BERLIN, June 30 (Reuters) – Germany’s parliament looked set on Thursday to approve an exit from nuclear energy by 2022, a U-turn by Chancellor Angela Merkel driven by Japan’s Fukushima crisis and described by anti-nuclear opponents as a victory.

Calling it Merkel’s “Waterloo”, the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens said the nuclear phase-out vindicated three decades of bitter opposition to nuclear power in Germany.

But German industry and Germany’s neighbours fear the chancellor’s change of heart on nuclear plants — late last year she called them safe and advocated keeping them open longer – could imperil the power supply in Europe’s biggest economy.

European Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger, speaking to a conference in Berlin as the Bundestag (lower house) debated a package of power laws nearby, said Germany’s neighbours were worried about its programme of nuclear shutdowns by 2022.

He said closing the oldest eight of Germany’s 17 nuclear plants after a tsunami hit Japan’s Fukushima plant in March had already reduced the total European power supply by 2-3 percent, “which was manageable; the headlines were bigger than the cut”.

But he added: “Europe must do what it can so the process of creeping de-industrialisation does not proceed.” He urged Berlin to coordinate the nuclear exit with its European Union partners to ensure stable power supplies and stop costs from rising.

Merkel, a conservative with one eye on her own coalition’s declining popularity and growing support for the Greens, has dismissed such worries, telling pro-nuclear neighbour France that Germany can get its power via renewable technology.

BERLIN (Reuters) – German political leaders clashed with the head of the country’s largest bank on Wednesday over regulation of the financial sector and the role Greece’s private creditors are being asked to play in a new aid package.

In an unusually blunt exchange at a conference on regulation, Chancellor Angela Merkel and her finance minister warned of the risks of failing to tackle the “too big to fail” and of delaying regulation while waiting for elusive international consensus.

They openly challenged Josef Ackermann, the chief executive of Deutsche Bank, who argued that unilateral steps would hurt the competitiveness of German banks and that a new banking levy would cost his bank 700 million euros after tax.

The banker told the audience of politicians from the ruling conservative bloc and members of the financial industry that the country “has pushed ahead with a series of unilateral reforms” in the crisis which were costing his bank over a billion euros.

But the center-right chancellor and her finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, both argued that there was no choice but to push ahead on the national or European level because of the lack of consensus on a broader international level.

“Germany has by all means put itself at a disadvantage,” Merkel acknowledged, but both she and Schaueble said Berlin was ready to accept such a cost in the struggle for new regulation.

Germany’s largest bank would be among the hardest hit by a new banking levy, which would be paid into a fund to relieve taxpayers of the cost of future bank bailouts. Ackermann also cited German initiatives such as limits on naked short selling.

BERLIN (Reuters) – Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao offered Europe a “helping hand” with its debt crisis during a visit to Germany on Tuesday and said his country could buy the sovereign debt of some troubled euro zone nations if needed.

“China has expressed support for Europe at various times. In other words, when Europe is in difficulty we will extend a helping hand from afar,” the Chinese premier told a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

“We will according to need definitely purchase certain amounts of sovereign debt,” said Wen, who described the problems of highly indebted euro zone countries like Greece as being of only a “temporary nature.”

As on previous occasions when talking about euro zone debt, Wen did not give specific figures on potential purchases, nor which countries’ debt China might purchase.

Capital Economics estimated in a research note that China bought more than 40 billion euros of euro-denominated assets this year, much of that in peripheral economies.

The German leader said China has a “massive” interest in a stable euro though some policymakers, such as European Central Bank board member Juergen Stark, have cautioned against seeing China as the “rescuer” of the common European currency.

The EU and International Monetary Fund are putting pressure on Greece to give political backing to a tough austerity program to qualify for ongoing aid and work out a second bailout meant to tide it over after 2012.

BERLIN, June 28 (Reuters) – Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Germany’s Angela Merkel aim to boost trade between the world’s two biggest export nations to at least 200 billion euros ($283.8 billion) in the next five years, they said at a meeting in Berlin on Tuesday.

Wen also took the opportunity to express his confidence in the euro zone, saying the debt crisis of some member countries such as Greece was only of a “temporary nature”.

