Headlines

The main donor and the main recipient of European Union subsidies, Germany and Poland differ on the need to cut the bloc’s budget for 2014-2020, their leaders said Wednesday ahead of an EU summit next week, the Emerging Europe blog reported. The bloc’s 27 members will likely struggle at a summit on Nov. 22-23 to agree on a proposed budget of some €1 trillion ($1.3 trillion). Germany and other states that pay more into the bloc than they receive from it would like to cut their contributions, lowering farm subsidies and funds for the less-affluent members. U.K.

Struggling paper, packaging and signage merchant PaperlinX has announced more restructuring and cost cuts in its business in the United Kingdom in response to depressed trading conditions in Europe, The Australian reported. The company said on Thursday that the UK restructuring would cost $3 million, but combined with cost cuts, would deliver $13 million in annual benefits.

Spanish and Portuguese workers will stage the first coordinated general strike across the Iberian Peninsula on Wednesday, shutting transport, grounding flights and closing schools to protest against spending cuts and tax hikes, Reuters reported. Unions in Greece and Italy also planned work stoppages and demonstrations on a "European Day of Action and Solidarity" against austerity policies, which labour leaders blame for prolonging and worsening the continent's economic crisis.

Europe’s diplomatic sprint to establish a single bank supervisor stumbled on Tuesday as EU finance ministers restated objections to fundamental elements of the proposal and raised doubts over reaching a deal in December, the Financial Times reported. In spite of almost 10 weeks of intense behind-the-scenes negotiations, the discussions laid bare stark differences between several member states over a proposal that is billed as a key plank of Europe’s response to the sovereign debt crisis.

The International Monetary Fund, criticized for decades for prescribing harsh medicine to heavily indebted governments, is pressing reluctant euro-zone governments to go easy on Greece, The Wall Street Journal Brussels Beat blog reported. It is a fight the IMF will be hard-pressed to win. It is scaling down the money it lends to Greece, and, as it does so, its influence weakens. It has lent Greece about €22 billion ($28 billion), and has set aside another €26 billion to lend until 2016.

Australian business conditions deteriorated last month to levels not seen since the global financial crisis, as a mining slowdown weighed on the country's resources-dominated economy, a private-sector survey showed Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported. National Australia Bank's index of business conditions—which tracks indicators such as goods orders, employment and profitability—fell two points to minus-5 in October from September, the lowest level since May 2009 when world financial markets were in turmoil.

Kuwait's Global Investment House , buffeted by a real estate slump and market turbulence, posted further losses on Tuesday and said it had yet to persuade a handful of creditors to back a second debt restructuring in three years. The company, whose major shareholders include the governments of Kuwait and Dubai, lost 14.9 million dinars ($52.8 million) in the three months to Sept. 30 versus a 15.5 million dinars loss for the same period of 2011, Reuters calculated based on a statement to the London Stock Exchange.

Brazilian state-led power company Eletrobras said on Tuesday that it plans to take over Cia de Eletricidade do Amapa (CEA) to help restructure the bankrupt northern Brazilian utility and recover debts, Reuters reported. The companies and the government of Amapa, which controls CEA, agreed to sign shareholder and management agreements aimed at restoring CEA to financial health, Rio de Janeiro-based Eletrobras said in a statement on Tuesday. Amapa authorities will receive financing from Brazil's federal government to pay off CEA's debts to Eletrobras and other suppliers.

Spain's largest banks said Monday they had agreed to a two-year freeze on evictions of homeowners "in extreme financial need," amid a public uproar following the suicides of two homeowners facing expulsion, The Wall Street Journal reported. The decision by the Spanish banking association AEB, for what it called "humanitarian reasons," came as leaders of the governing Popular Party and the opposition Socialists were to begin working on a bipartisan deal to change Spain's mortgage laws, some of which date back to the early 1900s.

Euro-area finance ministers gave Greece two extra years to wrestle down its budget deficit, pledging to plug the resulting financing gaps in order to keep the country in the single currency and prevent a renewed flareup of the debt crisis, Bloomberg reported. Finance ministers granted Greece until 2016 to cut the deficit to 2 percent of gross domestic product. They put off until Nov. 20 a decision on how to cover additional Greek needs of as much as 32.6 billion euros ($41 billion) and left unclear whether the International Monetary Fund will continue to contribute.