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Brussels Edition: Looking to Lagarde, Waiting for London

Brussels Edition: Looking to Lagarde, Waiting for London

(Bloomberg) -- Welcome to the Brussels Edition, Bloomberg’s daily briefing on what matters most in the heart of the European Union.

European Central Bank watchers would quite like Christine Lagarde to give them some clues when she breaks her silence on monetary policy today. Three weeks into her presidency, the Frenchwoman has yet to make a speech on the subject. While the vacuum has allowed murmurings of unease over the impact of recent stimulus to spread, Lagarde has good reason to move cautiously given tentative evidence that the euro area’s downturn could be bottoming out. So far, she’s set the focus on building a bond of trust with her colleagues after the acrimony that broke out over September’s stimulus package.

What’s Happening

Missing Brit | EU lawmakers will vote on Nov. 27 to confirm the new EU Commission, paving the way for its five-year term to start next month. But there’s one remaining question: the U.K. has yet to nominate a commissioner. Britain has until today to respond to a formal complaint or it faces a potential lawsuit from the EU.

Breakup Risk | Meanwhile, with England split over how — or whether — to deliver Brexit and move the country forward, the political dynamics in the three other constituent parts of the U.K. seem more about whether the country should exist at all. Next month’s election could bring us a step nearer the breakup of the nation.

Privacy Powers | Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s incoming tech czar, warned that privacy watchdogs must have the resources to match their beefed-up powers and issued a fresh antitrust threat to companies abusing their control of data to crush competition. In her new role, Vestager said she’ll “need to make sure that artificial intelligence systems respect people’s privacy” and plans to draft rules on AI ethics in the coming months.

Vote for Normal | Romanian President Klaus Iohannis is closing in on re-election with a simple promise: to establish normality after years of political chaos. He’s the favorite in a runoff on Sunday having helped beat back the last government’s attempts to decriminalize low-level corruption. Even so, he’s likely to get fewer votes than in 2014 as Romanians vent at a lack of progress to address poor infrastructure and health care.

Carbon Bills | Shoppers will soon be able to work out the true carbon footprint of their purchases thanks to an app from one of the most digitally savvy nations in the world. Here’s how a Finnish payment services provider combines data from credit cards and banks with purchase data from retailers to provide real-time calculations of how a given product impacts the climate.

In Case You Missed It

Small Threats | A tiny centrist party selling itself as an alternative to populists has entered Italy’s political landscape, adding to forces in the ruling class seeking to counter Matteo Salvini’s surge in polls. Small parties that may carry little weight risk proliferating, complicating the electoral arithmetic.

European Unicorns? | U.S. and Asian investors are piling more cash into Europe’s tech sector, drawn by a growing number of successful startups and its relatively neutral status as tensions between Washington and Beijing simmer. European tech companies are set to raise a record $34.3 billion in 2019, up from $24.6 billion last year.

Fake Degrees | Politicians in eastern Europe are having a tough time getting away with a bad habit: inflating credentials by cheating to obtain fancy qualifications. The practice dates back to communist times, when academic titles were a must to scale the ladders of politics and powerful state institutions. But officials now face more scrutiny than predecessors shielded by tight censorship rules.

Air Gases | As flight shaming takes its toll on air travel and new climate regulations loom, Europe’s airlines are coalescing around this two-pronged response to a public backlash over carbon emissions.

No More | Greece is reaching the point where it can no longer handle on its own the number of immigrants reaching its shores. While the government is trying to enhance border controls and establish more effective ways to send people home, it’s other European countries that will face consequences if Greece’s resources are overwhelmed.

Chart of the Day

Brussels Edition: Looking to Lagarde, Waiting for London

The global economy is stuck in a rut that it won’t exit unless governments revolutionize policies and how they invest, rather than just hoping for a cyclical upswing, the OECD said. The latest outlook and policy prescriptions from the Paris-based group mark a step beyond its repeated warnings about threats to growth from U.S.-China tensions, weak investment and trade flows.

Today’s Agenda

All times CET.

  • EU Commissioner for Economic Affairs Moscovici meets Italian Finance Minister Gualtieri in Rome
  • Eurostat to publish data on working life duration
  • ECB’s Lagarde, Weidmann speak at banking congress in Frankfurt
  • European Council President-elect Michel meets Danish Prime Minister Frederiksen in Copenhagen
  • German Chancellor Merkel's Christian Democrats begin congress in Leipzig

--With assistance from Andrew Langley and Zoe Schneeweiss.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Heather Harris at hharris5@bloomberg.net, Iain Rogers

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