Brussels Edition: Never-ending Brexit endgame

Follow Us Get the newsletter Welcome to the Brussels Edition, Bloomberg's daily briefing on what matters most in the heart of the European Union. Another self-imposed Brexit deadline came and went as U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen decided it was their duty to go the "extra mile." So what changed from the ill-tempered Brussels dinner that had both sides declaring a no-deal breakup was imminent? A new U.K. proposal floated with the EU over the weekend on the biggest outstanding disagreement — how to create a level playing field for businesses on either side of the Channel — might just break the deadlock. If that works, the U.K. could win concessions on the other main sticking point: EU fishing rights in British waters. Officials, some of whom worked 100 hours over the past week, will resume talks in Brussels this morning. At least we now know their only real deadline is Dec. 31. — Heather Harris and Viktoria Dendrinou What's Happening Tech Threat | U.S. tech giants are bracing for new laws that could force sweeping changes to how they operate in Europe. The Digital Markets Act, set to be proposed tomorrow, targets so-called gatekeeper companies and comes as regulators around the world are bearing down on tech firms for being too big and too profitable. Virus Update | Germany is entering a hard lockdown from Wednesday after Chancellor Angela Merkel declared previous measures to be insufficient. The U.K.'s National Health Service warned the government not to relax rules in hard-hit areas during the holidays. Italy said it plans to start vaccinating its population in mid-January, and the first wave of shots is arriving in locations across the U.S. to begin inoculations today. Here's the latest. Money Votes | EU lawmakers are expected to scrutinize and give the final signoff this week to the bloc's stimulus package and mechanism linking funds to rule-of-law adherence. The EU Parliament will vote on the plans Wednesday, after leaders reached an eleventh-hour deal last week, clearing the way for the landmark program to be rolled out in January. Green Houses | Von der Leyen has said the bloc's climate neutrality project should have its own aesthetics, blending design and sustainability, like a new European Bauhaus movement. We asked three leaders in sustainable design to envision what buildings might look like once the continent goes net-zero: This is how they imagine the dream homes of Europe's green future. Health Triumph | The first vaccines against Covid-19 aren't just a landmark in the fight against the pandemic. They're also the stepping stone for an unconventional technology that could one day defeat other ailments that have eluded doctors, from cancer to heart disease. In Case You Missed It Climate Challenge | Five years after the signing of the Paris Agreement to tackle global warming, momentum is building. But as political and corporate leaders jostle to prove how progressive they are on the issue, the challenge is getting them to make specific, short-term commitments to back up lofty long-term goals. Macron and Muslims | Emmanuel Macron has cultivated an image abroad as a defender of liberalism since coming to power, in contrast to leaders in the U.S., Britain and eastern Europe. Yet at home he's been courting conservatives after a series of horrific attacks by Islamic radicals. That risks alienating the country's Muslim population. Payback Time| Italy is seizing on the torrent of EU stimulus to push its mountain of debt payments into the future. The urgency for Rome is clear: Government debt is around 160% of GDP, yet the average maturity is the lowest of the EU's biggest economies, a conundrum compounded by the borrowing needed to combat the pandemic. Swedish Shortages | Sweden faces a shortage of health workers as the number of resignations ticks up after a relentless year of caring for Covid patients. The development shows that even countries with universal health-care systems are now struggling to keep up with the pandemic. Green Flights | The Nordic region's pace-setting push into green transport is set to extend from cars to the air-travel market. Iceland signaled plans to move toward carbon-free domestic flights by the end of the decade, while Sweden's Heart Aerospace aims to deliver an electric plane designed to ply routes linking remote Scandinavian settlements within six years. Chart of the Day Yves Mersch, the last of the European Central Bank's founding cohort, leaves the institution today as the baton passes to a new generation. The 71-year-old Luxembourger was part of a group that took charge of a fledgling currency project in 1998 and soon began setting interest rates for the euro zone. Even after 22 1/2-years as an ECB policy maker, he is far from the world's longest-serving central banker. Today's Agenda All times CET. 8:30 a.m. EU Chief negotiator Barnier briefs EU envoys on EU-U.K. trade negotiations 11 a.m. Eurostat publishes October industrial production reading 12 p.m. EU Parliament Committee on International Trade holds extraordinary meeting on future EU-U.K. trade relations 1 p.m. German Foreign Minister Maas, EU's Borrell news conference at informal EU27-LAC talks EU home affairs ministers discuss the bloc's migration and asylum pact via video conference EU energy ministers informal video conference to discuss energy system integration and Ostravets nuclear power plant Like the Brussels Edition? Don't keep it to yourself. Colleagues and friends can sign up here. For even more: Subscribe to Bloomberg.com for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and gain expert analysis from exclusive subscriber-only newsletters. 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