Polish banks suffered a potentially costly setback in the long-running saga over Swiss Franc mortgages after an adviser to the European Union’s top court said they can’t pass on extra fees to customers whose interest payments were deemed unfair, Bloomberg News reported. In cases where contested mortgage deals are voided by local courts, lenders can’t claim payments beyond reimbursements of the loan principal, Advocate General Anthony Collins of the EU Court of Justice said in a non-binding opinion Thursday.

European Union finance ministers started talks on Tuesday on reforming the EU's fiscal rules to adjust them to post-pandemic realities of high debt and large investment needs, with a view to a deal in March, Reuters reported. Some EU diplomats say an agreement might take longer, however, because of opposition from Germany and other northern European countries to European Commission proposals to negotiate individual debt reduction paths with each government, rather than have a single rule for all, as now.

Polish banks are sounding increasingly sanguine about a looming European Union court ruling that the country’s financial regulator once warned may spell a full-blown crisis for the industry, Bloomberg News reported. In the latest chapter of the saga centered around $17 billion of mainly Swiss franc-denominated loans, EU judges are set to rule whether banks can sue clients, who got their mortgage contracts canceled in courts — a way for the industry to recover some losses and deter future litigation.

The European Union's new subsidy package needs to be reworked in the coming weeks so that it is more concrete, German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. "We don't have much time," Habeck told the German Bundestag lower house of parliament, adding that the package needed to be finalised before the next EU summit in March. The European Commission wants to give a boost to a climate-friendly restructuring of the economy with subsidies worth billions of euros.

EU lawmakers hope to agree on draft artificial intelligence rules next month, with the aim of clinching a deal with EU countries by the end of the year, one of the legislators steering the AI Act said, Reuters reported. The European Commission proposed the AI rules in 2021 in an attempt to foster innovation and set a global standard for a technology, used in everything from self-driving cars and chatbots to automated factories, currently led by China and the United States.

The European Union risks missing a March target to agree on a reform of its debt-limit rules in the face of resistance from countries including Germany, a prospect that may force member states into abrupt and potentially painful budgetary adjustments, Bloomberg News reported. Berlin is especially doubtful about the idea of highly indebted governments negotiating tailored plans with the European Commission to bring their spending under control and wants to see reliable enforcement tools in place.

Italy is close to clinching a deal with European Union competition authorities to reintroduce a scheme under which the state provides guarantees to help banks offload bad loans, Reuters reported. Rome has been working to renew the "GACS" scheme, which expired in June, while also tightening the terms under which the state provides guarantees to investors who buy bad bank loans repackaged as securities. Discussions with Brussels are at a very advanced stage and the terms have been for the most part agreed, the four sources briefed on the matter told Reuters.

The European Union is floating a plan to cap the price of Russian diesel at $100 a barrel — a level that might help to stave off the very worst effects of a fuel-imports ban that the bloc will impose on Moscow in just 10 days’ time, Bloomberg News reported. The EU’s executive arm is considering cap levels after the Group of Seven nations offered a price range based in part on the existing cap on Russian crude oil. The thresholds are expected to apply from Feb. 5, the same date as the EU will ban almost all imports of refined Russian products as punishment for the nation’s invasion of Ukraine.

European Union lawmakers backed a draft law on Tuesday to implement the final leg of post-financial global bank capital rules, adding "prohibitive" requirements to cover risks from cryptoassets, Reuters reported. The European Parliament's economic affairs committee approved a draft law to implement Basel III capital rules from January 2025, though backing several temporary divergences to give banks more time to adapt.

The UK and European Union are nearing an agreement on customs aimed at reducing trade friction between Great Britain and Northern Ireland as they prepare to intensify wider post-Brexit negotiations, Bloomberg News reported. Officials hope to announce significant progress toward a solution for customs arrangements if discussions go well over the coming days, according to people familiar with the matter. Talks are ongoing and a successful outcome is not guaranteed, the people said.