.5 per cent “solidarity surcharge” on top of her income tax withdrawn from her paycheques – a fee imposed in 1991 to pay for the reunification of Germany after the communist German Democratic Republic ceased to exist.

As Europe careens deeper into political and economic crisis, the immediate survival of the euro turns more than ever on a single question: Will Germany act? The Wall Street Journal reported. For nearly three years, Chancellor Angela Merkel has resisted pressure from European neighbors to provide a stronger financial backstop for the euro zone. Germany, the only euro-zone nation with the economic heft to do so, has done the minimum necessary to keep vulnerable countries afloat—and demanded crushing public-spending cuts in return.

European Union and French officials squared off against Germany on Monday over how best to help Spain’s ailing banks, drawing lines in the debate over the latest challenge to the euro zone, the International Herald Tribune reported. Olli Rehn, the European commissioner for economic and monetary affairs, and Pierre Moscovici, the French finance minister, offered cautious endorsement at a news conference in Brussels for the idea of letting Europe’s bailout funds inject money directly into troubled banks.

Germany is sending strong signals that it would eventually be willing to lift its objections to ideas such as common euro-zone bonds or mutual support for European banks if other European governments were to agree to transfer further powers to Europe, The Wall Street Journal reported. If embraced, the move would deepen in fundamental ways Europe's political and fiscal union and represent one of the boldest steps taken by the bloc since the euro was launched.