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The Greek government's negotiations with the major political parties to agree on new austerity measures are dragging. The euro zone is getting impatient. And the unions called a general strike Tuesday. A retired manifest in Athens against the austerity measures December 15, 2011

The difficult negotiations between the Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos government and political parties are expected to continue Tuesday, while Greece will be a general strike, to wrest the downstream parties to reforms demanded by the EU and the IMF.

As the day until late at night, Mr. Papademos was to meet Monday evening the Troika representing the country's creditors, EU, IMF and ECB, whose patience is sorely tested by the length of the bargaining.

The hope is to conclude a political agreement Monday between the leaders of the three government parties, George Papandreou (Socialist), Antonis Samaras (Conservative), and George Karatzaferis (far right), on measures to implement was away with the "very likely" to report Tuesday to the meeting originally scheduled for Monday, according to a government source. "Negotiations continue

. There are still issues to resolve," said a government source told AFP in order to justify this new deadline. The challenge is to put an end to three weeks of negotiating a double, both with foreign creditors and the three political leaders, on the modalities for the further course of rigor required by countries in return for a second plan bailout of 130 billion euros.

To release these funds, and also endorse the erase operation 100 billion debt by private creditors, institutional lenders require an explicit commitment to MM. Papandreou, Samaras and Karatzaferis, in turn reluctant to countersign and unpopular measures that could deepen the recession. But the length of the bargaining has the patience to creditors.

Discussions are "already beyond the time," warned Monday Amadeu Altafaj, spokesman for the European Commissioner for Economic Affairs, Olli Rehn, noting that Brussels had relied on an outcome this weekend. Meeting in Paris, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have also increased their pressure.

"The Greeks have made commitments, they must scrupulously respect, there is no choice, time is short, it's a matter of days, now we must conclude" Sarkozy said. Sarkozy and Merkel also wanted the money paid by creditors to Greece (as a slice) is blocked in an account "to be sure that this money will be permanently available" to ensure service payments of debt.

Athens has a vital need for new aid to avoid default on 20 March, at maturity of debt of 14.5 billion euros. After five hours of Sunday in discussions with the three leaders, Mr. Papademos expressed an agreement on the extent of cost savings (about 3.3 billion euros) on the implementation of reforms aimed at lowering production costs and on a scheme to recapitalize banks.

According to media reports, the recent negotiations should focus on cutting the amount provided in supplementary pensions, the reduction demanded by the EU and the IMF in the minimum wage and on a proposed 15,000 layoffs in the public fast. The two leaders were right when they left the meeting raised their voices against the rigors advocated, but Mr. Karatzaferis then shared developments "satisfactory". The Socialist Party, which ruled the country until the November ouster of Mr. Papandreou, former Prime Minister-elect is ready "to show the same sense of responsibility" than before, for his part said his door voice, Panis Beglitis. But it does give the green light "that if an agreement on all of everything," he warned.

The Ministry of Finance has in turn ruled out the hypothesis of a deletion of two of the 14 months' salary in the private sector, despised by Mr. Samaras. Most newspapers were betting on a deal Monday morning's final trio Greek politics, which would allow Mr. Papademos lead to a close parallel final agreement on debt restructuring with private creditors.

The two largest unions, GSEE and ADEDY for the private to the public, also anticipated an agreement calling for a general strike Tuesday 24H, which is particularly disturbing schools, links with the islands, public transport and administration. A demonstration is planned in the center of Athens in mid-day.  

The new measures "are the chronicle of a death foretold (…), the goal is to bring down the entire law of labor and reduce wages by 20 to 30% in addition to cuts already made," he said President of GSEE, Iannis Panagopoulos. With ADEDY, GSEE had already organized six general strikes in 2011, but failed to bend donors. The leftist opposition, communist and radical, for its part is mounted to the front by announcing events on Monday night.

France Telecom continued its sale of foreign assets by selling its 100% subsidiary Orange and Hutchison 3G Austria to 1.3 billion euros, confirmed Friday the conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa rat.

The agreement, which is subject to approval of regulatory authorities telecom and competition, will take effect in mid-2012, the conglomerate said in a statement ;.

Orange Austria's capital is currently divided between France Telecom and the investment fund Mid Europa Partners.

The French operator, which has launched a review of its assets, has already beaten its subsidiary Orange Switzerland, sold at the end of December to fund Apax Partners for 1.6 billion euros. 

January 23, Stéphane Richard, CEO of France Telecom, told the BFM Business microphone that selling the group's business in Austria was "a matter of days ".

Hutchison 3G, a subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa conglomerate owned by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, is already present on the Austrian market through the brand "3".

Deutsche Börse announced Wednesday that the proposed merger with NYSE Euronext was blocked by the European Union. The trading of the NYSE Euronext has been suspended pending a statement from the group. The Competition Commissioner, Joaquin Almunia, who must hold a news conference at 12:30 to announce its decision, recommended last week the Commission to oppose the project. Deutsche Boerse, the operator of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and NYSE Euronext, which includes the New York Stock Exchange and the Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels and Lisbon, presented in February of Last year their planned merger. But the prospect of the new entity control over 90% of listed derivatives market in Europe has raised concerns for competition in this market.

Sales distributors in the United States have reached record during the long weekend of Thanksgiving, which marks the beginning of the holiday season and New Year, buyers are coming in numbers to take the early opening of shops and attractive promotions.

These sales were up 16.4% over the same period a year earlier to 52.4 billion (39.25 billion euros), according to data released Sunday by the National Federation of the distribution ( NRF).

A total of 226 million people traveled between Thursday and Sunday in stores or on online sales sites.This is also an unprecedented level, compared with 212 million last year.

Among the big winners of the weekend appears Best Buy, one of the stores that opened its doors at midnight on the night of Thanksgiving.