About a quarter of China’s record foreign currency reserves of more than $3 trillion are estimated to be held in euros and China has reiterated its confidence in the euro since the debt crisis began, as well as pledging to buy euro zone debt.

German officials expected Wen and Merkel, the German chancellor, to talk about the euro and the G8 agenda for global currency reforms, which is seen as a path towards boosting the Chinese yuan’s profile on foreign exchange markets.

China’s intentions for its euro holdings and investments in the sovereign debt of euro zone countries has been the subject of much speculation in Wen’s visit to Europe.

“It’s true that right now some European Union countries are encountering economic problems. These are, however, of a temporary nature,” Wen told the first ever full ministerial consultations between China and Germany.

The Chinese premier said the EU was “fully in a position to overcome the present challenges”.

BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany and China will discuss the euro and world currency system reforms during a visit by Premier Wen Jiabao, a German government source said, as Berlin said it would welcome more Chinese firms as long-term investors.

Fresh from reiterating China’s commitment to the euro zone and the region’s volatile debt market, Wen arrives in Berlin later on Monday for a visit that starts with dinner with Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Noting that China “has in the past diversified its currency holdings” including into the euro, the German source said the currency would be discussed by the two countries’ finance ministries during the two-day visit.

“China has in the past diversified and also built up euro reserves. The issue of the development of the euro will play a role in talks,” said the source, who asked not to be named.

China’s intentions regarding holdings in the common European currency and investments in the sovereign debt of euro zone countries — especially troubled peripheral states like Greece — is the subject of huge speculation.

About a quarter of China’s record foreign currency reserves of more than $3 trillion are estimated to be held in euros and China has reiterated its confidence in the euro since the debt crisis began, as well as pledging to buy euro zone debt.

Its support for global currency reforms was affirmed on Sunday by the head of the country’s pension fund.

BERLIN, June 27 (Reuters) – Germany and China will discuss the euro and world currency system reforms during a visit by Premier Wen Jiabao, a German government source said, as Berlin said it would welcome more Chinese firms as long-term investors.

Fresh from reiterating China’s commitment to the euro zone and the region’s volatile debt market, Wen arrives in Berlin later on Monday for a visit that starts with dinner with Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Noting that China “has in the past diversified its currency holdings” including into the euro, the German source said the currency would be discussed by the two countries’ finance ministries during the two-day visit. [ID:L3E7HM0DD]

“China has in the past diversified and also built up euro reserves. The issue of the development of the euro will play a role in talks,” said the source, who asked not to be named.

China’s intentions regarding holdings in the common European currency and investments in the sovereign debt of euro zone countries — especially troubled peripheral states like Greece – is the subject of huge speculation. [ID:nL3E7HM14M]

About a quarter of China’s record foreign currency reserves of more than $3 trillion are estimated to be held in euros and China has reiterated its confidence in the euro since the debt crisis began, as well as pledging to buy euro zone debt.

Its support for global currency reforms was affirmed on Sunday by the head of the country’s pension fund. [ID:nL3E7HQ013]

ATHENS/BERLIN, June 17 (Reuters) – Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou sacrificed his finance minister on Friday and put his main socialist party rival into the job in a bid to force through an unpopular austerity plan and avert bankruptcy.

In Berlin, the leaders of Germany and France, long at odds over how to involve private holders of Greek bonds in a new rescue package for Athens, said they had united behind a mild solution favoured by Paris and the European Central Bank.

Signs that Europe’s two central powers had put aside their differences, and were pressing for a quick solution to the crisis that has rocked the currency area since late 2009, boosted the euro and reduced risk premiums on Greek and other peripheral bonds after a week-long financial rout.

“France and Germany want a new programme in place as soon as possible. There is no time to lose,” French President Nicolas Sarkozy told a joint news conference with Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The elevation of Defence Minister Evangelos Venizelos to the finance ministry was aimed at securing party backing for an austerity package required for the EU and IMF to disburse emergency loans to keep Greece afloat next month and avoid a default which could unleash global financial turmoil.

