BERLIN/PARIS (Reuters) – Germany posted modest economic growth in the second quarter of the year and France stagnated, official data showed on Tuesday, suggesting the euro zone as a whole contracted over the three months.

Europe’s largest economy eked out growth of 0.3 percent over the quarter, marginally beating forecasts, but it is unlikely to be able to defy gravity indefinitely unless decisive action is taken to tackle the currency bloc’s debt crisis.

KARLSRUHE, Germany (Reuters) – Germany’s top court agreed on Tuesday to examine complaints lodged against the EU’s bailout fund and new budget rules but gave no date for its verdict, keeping investors on tenterhooks over the prospects for overcoming the euro zone crisis.

Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble urged the Constitutional Court to reach a speedy decision and said any significant delay in approval of the anti-crisis tools would stoke financial market turbulence and erode confidence in the common currency.

KARLSRUHE, Germany (Reuters) – German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told the country’s top court on Tuesday that any significant delay in approving the EU’s permanent bailout fund could fuel turbulence in financial markets and hurt confidence in the euro zone.

Schaeuble was addressing the Constitutional Court during a keenly watched hearing into whether the bailout scheme, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), and a new fiscal pact are compatible with German law.

KARLSRUHE, Germany (Reuters) – German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told the country’s top court on Tuesday that any significant delay in approving the EU’s permanent bailout fund could fuel financial market turbulence.

The Constitutional Court has begun a hearing into whether the EU bailout scheme and budget rules are compatible with German law.

KARLSRUHE, Germany (Reuters) – Germany’s top court will address on Tuesday whether Europe’s new bailout scheme and budget rules are compatible with national law in a process influencing not just how to tackle the euro zone debt crisis, but how much deeper European integration can go.

Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble and German central bank chief Jens Weidmann will attend the German Constitutional Court’s public hearing (0800 GMT) into complaints about the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) and fiscal pact.

BERLIN (Reuters) – Around half of Germans are prepared to give up some national powers to Brussels in the pursuit of a common European Union financial policy, according to a poll by Emnid for the German magazine Focus.

Some 49 percent of the 1,000 Germans surveyed for the poll supported handing over more power to the EU, in line with the closer European fiscal and political union championed by Chancellor Angela Merkel. Some 44 percent were opposed.

Berlin (Reuters) – Germany’s manufacturing sector shrank in June at the fastest pace in three years, with new business intake dropping for the 12th month running, in a sign the economy is suffering from both the euro crisis and a broader global economic slowdown.

Markit’s manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) slid to 45.0 in June from 45.2 in May, registering the fastest decline in the sector since June 2009, final data showed on Monday. The figure was just above a flash estimate of 44.7.

BERLIN (Reuters) – German joblessness rose for the third month in a row in June, though it remains close to post-reunification lows, data showed, signalling that Europe’s largest economy is not immune to the euro debt crisis and cannot be relied on to prop up growth.

The Labour Office said on Thursday the number of people out of a job rose by a seasonally-adjusted 7,000 to 2.882 million in June from 2.875 million in May. The consensus forecast in a Reuters poll of economists was for joblessness to rise by 5,000.

BERLIN/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – EU leaders go into a Brussels meeting on Thursday more openly divided than at any time since the euro crisis began, with Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel showing no sign of relenting in her refusal to back other countries’ debts.

Merkel is being urged at home to stay tough and reject all efforts to make Germany underwrite European partners’ debts or banks, while her EU partners say that may be the only way to save the single currency.

BERLIN/FRANKFURT (Reuters) – There is nothing to stop the European Central Bank cutting interest rates further, a senior policymaker said on Wednesday, adding to expectations it could act as soon as next week to counter dimming growth prospects and help tackle the euro zone crisis.

Executive Board member Peter Praet’s intervention followed his colleague Benoit Coeure, who said last week cutting rates was an option and one that would be discussed at the ECB’s July 5 meeting.