European Union ministers on Thursday voted to eliminate duty-free status for small parcel imports, joining the United States in upending a popular mechanism for e-commerce platforms to directly ship orders across borders to households at low cost, Freight Waves reported. The agreement would eliminate the 150 euro customs threshold, equivalent to $174, below which shipments are exempt for paying duties in 2028, dependent on the successful completion of a centralized EU customs data hub that would replace fragmented national systems for processing trade flows.

Europe's existing crypto rules already contain safeguards against risks posed by stablecoins, the region's banking supervisor told Reuters, ​after the European Central Bank warned that the tokens could threaten financial stability. The ECB and the ‌European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) have urged Brussels to ban the “multi-issuance” model, where global ‌stablecoin firms treat tokens they issue in the EU as interchangeable with those outside the bloc.

Chinese companies in the European Union say business conditions in the bloc have deteriorated for a sixth consecutive year, with rising labour costs and political challenges pressuring their operations, according to a survey published on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The survey for the China Chamber of Commerce to the EU of 200 Chinese companies and organisations said that the bloc's performance in research, talent, digitalisation and market access represented obstacles.

The European Parliament began debating on Tuesday whether to make the EU-U.S. tariff deal conditional on concessions from Washington and limited in time, which could reignite trade tensions with the Trump administration, Reuters reported. Under the deal, the United States is broadly imposing 15% tariffs on EU goods, while the European Union removes many of its duties on U.S. imports, a step that the European Parliament and EU governments need to approve.

Europe’s top official for winding down failed lenders is seeking reassurances that the US won’t stand in the way of regulators elsewhere forcing bondholders to take losses when big banks fail, Bloomberg News reported. Dominique Laboureix said that he has recently convened a group at the Financial Stability Board (FSB) that is “working seriously” on the matter. “In these topics, you cannot achieve 100% of comfort all around the globe with all the authorities,” Laboureix, who leads Europe’s Single Resolution Board, said in an interview.

The European Union has agreed on a new raft of sanctions against Russia targeting its shadow fleet of oil tankers and banning its imports of liquefied natural gas, the Danish EU presidency announced Thursday, The Canadian Press reported. “Today is a good day for Europe and Ukraine,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said in a statement, as EU leaders were gathering for a summit in Brussels.

Europe could soon be engulfed in another sovereign debt crisis, unless it adopts “bold” policy responses, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned, the Irish Times reported. In a report on Europe’s economy, the Washington-based fund also said the euro zone – while avoiding a “deep growth shock” from recent crises – had converged on a low growth path and that the impact of US tariffs was now beginning to “bite”. It warned that public spending pressures in several countries had put debt on a potentially “explosive path”.

The European Union proposed Tuesday cutting free-trade quotas by 47% on steel and steel products, effectively adding large tariffs on imports from countries like China, India, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, which said the measures would wreck the British steel industry, the Associated Press reported. After importing 18.3 million tons, the new quota, additional imports will face up to 50% in new tariffs, a high price akin to U.S. President Donald Trump's steel measures. Neighboring nations like Norway, Iceland and Ukraine will be exempt.

The European Union's financial risk watchdog called on Thursday for urgent safeguards on stablecoins only partly issued in the bloc, echoing a warning from the European Central Bank, which is worried that their failure could induce a run on reserves, Reuters reported. Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency designed to hold a steady value by being pegged to a reserve asset such as a currency or basket of assets.

China's Premier Li Qiang and European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen stressed cooperation during their meeting in New York, as the world's No.2 and No.3 economies looked to defuse trade tensions while squeezed by U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs, Reuters reported.