Portugal tip of iceberg as Euro leaders tackle debt woes

Slovenia’s six-day-old government is being urged to prevent the nation becoming the euro region’s next bailout battleground. Prime Minister Alenka Bratusek’s Cabinet must quickly carry out a plan to revamp the country’s ailing lenders, the central bank said yesterday. The former Yugoslav nation needs about 3-billion euros (US$3.9-billion) of funding this year, while banks need 1-billion euros of fresh capital, the International Monetary Fund said last week.

BRUSSELS/BERLIN – Germany signaled on Wednesday it was ready to back plans for the European Central Bank to be made the chief supervisor of banks, raising the prospect of a breakthrough on the European Union’s most ambitious financial reform. Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told the German cabinet he was “optimistic” about a deal ahead of a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels on Wednesday, a German official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Europe's leaders put the finishing touches to their response to a year-long debt crisis this week, as financial strain in Portugal threatens a third bailout after Greece and Ireland.Heads of state and government of the 27 European Union states meet Thursday and Friday in Brussels, with the situation in Libya, and nuclear safety issues in the wake of Japan's quake and tsunami severely damaging a reactor, high on the agenda.

The tumbling euro may make all the headlines but it is not necessarily a real problem although it could exacerbate eurozone differences to the benefit of its stronger economies, analysts say.Political leaders and economists agree that governments within the 16-nation bloc must tackle swollen deficits and debt that have undermined confidence in the single currency, the European Union's most ambitious project to date.

NICOSIA — The president of Cyprus said on Friday the risk of bankruptcy had been contained and the country had no intention of leaving the euro, in a speech laden with criticism of Europe’s currency union for “experimenting” with the island’s fate. Conservative leader Nicos Anastasiades spoke a day after banks reopened following an almost two-week shutdown imposed as the country raced to clinch a rescue package from the European Union.

Interest rates on government debt for a number of European countries-- notably Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, and Spain-- shot up considerably during 2010-2012. Those yields have fallen significantly from their peaks, though these five countries still face higher borrowing costs than most other countries in Europe.