This is the first statement by a senior European official confirming the existence of such plans.

Speculation about the development and content of such projects are fed from the Greek elections of May 6, but their existence had not previously confirmed e.

"There is one and a half, the risk of domino effect could have existed," said Karel De Gucht Belgian Flemish daily De Standaard. 

"But today there are, both within the European Central Bank and European Commission services working in emergency scenarios where the Gre it can not. "

The CEO Stephen Hester also confirmed that the bank would have ended next week to repay emergency loans granted by London during the financial crisis.

It also will resume payment of dividends and coupons attached to hybrid securities.

RBS posted a first quarter operating profit of 1.2 billion pounds (1.46 billion euros), after a loss of 144 million the previous quarter. The consensus gave a profit of 800 million.

London has an 82% interest in the bank bailout since the surgery in 2008 and has "no desire" to sell given the situation of stock markets, reported the group.

"As far as I know, there is no desire to sell at current prices and I think it is quite understandable," said Stephen Hester at a conference tee ; léphonique. "Even if everyone wants it to be done, to my knowledge there is nothing in sight."

Sources had said in March that the government had held talks with Abu Dhabi, which had fueled speculation of a sale.

"MISTAKES OF THE PAST"

The rise of the bank in the green is due in particular to the investment bank, which posted an operating profit of 824 million pounds during the quarter against a loss of 109 million the previous three months.

"We are pleased with progress made in the first quarter, although the economic and regulatory environment remains tough," said Stephen Hester. "RBS continues to significantly grow in strength and resistance."

Hester added that the bank was progressing very well in the correction of "errors" of the past, with a decrease in non-strategic assets and increased liquidity.

She said her "Funded balance sheet", defined as total assets less the balance sheet derivatives, was further reduced by 27 billion pounds to 950 billion. Of this total, the non-strategic assets decreased from 11 to 83 billion pounds.

"Once again, the good news is the progress speed of adjustment of the balance sheet. It's all about cleaning up the balance (…)", said Ian Graham, an analyst at Investec. "For me, progress is obviously there but the road is long and painful."

Around 9:25 GMT, RBS shares gained 2.4% to 25.14 pence in morning, outperforming the European sector index of banks, up 0.22%.

S & P maintains this climate speculative grade ("junk") and warned that a deep recession, the unpredictable outcome of the elections on May 6 and wrath of public opinion against the austerity could threaten the efforts of Athens to redress its finances.

S & P, which matched the rating with a stable outlook, provides that Greek sovereign debt will remain high over the next three years, around 160 to 170% of GDP. 

"The rating could be degraded if we believe that a forced exchange on what remains of the Greek private debt appears likely," the agency said in a statement.

Fitch was the first to recover the note by assigning a B-to Greece in the middle of March, after the establishment of the exchange procedure which reduced about 100 billion sovereign debt of the country and cost the private bondholders most of their assets.

S & P warned in February that it would report surely the Greek notes to CCC, upon completion of the exchange procedure.

Moody's is now the only agency to keep Greece in zone fault (likely in his case). She said it would review his notes "on time" but that any recovery would remain limited.

The UK has not escaped the downturn. Its economy has officially fallen into recession earlier this year following a contraction of its economy for the second consecutive quarter, a surprise for analysts and bad news for the government of David Cameron.

According to one official estimate released Wednesday, the British economy shrank by 0.2% in the first quarter of 2012, after falling 0.3% last quarter. The country is thus technically back in recession, which was released in late 2009 after five straight quarters of decline in activity during the financial crisis.  

Despite very mixed economic indicators, most analysts were betting on a slight rise of 0.1% of GDP, which would have avoided the country to be in the same situation as the states of the eurozone such as Spain or Italy, also entered into a recession.

This performance-up against Prime Minister David Cameron in a difficult position: it should indeed revive criticisms about the draconian austerity policies of his government by the opposition Labor Party accused of having "killed growth" in the name of a struggle against deficits.

