The European Parliament gave its first major backing to the digital euro on Tuesday, endorsing the European Council's negotiating stance for a central bank digital currency with both online and offline functionality, Reuters reported. The endorsement matters because the European Central Bank needs Parliament's legislative approval before it can issue a digital euro, meaning its goal of a 2029 launch depends on lawmakers signing off.

The European Union must simplify its regulations to make the bloc more competitive against the likes of the United States and China, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said ahead of summits of EU political ‌and business leaders, Reuters reported. EU growth has been persistently lower than that of the United States over the past two decades, with EU productivity and innovation, ‌particularly in fields like AI, falling short. "Let me take the U.S. example again. One financial system, one financial capital," von der Leyen said on Wednesday.

The European Commission has imposed additional duties on imported electric vehicles made in China since 2024, though under European Union rules carmakers can now negotiate tariff exemptions for individual electric models imported from China, Reuters reported. In February 2026 the Commission approved, in a first such move, a request by Volkswagen's Cupra brand to free its Tavascan SUV coupe, which is made in China, from import tariffs in exchange for a minimum price and annual quota model.

India and the European Union struck a long‑delayed deal on Tuesday that will slash tariffs on most goods, aiming to boost two‑way trade and reduce reliance on the United States amid growing global trade tensions, Reuters reported. The deal is expected to double EU exports to India by 2032 by eliminating or reducing tariffs in 96.6% of traded goods by value, and will lead to savings of 4 billion euros ($4.75 billion) in duties for European companies, the EU said.

Lawmakers in the European Parliament agreed to put off work on the European Union’s trade agreement with the U.S. as President Trump continues his push take over Greenland, the Wall Street Journal reported. “By threatening the territorial integrity and sovereignty of an EU member state and by using tariffs as a coercive instrument, the U.S. is undermining the stability and predictability of EU-U.S. trade relations,” Bernd Lange, chair of the parliament’s international trade committee, said in a statement Wednesday.

EU lawmakers voted on Wednesday to challenge the European Union's contentious free trade agreement with South America in the bloc's top court, a move ​that could delay the deal by two years and potentially derail it, Reuters reported. The European Union signed ‌its largest-ever trade pact with Mercosur members Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay on Saturday after 25 years of negotiations. It still requires ‌approval before it can take effect.

European Union countries on Friday approved a trade deal with four South American countries, in a sign that President Trump’s antipathy to free trade hasn’t killed the rest of the world’s hunger for global commerce, the Wall Street Journal reported. The pact between the EU and the founding countries of the Mercosur customs union—Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay—is poised to become one of the bloc’s largest free-trade agreements. It is part of a European effort to curb economic reliance on the U.S. and China by boosting commercial ties with other countries.