The London Stock Exchange could launch a trading platform for SMEs in France provided that the incumbent operator, Euronext, or the authorities do not object, said its managing director Xavier Rolet in an interview published Thursday by The Tribune.

The London Stock Exchange began informal discussions in this direction, said Xavier Rolet, adding he had no deadline for now.

"We were contacted by French companies, which were probably disappointed by the abandonment of the SME market by the incumbent operator, Euronext," said the leader.

Societe Generale plans to eliminate hundreds of positions in its Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB) to adapt its activities to the crisis in the euro area, have indicated Tuesday the unions of the bank at the end of a meeting with the CEO Frédéric Oudéa.

As BNP Paribas and Credit Agricole, SocGen launched in September a plan for savings and reducing the size of its balance sheet to enhance its financial strength and reduce its financing needs in dollars, after seeing its market capitalization s' collapse during the summer.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange ended up sharply Thursday, forgetting his concerns over the high yen, in the hope that the Europe Agreement on the night between Wednesday and Thursday will stem the debt crisis.

The Nikkei gained 2.04% or 178.07 points to 8,926.54 and the Topix has taken 2.18% (16.31 points) to 762.79.

The Bank of Japan is also stepped in to buy more assets in the markets, which helped improve investor sentiment.

"There are many unknowns about Europe, and it is now more likely that something disappointing for investors to happen, instead of a positive surprise," said Tomomi Yamashita, fund manager at Shinkin Asset Management .

About values, Olympus has seen a strong rebound after plummeting last few days, taking 23.29% to 1,355 yen.

Olympus gave a press conference defending its mergers and acquisitions Thursday following the resignation of its chairman.

Several major automakers have values ​​slightly outperformed the market: Toyota made 2.22% to 2,584 yen and Honda has awarded 2.75% to 2,393 yen.

In electronics, Sony jumped 5.43% to 1,650 yen, while qu'Elpida fell by 0.6% to 496 yen.

NEC (2.31% at 177 yen) and Softbank (0.91% to 2450 yen) released their quarterly earnings at closing.

Net inflows of life insurance products was negative in September, the first time since December 2008, said Monday the French Federation of Insurance Companies.

The collection amounted to 9.7 billion euros in September while the amount of benefits paid totaled 11.5 billion euros.

Net inflows, the difference between contributions and benefits remains positive throughout the year.

In the first nine months of 2011, benefits payments to customers were up 19% to 78.8 billion euros, while the premiums collected by insurance companies has decreased from 11% to 98 billion euros .

The life insurance industry is suffering from financial market volatility, higher the performance of the booklet A and competition from other savings accounts that banks promote to increase the deposits of their customers.

The "troika" of international donors in Greece recommends to pay as soon as possible to Athens a sixth tranche of aid, despite the dynamic "serious concern" of government debt, according to its draft report.

The economic crisis in Greece is much more severe than expected, the debt situation has deteriorated in recent months and it may be necessary to revise downward its growth forecast over the medium term, we read in this and other Reuters report that was obtained Thursday.

He concludes, however, that further action on budget revenues and expenditures should allow Greece to meet its deficit target in 2012, even if it lacks that of 2011.

The report of the European Commission was prepared with the assistance of the European Central Bank but the International Monetary Fund, the third member of the "troika", which writes its own report on its side.

The Commission and the ECB to pay recommend using "as soon as possible, as soon as previous initiatives agreed on fiscal consolidation, privatization and labor market reform announced by the government have been included in the law."

Greece needs the help of eight billion euros to avoid becoming insolvent in mid-November.

"DYNAMIC CONCERN"

The Troika also finds that the previous projection of a growth close to 3% per year over the period 2015-2020 can not be achieved "in the case of a marked acceleration of structural reform initiatives, including privatization."

She noted deficiencies and delays in implementing fiscal reforms but added that additional measures "are the projection of a deficit in 2012 in line with the agreed ceiling" without the gap or deficit in 2011 fully met.

The Greek financial sector remains fragile due to a drying up of liquidity, deposits continue to decline and banks remain highly dependent on the ECB for financing.

"The dynamics of public debt remains extremely worrying," says the draft report of donors, adding that debt levels remain high "for many years."

"Compared with the prospect of a few months ago, the debt situation has actually deteriorated," they continued, referring in particular the delay in reforms "and the prospect of a recapitalization banks ".

Athens will be at least a quarter behind schedule for privatization, for administrative reasons but also because market conditions have deteriorated in the third quarter, especially on the Athens Stock Exchange, also explains the document.

The Summit of Heads of State and Government of the European Union initially planned Oct. 17 will be postponed to October 23, time to have new findings on the situation of Greece and the recapitalization of banks, said Monday the president European Council Herman Van Rompuy.

This report is also expected to have new conclusions on strengthening the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF), he added.

"This schedule will allow us to finalize a comprehensive strategy on the crisis of sovereign debt in the euro area covering a number of issues related to it," he said.

Finance ministers of the euro area (Eurogroup) and the European Union (Ecofin) will meet before October 23, he said.

A source explained that the delay was due in part to the fact that the report of the EU and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the progress of the sanitation program of Greek public finances is not yet available.

"The leaders want to be able to act on the basis of the results of the report of the troika, which was not ready in time for the original date," said one EU source."We believe that the postponement is due to a request from Paris than in Berlin."

Greece said on Monday it had completed its meetings with the inspectors of the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank for the release of a tranche of assistance Athens needs to avoid bankruptcy by a month.

Another source said that EU officials in charge of organizing the meetings had begun to make contact with the Member States to set a new date.

"They go around to all delegations to see if anyone is able to postpone the summit," she said.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced Sunday they will present by the end of a response "lasting and comprehensive peace" to the crisis in the euro area, which should go through a recapitalization of banks in Europe.