Analysts said the socialist heavyweight was a second-best choice after Papandreou failed to persuade respected former ECB Vice-President Lucas Papademos to come aboard, but it enabled him to dump several ministers who had obstructed reforms.

Outgoing Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou, who negotiated a first 110 billion euro bailout for Athens last year and had the confidence of international lenders and markets, was moved to the environment ministry in a crisis-driven reshuffle.

BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany wants Europe to postpone a new bailout deal for Greece to buy time for a compromise on involving private creditors that does not look like a climbdown that would entail political risks for Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Merkel will try to resolve this dilemma in talks on Thursday with the European Central Bank’s Mario Draghi and on Friday with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, with the ECB, Paris and European Commission all questioning Berlin’s position.

In a fresh example of how German politics dictate the timing of Europe’s crisis response — even when Berlin is in a minority along with the Dutch and Finns — its problems mean an EU summit next week is unlikely to yield a final deal on a new Greek bailout.

“The argument goes: We don’t know what to do, let’s buy more time,” said an EU source, blaming Merkel and Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, whose proposal that private creditors accept a bond swap to extend Greek debt maturities now looks in doubt.

With Sarkozy urging Europe to show a “sense of compromise” to help Greece and safeguard the euro, Merkel must make sure it is a compromise she can sell to her political partners at home.

European taxpayers, particularly in Germany, have funded much of Greece’s bailout. This has led to calls in the Bundestag lower house of parliament for private creditors, who hold huge sums in Athens government debt, to start sharing the burden.

German politicians and media are increasingly voicing the frustration of ordinary voters about bailing out a country whose people, they say, work less and retire earlier, although Merkel got in trouble for making such comments herself last month.

BERLIN, June 8 (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s nuclear exit strategy is cutting into popular support for her conservatives, alienating coalition partners and boosting Greens in the opposition, a new opinion poll showed on Wednesday.

The Forsa survey had the anti-nuclear Greens surging ahead to 27 percent, giving them and their Social Democrat (SPD) allies a combined 49 percent versus just 35 percent for Germany’s ruling Christian Democrat-Free Democrat coalition.

Merkel’s conservatives have dropped two to three points to 30 percent in recent weeks, according to Forsa and other polls, coinciding with her end of May decision to scrap all nuclear generators by 2022, a U-turn spurred by Japan’s nuclear crisis.

Some analysts see Merkel’s change of heart on nuclear power – as recently as late last year she wanted the lifespan of the oldest of Germany’s 17 nuclear plants extended, saying they were safe — as preparation for a future alliance with the Greens.

The Free Democrats, her current junior coalition partner, only manages 5 percent in most polls, a far cry from 14.6 percent in the 2009 election when the FDP helped Merkel secure a second term. The pro-business party has done badly in state elections this year while the Greens advanced in huge bounds.

The next German general election is scheduled for 2013, probably in September or October of that year.

MERKEL COOL ON SHIFT TO GREENS

BERLIN (Reuters) – German shoppers at the epicenter of an outbreak of a rare strain of E.coli bacteria are trying to avoid suspect foods without much certainty about the exact source of an illness that has claimed at least 17 lives.

Germany has suffered 16 of the 17 reported deaths so far in the outbreak and the vast majority of the more than 1,700 cases of illness. Cases reported elsewhere in Europe and the United States have been among people who recently visited Germany.

With Germany’s Robert Koch Institute disease control center on Friday reporting 199 new cases in the last two days, media coverage reflected a much higher level of concern than the last German food scare, over dioxins in eggs earlier this year.

The mass-circulation daily Bild ran the headline “Horror film! Doctors shocked by patients’ suffering” and dwelt on the long-term health effects of the worst complications caused by the rare strain of E.coli, so far blamed on salad vegetables.

The general response seemed to be either to wash salad very thoroughly or avoid it altogether.

“I wash and wash and wash my vegetables. You can’t stop eating them but I have children and so I’m buying only safe produce and cooking it,” 43-year-old computer programer Max Fehrer said at an organic grocery store in Berlin’s Kreuzberg quarter.

But there was relatively little clarity for the public about what constitutes “safe” food. German health authorities played down initial comments blaming Spanish cucumbers, but continued to warn against raw cucumber, tomato and lettuce.