In a speech to be delivered at the London Stock Exchange UK Treasury Minister Mark Hoban will call on European antitrust regulators to avoid "political interference" as they rule on a proposed merger between Germany's Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext, Bloomberg reports.
That after those companies appealed directly last week to the European Comission's President, Jose Barroso, to try and salvage the merger.
The European Union warned on the 30th of December that it has the intention of prohibiting the deal to create the world's largest exchange, because it would monopolize derivatives trading in the region.
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In Mr.Hoban's own words, it is vital that the regulator "lives up to those duties in the weeks and months to come without political interference (...) I fully understand nonetheless that the Commission faces a huge challenge to resist pressure to delay, obfuscate and pander to vested interests in the EU."
Lastly, the Minister also indicated that the region can't afford to impose a financial transaction tax unless it's applied globally. Calculations provided by him show that a unilateral tax could cut European gross domestic product by as much as 3.4%, or 422bn euros ($536 bn), he said.
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