The sense of panic over the fate of the euro and the 17-country currency union's weakest members has eased on financial markets, for the moment. But pressure on European leaders to get a grip on the Continent's debt crisis has never been higher.
France and Germany pushed other eurozone countries to sign up for tough measures to limit debt loads, make their economies more productive and stamp out the government debt crisis that has crippled their currency union over the past year.
As European leaders are frantically discussing whether the European Union's bailout fund should be increased from its current size of $585 billion, it's clear that the debt crisis in the eurozone is entering a new stage - one in which events can unravel quickly. At this stage, the European sovereign debt crisis has become a systemic problem for the European periphery as a whole - and not just a series of mishaps in its individual countries. As a result, it also has become a systemic problem for the European banking system, as much of the periphery's debt sits on balance sheets of major German banks.
Intel Corp. and security specialist McAfee Inc. have given commitments to help get European Union approval for the U.S. chipmaker's $7.68 billion takeover, European regulators said Thursday.
Google announced an agreement Tuesday to use its technology to translate patents into 29 European languages, a deal officials hope will smooth the way toward a simplified European patent system after years of infighting.
European regulators are tackling a puzzle that could shift the balance of power on the Internet: Is Google stifling competition by juicing its search results to favor its services over its rivals?
European Union regulators will probe whether Google Inc. has been manipulating its search results to stifle competition, funnel more traffic to its own services and protect its global stranglehold of the online search market.
European Union nations agreed an 85 billion euro ($113 billion) bailout deal for Ireland on Sunday to help the debt-struck country with its banking crisis, and sketched out new rules for future emergencies in an effort to restore faith in the euro currency
A permanent mechanism to solve future debt crises in the eurozone should force losses on private investors "only on a case-by-case basis," the European Commission proposed on Sunday.
