The Netherlands - banking industry: ABN Amro to slash below board level management from 100 to 40

ABN Amro is planning to reduce the number of senior managers from around 100 to just 40 and is shaking up its executive board to make the bank ‘more client-focused, agile and efficient’.

Among those leaving is Chris Vogelzang, who had been tipped to take over when Gerrit Zalm stood down as chief executive. The managerial jobs to go will run across the level below the executive committee.

The 40 jobs remaining ‘will have a stronger involvement in the strategic direction and the leadership of the bank than before,’ the bank said in a statement. The composition of the ‘top 40’ will be reviewed every year.

‘Over the past few years, the number of bank staff has been reduced considerably but there has been no change in the number of senior managers,’ chief executive Kees van Dijkhuizen said. T

he bank will also have a slimmed down executive board made up of CEO Van Dijkhuizen, chief risk officer Wietze Reehoorn and a new financial boss who has yet to be appointed.

Read more: ABN Amro to slash below board level management from 100 to 40 - DutchNews.nl

Germany: Deutsche Bank could cut workforce by 25 percent

Deutsche Bank is considering shedding almost a quarter of its global workforce as it looks to honour pledges to cut costs and streamline its operations.

Some 8,000 jobs could be cut, while the bank has already announced plans to hive off its consumer division PostBank which employs another 15,000 people.

It’s thought that the cuts would mostly affect administrative and technology posts.

Preliminary details of the plan were presented to supervisory board members at the weekend by CEO John Cryan, who took control of Germany’s biggest bank in July promising to tackle what he described as Deutsche Bank’s “swollen” cost base.

Read more: Deutsche Bank could cut workforce by 25 percent | euronews, economy

US Military Presence in Europe: US Shuttering 15 European Bases Under Cost Cutting Plan - by Adam Kredo

The U.S. military is set to shutter 15 sites across Europe and reduce the number of active personnel stationed in these areas as the result of a wide-ranging restructuring that aims to consolidate some operations on the continent, the Pentagon announced Thursday.

The European restructuring is the culmination of a two-year consolidation plan known as the European Infrastructure

The largest force withdrawal will take place across three UK-based bases. Fifteen sites in all will be returned by the United States to their host nations, the Pentagon told reporters on Thursday when announcing the finalized EIC plan, which is reminiscent of a previous decade-long realignment following the Cold War.

Germany, Italy, and Portugal also will be most impacted by the restructure. It is expected that local support staff at the bases will lose their jobs.

The Pentagon hopes to save around $500 million annually as a result of the wide-ranging restructure, which comes as the U.S. military battles against widespread budgetary cuts and growing international challenges across Europe and the Middle East.

While Pentagon officials have defended the realignment as necessary to cut costs, some critics say that the restructure may send a message of weakness at a time when nations such as Russia are increasing their rogue behaviors.

Note EU-Digest: Thanks for the memories, but it is high time that Europe moves away from being the "front-line" of the US defense perimeter. 

Still quite a few bases left which if closed could save the US at least an additional  $1 billion. Local employees given the skills they posses are certainly easily employable in many sectors of of the local economy.

Read more: U.S. to Shutter 15 European Bases Under Cost Cutting Plan | Washington Free Beacon

The Netherlands: Only a smokescreen is still holding the Center Right Dutch Government coalition together

The pieces might have been stuck together, but the "adhesive" attempts of the Center-Right Rutte II  Government are taking more and more desperate forms.

To limit further loss of face lhe Government coalition is trying to find a way to sneak past the Upper Chamber (Senate) blockage of their revised health-care legislation.

Opposition parties which have been collaborating with the government on major issues have indicated they will not support changes in the legislation.

Read more: Rookgordijn houdt kabinet-Rutte II overeind - AD.nl

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EU-Digest 

EU Airline Industry: KLM will remain 'full division' of Air France-KLM multinational - 10 % of workforce to be cut

Dutch flag carrier KLM will remain a full division of the integrated airline Air France-KLM, despite planned changes in the company structure, new chief executive Alexandre de Juniac says in Wednesday's Financial Daily..

De Juniac, who takes over from Jean-Cyril Spinetta on July 1, plans to run the company more as a multinational, the FD says. This means giving more power to the holding above the Air France and KLM operations, which are currently largely self-managing.

Centralisation in Paris led to fears in the Netherlands that the position of KLM and Schiphol airport would be weakened, but this is not the case, De Juniac told the FD in an interview.

The new organisational structure will not lead to extra job losses. The airline announced earlier that the workforce is being cut by some 10%. KLM employs 30,000 people in the Netherlands.

'We are currently a French-Dutch company but we have to become a multinational like Heineken or Unilever,' De Juniac told the paper.

Read more: DutchNews.nl - KLM will remain 'full division' of Air France-KLM multinational

European Airline Industry: Lufthansa embarks on path to increase operating profit

Germany's biggest airline, Lufthansa, has announced it's aiming to steadily increase its operating profit this year and beyond. The carrier has been struggling with fierce competition from low-budget airlines. 

Lufthansa reported Thursday it would aim to slightly raise its operating profit throughout 2013, after booking 524 million euros ($678.6 million) in the previous year.

The company added that operating earnings would build up steadily over the next couple of years to reach 2.3 billion euros in 2015. CEO Christoph Franz admitted, though, that 2013 bottom-line profit would not match that of last year when the sale of its stake in travel booking firm Amadeus helped it to net earnings totaling 990 million euros.

"2013 will be a very demanding year for the company and its employees," Franz said in a statement. He explained the carrier's ambitious cost-cutting program, called "Score," was picking up speed.
 
Read more: Lufthansa embarks on path to increase operating profit | Business | DW.DE | 14.03.2013

Airline Industry: Cost Cuts Helped Air France-KLM Trim Operating Loss in 2012 - Nicola Clarke

An aggressive cost-cutting effort at Air France-KLM showed the first faint signs of bearing fruit Friday, as the airline said it had managed to trim its operating losses last year despite a weakening European economy and higher fuel prices.

Air France-KLM, Europe’s third-largest airline by passengers, recorded an operating loss of €300 million, or about $400 million, for 2012, compared with a €353 million loss a year earlier, as efforts to rein in seat capacity led to higher average fares. Revenue for the year rose 5.2 percent to €25.6 billion, while net debt declined to €6 billion from €6.5 billion in 2011.

But one-time expenses associated with a deep restructuring begun last year widened the airline’s net loss to €1.19 billion from €809 million in 2011.  “They have made a good start, but it is an improvement that is still just barely visible,” said Yan Derocles, an analyst at Oddo Securities in Paris. 

Air France-KLM unveiled plans last June to shave more than €2 billion in costs, reduce debt and return to profit by the end of 2015. Despite the modest improvements achieved in the plan’s first six months, Jean-Cyril Spinetta, the carrier’s chief executive, stressed Friday in a statement that the company had laid the ground work for a more significant recovery this year.

Read more: Cost Cuts Helped Air France-KLM Trim Operating Loss in 2012 - NYTimes.com