Caroline Hepker

Antonio Costa was speaking ahead of a gathering of EU leaders this week, which will focus on improving competitiveness as the region faces challenges from both the United States and China.

The European Council president was speaking after the German and Italian governments warned that Europe must act now on reforming its single market.

In a paper circulated ahead of tomorrow's leaders' meeting, they called, among other measures, for the EU to loosen merger rules, allowing European firms to scale up and rival America's tech giants.

Now, shares in the London Stock Exchange Group are down by 2% this morning at the European Open after a report that Elliott Management has built a significant stake in the firm.

According to the Financial Times, Elliott has been engaging with Elsec to help engineer an improvement in the group's performance.

Sources who spoke to the newspaper also said that Elliott encouraged the company to consider a multi-billion pound share buyback

once a £1 billion trash is completed.

The U.S.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has also come under fire for his appearance in the files.

Lutnick said that he did visit Epstein's private island in 2012 after Epstein was convicted as a sex offender.

Here is an exchange between the Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen and Lutnick.

Lutnick is facing calls to resign over his relationship with Epstein since the files show his ties to the disgraced financier were more extensive than he previously revealed.

The White House says that President Trump has no plans to remove Lutnick from his post.

I'm Caroline Hepka and this is Bloomberg.

And I'm Caroline Hepker.

The European Council president has told Bloomberg that the EU must review its powerful competition rules to boost the bloc's economy.

Antonio Costa was speaking ahead of a gathering of EU leaders this week, which will focus on improving competitiveness as the region faces challenges from the United States and China.

The European Council president was speaking after the German and Italian governments warned Europe must act now on reforming its single market.

In a paper circulated ahead of tomorrow's leaders' meeting, they called, among other things, for the EU to loosen merger rules, allowing European companies to scale up and rival America's tech giants.

Emails released by the US Justice Department show Elon Musk's brother, Kimball Musk, was connected with at least two women through Jeffrey Epstein several years after the disgraced financier pleaded guilty to sex crimes.