The pound is distributed sharply lower against the euro and the dollar after the announcement of the contraction of the UK economy. The London Stock Exchange remained, however, directed slightly up gaining 0.44% to 5,734,67 points to 0900 GMT.

Francois Brottes believes that the Competition Authority "issued an indictment against the policy of opening the French electricity market" in favor of the review of a decree implementing this law. 

The system "will strengthen the speculative nature of the electricity market in France and will further increase prices, since it will impact the electric bill of consumers to the tune of '200 to 500 million Euros per year, according to the Authority, "he says in a statement.

"A few days before an election critical to the future of France, it is urgent to suspend enforcement of the law Nome. Let the French can choose between two conceptions of e Energy: speculative, or public good, "he adds.

New organization of the French electricity market (Nome) allows alternative suppliers to buy electricity from EDF Nuclear, within an overall limit of 25% of the production capacity. Since 1 January, the resale price is set at 42 euros a megawatt hour.

Years of justice for nothing? Maybe so. More than 12 years after the fact, the General Counsel of the Supreme Court seeking annulment of the sentence in Total Erika shipwreck flag. Moreover, he believes that we should not refer the case on appeal. His analysis? French justice is not responsible for the sinking of a ship flying the Maltese flag outside French territorial waters. The notice of Gossement Arnaud, a lawyer specializing in environmental law.

What do you think the requisitions of the General Counsel?

Master Gossement Arnaud: This is surprising. Both courts and not the least, the First District Court of Paris (TGI) in 2008 and the Court of Appeal of Paris ruled in 2010 in the same direction. They have ruled on the application of French law and compensation for environmental damage. It was a first. Second thing, until 2008, an investigation has led to a removal order. In short, much work has been done around this case. It is therefore a surprise to make possible today a possible departure from precedent. And surprise is shared by all lawyers.

Can you reconstruct his reasoning?

We must above all be cautious. And for good reason, we do not know all of the conclusions of Advocate General, only a few arguments. According to the senior judge of the Supreme Court, there would be an issue of pure law, ie the Court of Appeal would not have applied the correct legal text. She should have, according to the magistrate, apply international law because of the location of the Erika. It was not located in French territorial waters. Then, the Advocate General points to the notion of environmental damage. In 2008 the Paris Court of First Instance is to be used with great clarity to the concept of "damages for injury to the environment." But the judge would question the possibility of convicting a person on grounds of environmental damage. Total for lawyers, this recent concept does not exist in positive law, in the texts of laws. Whether the General Counsel relies on this ground for reconsideration of the ecological damage, I do not know.

One thing is certain, the magistrate did not say that Total was irresponsible, but there is a problem of law. Over the total condemnation of the judge shows the inadequacy of the legal framework that applies to legal activities at sea It is a law vague and complex, composed of a mosaic of texts. Historically, there has been interest in the land. We just forgot that human activities would also develop at sea, whether oil activities or renewable energy production. This is since the 70s, including the trial of Montedison (the Italian company had dumped thousands of tons of toxic waste in a marine trench off Cape Corse, in Italian waters), we took awareness of the fragility of the sea We discover that the sea is not a trash can and must be protected. Erika was a turning point. There was a strong awareness.

Requisitions prosecutors are they followed by the Supreme Court?

This is what is said in general. But this is a complex matter for which miles are possible options. The Supreme Court can completely cancel the decision of the Court of Appeal, as it can do so partially. On the issue of compensation paid by Total at the time of use, the oil group said he would not call into question the compensation paid, but one can imagine the reverse. If unfortunately, the Supreme Court completely cancels the decision of the Court of Appeal, the procedure can start again. It would be a disaster not only for the plaintiffs, but also for the ecology. And for good reason, return on an affair that has lasted for 1999 is a bad signal to polluters. This is a step backwards. This is very disturbing. They may think that it does not matter because any way the court proceedings will take years to achieve. It is a discouraging message for associations and however encouraging for polluters. It should be certainty in the application of sanctions.

