Hello, I'm Rob Young. Welcome to Business Daily from the BBC.

Coming up, the European Union's two biggest economies, Germany and France, are in trouble.

The sentiment is to wait and see. Consumers tend more at the moment to save than to spend.

But this period must not last.

We'll talk to a business owner, a Labour Union, consumers and experts, and hear why

government spending decisions are being criticised.

Germany, by being so obsessed of saving, didn't invest in public infrastructure.

Germany is not growing because it's not investing.

That's all in Business Daily from the BBC.

This is the sound of cars being made in Germany, the whirring and clanging of an industry of an economy admired around the world.

Germany has been the economic powerhouse of Europe for years, but the country is facing a new, harsh reality.

Germany's economic downturn has deepened

with almost two straight years of recession.

Thousands of workers at the carmaker Volkswagen

have been holding noisy protests after Germany's biggest employer said it may close factories in the country, something it's never done in its 90-year history.

VW is trying to save billions of dollars in costs as it struggles with the transition from petrol and diesel cars to electric vehicles.

Jan Mentrup from the Workers Union IG Metau is involved in talks with VW.

Our colleagues are worried and concerned. You know, for over 30 years there was an agreement for job security.

Volkswagen always stood for quality, for safe jobs and for future.

Of course, there were problems in the history.

The carmaker had crisis from time to time, but in the past there was one rule.

And it should still be the same now, that problems are solved together with the

...