The Netherlands, Germany and Austria have all relied heavily on so-called short-work programs to keep people in their jobs in the wake of the financial crisis. All three have managed to keep unemployment from soaring, but the Dutch have been particularly effective, The Wall Street Journal reported. At 3.7% in October, according to the European Union statistics office, the country's jobless rate is one of the lowest among the world's wealthy nations. After the crisis hit, the Dutch government, labor unions and employers quickly reached an agreement to begin payroll subsidies.

The euro tumbled as debt woes spread around the euro zone from Greece, where pledges of austerity and fiscal rigor failed to stem growing fears that the Continent's economic recovery could be derailed, The Wall Street Journal reported. The euro fell as low as $1.4505 on Tuesday, its lowest level since early October. New worries about Austrian banking also roiled markets, with rumors of trouble at an Austrian lender with shaky investments in Eastern Europe following Monday's surprise nationalization of another Austrian bank at the behest of the European Central Bank.

The Airbus military transport plane A400M took off for its maiden flight on Friday in Seville, Spain. But the project is now €5 billion over budget and EADS would like European governments to help cover the shortfall, Spiegel Online reported. Airbus parent EADS is hoping that the governments of seven European countries, which have ordered 180 of the gigantic, military transport aircrafts, will agree to renegotiate the original contract -- one which placed the burden of budget overruns squarely on the shoulders of Airbus.

Germany needs new insolvency requirements to win time and guard itself against any failure of systemically relevant banks, Deutsche Bundesbank President Axel Weber said Thursday, Nasdaq.com reported on a Dow Jones story. One of the things currently discussed would be more stringent capital requirements for systemically relevant banks, Weber said, with a view to pending international agreements. Commenting on money market developments, he said he doesn't share the view that the market place for banks' liquidity provisions will return to business as usual after the global financial crisis.

Ciena Corp was cleared to acquire a unit of bankrupt Nortel Networks Inc. for $769 million after fighting off a legal challenge by Nokia Siemens Networks, Reuters reported. Network equipment maker Ciena trumped an offer by Nokia Siemens and its financial partner, One Equity Partners, with an auction-winning bid of $530 million in cash and $239 million in convertible securities for Nortel's optical networking and carrier Ethernet business.

Amid new signs that the euro-zone economic recovery is gathering headway, Germany continues to prepare for a possible relapse as other governments plot exit strategies, The Wall Street Journal reported. Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday that government-funded programs to keep people employed by reducing work hours have helped prevent broad layoffs in Germany and will be extended. Ms. Merkel told a business conference in Berlin that the length of the extension for short-hour program was is still being discussed.

A senior General Motors Co. executive said Tuesday that the final restructuring plan for GM's Opel/Vauxhall unit still could hinge on aid commitments from European governments, Dow Jones reported. The company aims to advance a new €3.3 billion turnaround plan for the European operation in two to three weeks and wants aid to supplement further investment of its own. Nick Reilly, president of GM's international operations, said there was no "bidding war" among European countries looking to preserve local auto jobs with financial support.

Senior members of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet sent conflicting signals at the weekend over whether the government should provide aid to Opel, suggesting divisions within her government on the issue, Reuters reported. Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle said in an interview with the Bild am Sonntag newspaper that he expected Opel's U.S. parent General Motors to shoulder the full burden of a restructuring of Opel. He left the door open to regional aid for Opel from the four states where the carmaker has plants, but said he did not expect GM to come to Berlin for federal funds.

Germany has told General Motors it will have to come up with the money to refinance Opel, after the US carmaker cancelled the sale of its European arm, the BBC reported. Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle told GM executives that they had to be responsible for restructuring the unit. Germany had previously offered €4.5 billion ($6.7 billion ; £4.1 billion) to support Opel and protect German jobs if the company was sold to car parts maker Magna. On cancelling the sale last week, GM said it would still seek state aid.

The bid by the German government to secure Opel's rescue has ended in fiasco after General Motors pulled out of a deal to sell its troubled European subsidiary, Spiegel Online reported. A German chancellor has rarely been given such short shrift by the chief executive of an industrial corporation. Merkel and half the German cabinet had spent more than a year in negotiations with the US company so that GM's German subsidiary, Opel, could be sold to a consortium of investors headed by the Canadian-Austrian automotive supplier Magna and the Russian Sberbank.