Three months after the announcement of an agreement between EDF and other major shareholders of the second largest electricity producer in Italy, Consob said that "the price of EDF 0, 84 per share does not seem representative of the actual price agreed between the parties. "

She adds, in the notice published on its website a price ranging between 0.84 and 0.95 euros would be more consistent with "the notion of price paid" and that the median of this range , or 0.89 euros, can be "a useful reference point". 

Contacted by Reuters, EDF has made no immediate comment.

"Let's see what the French would say. But if we take as 0.89 euro price, the difference is about 60 million euros. It is nothing for a band like EDF" said a source close the file.

After months of negotiations, EDF had signed a preliminary agreement in late December supposed to ensure control of Edison. But he was then conditioned the implementation of the agreement to confirmation by Consob price of 0.84 euro per share Edison.

Under the terms of this agreement, EDF was, initially, increase from 50% to 80.7% its stake in Edison for 700 million euros, and then launch a takeover bid for the remaining shares.

The group led by Proglio then found that the agreement Edison valued at 0.84 euros per share.

In return, Edipower, which Edison owns half the capital and considered by some observers as the "nugget" of the Italian group, had to go completely in the hands of current shareholders of Italian , led by A2A.

At the head of the minority shareholders of Edison appears the businessman Romain Zaleski, through his holding company Carlo Tassara. 

The action ended in Edison 0.8735 euro Wednesday at the Milan Stock Exchange. In this course, the Italian group is valued 4.5 billion euros. In Paris, EDF finished at 17.2150 euros, a capitalization of 32.7 billion.

The IMF seeks to double its war chest through raising $ 600 billion of new resources to help countries struggling with the fallout from the debt crisis in the euro area.

But most G20 countries have said that before they do inject money into the IMF, the euro area was first put more money to solve the crisis of sovereign debt.

This was done on Friday finance ministers of 17 countries in the euro area in agreeing to carry 500 to 700 billion combined capacity of two rescue fund. 

"It is important to ensure that the IMF has sufficient resources to fulfill its systemic role in the global economy and yesterday's agreement within the Eurogroup (…) is very important in this regard, "he told reporters the Danish Minister of Economy Vestager Margrethe, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union.

Finance ministers and central bank governors of the G20 countries must discuss an increase in IMF resources on April 22 in Washington.

"It's time to increase IMF resources. It is in the interest of all countries, the focus is on Europe, but it is very important to recognize that there are also vulnerabilities in other parts of the globe, "added Minister

." I think and hope – and this is to How we work – we will reach an agreement in April, "she said

." We Europeans, we can get to re ; unions spring the Washington sense of accomplishment ", for his part said Jörg Asmussen, Executive Board Member of the European Central Bank

… Five …… major emerging countries, said the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), however, have said they would support an increase if they were accorded a more important within the IMF. 

The euro area has already said it would contribute € 150 billion more resources to the IMF. The Czech Republic will contribute 1.5 billion euros, 5.3 billion of Denmark, Poland and Sweden 6.3 billion to 6.9 billion euros.

"The EU calls on other G20 countries and financially strong IMF members to contribute to this effort," we read in a paper for the Washington meeting.

This initiative can in theory lead to penalties amounting to billions of dollars imposed on EU products.

"We refuse to remain inactive while companies and American workers are disadvantaged," said Ron Kirk in a statement. 

The text clarifies the intent of the United States to ask the WTO to say whether the EU has complied with a previous decision of the organization de ; favorable state aid to Airbus.

Over the whole of 2011, the bank shows a loss of 9.2 billion euros, a result of massive writedowns in the third quarter, primarily goodwill.

Italy's largest bank by assets had already passed the annual dividend.

Earnings in the fourth quarter, beating consensus giving 30 million, compares with a profit of 321 million euros a year earlier. 

The ratio of Tier 1 capital was hard to 9.97% on a proforma basis, taking into account a difficult capital increase of EUR 7.5 billion performed in January 2012.