COURTING GERMANY: Top European officials have called on countries that use the euro to surrender more control over their national budgets, a move apparently aimed at easing Germany’s fears of sharing debt burdens with struggling governments like Spain or Italy. Leaders from the European Union meet Thursday on how to preserve the euro currency.

THE PROBLEM: Germany, Europe’s biggest and strongest economy, is increasingly isolated in its refusal to quickly adopt measures such as jointly issued eurobonds, which would see it take on some of the debt risk of financially weak countries.