ECB holds interest rates but offers more stimulus measures for banks; France isolated over plans to use EFSF to recapitalise banks

Moody???s warns that France???s Triple-A rating could be put on negative outlook; Merkel???s Spokesperson: Dreams of a magic solution will not be fulfilled this week

by Gregor Gall Was that it? Well, maybe. While France, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain have been rocked by numerous general and public sector-wide strikes over the past few years, in Britain we have had just the two one-day strikes over pensions reform, on 30 June and 30 November last year. Apart from these, large-scale

Europe faces a difficult challenge of reducing its dependence on credit rating agencies, while there may be no immediate solution, there are some interesting avenues for reform, says Marie-France Baud. More »

As Greek bailout talks reached a dramatic turn yesterday (6 February), French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel suggested creating an escrow account to partially reimburse the country's creditors in case of default. EurActiv France reports. More »

While both countries had the same sorts of export surplus in the early 1990s, they have diverged massively since the D-Mark and franc were fixed in perpetuity. Germany has a current account surplus of 5pc of GDP: France has a deficit of 2.7pc, anathema for Colbertistes. You can see from IMF data that the silent

Development secretary Andrew Mitchell says he will not bow to pressure to cut funds after France was preferred in a bid for a fighter jet contract

France and Germany to push ahead with imminent Treaty change

Greek default moves closer after negotiations on voluntary restructuring breakdown; France and Austria lose their triple-A rating as S&P criticise handling of eurozone crisis

France and Germany push for greater ???tax coordination??? in the EU and swifter negotiations on FTT