German Chancellor Angela Merkel appealed to the rest of the European Union to unite behind plans for a levy on the banks she blames for the economic crisis, but deep divisions remained over how and when to impose it. Merkel made her pitch on Thursday ahead of a meeting of EU leaders to discuss tightening

The European Commission will make more detailed proposals of changes to EU budget rules on June 30 focusing on early budget coordination, reducing debt and more sanctions for rule breakers, an EU source said. The Commission, executive arm of the 27-country European Union, will also offer further detail of plans for ensuring EU budget rules

France joined Spain in calling for rapid publication of "stress tests" on European banks as EU leaders began a summit on Thursday to agree new budget rules and tried to allay concern about euro member Spain. The euro got a boost and the premium investors demand to hold Spanish debt rather than benchmark German issues

World stocks fell from this week's one-month high on Thursday and the euro and oil prices dropped as worries about Spain's public finances encouraged investors to cut back on risky assets. The spread of Spanish government bond yields over benchmark Bunds soared to a euro lifetime high with the market watching the auction of up

The outlook for the European steel industry is stable, reflecting the rebound of prices and volumes in recent months, as well as continued strong demand from China, Moody's Investors Service said in its latest Industry Outlook report for the sector. The outlook also factors in the fragility of the economic recovery in major markets and

European Union leaders hope to agree on ways to strengthen budget discipline and economic policy coordination on Thursday to show financial markets they can prevent a repeat of the euro zone debt crisis. Leaders of the 27 member states and the executive European Commission will also work on tightening financial regulation to help prevent another

Bank of Cyprus has withdrawn an application to raise its stake in Romanian Banca Transilvania <BATR.BX> to up to 20 percent, it said on Wednesday. The Cypriot bank cited "other priorities" for its decision to withdraw its request from the Romanian Central Bank. On May 17, Bank of Cyprus said it had received an initial

The European Central Bank will continue to buy government bonds until markets have sufficiently stabilised, ECB executive board member Jose Manuel Gonzalez-Paramo told a German newspaper. "So far the programme is going very well," he said in an interview published in Financial Times Deutschland on Thursday. The ECB started buying sovereign bonds last month in

Asian shares fell and the euro slipped on Thursday as short covering rallies ran out of steam, but some analysts said global markets may have finally found support after a heavy selloff in May. European shares were expected to eke out small gains, with financial spreadbetters calling London's FTSE 100 to open up 0.2 percent.

A top Moody's analyst on Tuesday defended the international ratings agency's decision, a day earlier, to downgrade Greek government bonds by an eyebrow-raising four notches, Ba1 from A3. Asked to justify the downgrade when its own report stated that the possibility of a Greek default is less likely, Sarah Carlson, Moody’s lead sovereign analyst for