Intercontinental Exchange Inc. rejected a proposal to include debt issued by the European Union in its government bond benchmarks, the latest blow to the bloc’s quest to attract a larger pool of investors, Bloomberg News reported. The index provider and owner of the New York Stock Exchange said it wouldn’t alter its definition of a sovereign issuer, which would have allowed for the change. The decision follows a similar move by MSCI Inc. in June. It’s a setback for the EU, which has been lobbying to reclassify its bonds since the end of last year.
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The European Union has kicked off a consultation on rules that will apply to providers of general-purpose AI models (GPAIs) — such as Anthropic, Google, Microsoft and OpenAI — under the bloc's AI Act, its risk-based framework for regulating applications of artificial intelligence. Lawmakers want the Code of Practice to help ensure "trustworthy" GPAIs by providing developers with guidance on how to comply with their legal obligations, TechCrunch reported. The EU AI Act was adopted earlier this year and will come into force imminently, on August 1.
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EU tariffs on electric vehicles built in China breach global trading rules and must be corrected, an industry body representing 12 Chinese automakers told the European Commission in a hearing this week, Reuters reported. The China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products (CCCME) presented its view at a hearing on Thursday that the EU's preliminary assessment is incompatible with EU and World Trade Organization rules. "We are very concerned.
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Berlin-based food delivery giant Delivery Hero has warned investors it may "ultimately" face an antitrust fine of up to €400 million, Tech Crunch reported. The development, reported earlier by Reuters, follows unannounced raids by European Union authorities on the offices of Delivery Hero and its Spanish subsidiary Glovo back in July 2022 and November 2023. The EU did not name the companies at the time, though both confirmed the inspections had taken place.
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The European Union gave Deutsche Lufthansa its conditional approval to buy a minority stake in ITA Airways, the Italian carrier formerly known as Alitalia, bolstering the German carrier group’s reach in Europe and its exposure to the lucrative Italian market, the Wall Street Journal reported. The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, said its approval was conditional upon full compliance with remedies offered by Lufthansa and Italy’s economy and finance ministry to address concerns from competition officials over the deal’s impact on short- and long-haul routes.
Von der Leyen, Costa and Kallas Endorsed for the EU’s Top Jobs. Here’s Who They Are and What They Do
Following the elections for EU Parliament, European Union leaders have agreed on the officials who will hold the key positions in the world’s biggest trading bloc in the coming years for issues ranging from antitrust investigations to foreign policy, the Associated Press reported. The three nominees will lead the EU’s powerful executive branch — the European Commission — and the forum where the 27 member countries are represented, the European Council, with the final nominee being the bloc’s top diplomat.
The European Central Bank needs more time to conclude that inflation is firmly on a path to 2% and benign economic developments indicate that rate cuts are not urgent, ECB President Christine Lagarde said on Monday, Reuters reported. The ECB lowered rates for the first time in June after its most aggressive rate hike spree on record, but held back on committing to any subsequent moves, arguing that the outlook was far too uncertain to telegraph a second cut.
The European Union marginally revised its proposed tariffs on electric vehicles imported from China after receiving more information from the affected companies, Bloomberg News reported. The new provisional rates — which will come on top of the existing 10% duty — are: Other EV producers in China that cooperated with the investigation but have not been sampled will be subject to a weighted average duty of 20.8%, while firms that didn’t cooperate will face an additional 37.6% levy. The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, notified the companies earlier this month about the tariffs.
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The European Union will delay a core element of global reforms to bank capital rules by one year to January 2026, the bloc's financial services chief said on Tuesday, to ensure a level playing field between EU banks and their U.S. rivals, Reuters reported. Countries are introducing the last batch of a global bank capital accord known as Basel III, rolled out after taxpayers were forced to bail out lenders in the global financial crisis of 2007-09.
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The European Union will apply additional duties of up to 38% on imported Chinese electric vehicles from July in a latest effort to protect home-grown manufacturers, Reuters reported. It has also launched several probes into whether Chinese clean tech producers are dumping subsidised goods on EU markets and whether Chinese-owned companies unfairly benefit from subsidies while operating inside the European Union. The European Commission, which is carrying out the investigations, says its aim is to prevent unfair competition and market distortion.
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