FirstFT: Uber warns prices may rise 40% under EU gig work plans | Invesloan.com

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A high Uber government has warned that Brussels’ proposals to designate gig staff as de facto staff will power its ride-hailing service to close down in lots of of cities throughout the bloc and lift prices by as a lot as 40 per cent if enacted.

Anabel Díaz, head of Uber’s mobility division in Europe, urged lawmakers debating the EU’s Platform Work Directive this week to approve guidelines that protect what she described as self-employed staff’ need for flexibility.

“If Brussels forces Uber to reclassify drivers and couriers across the EU, we could expect to see a 50-70 per cent reduction in the number of work opportunities,” Díaz stated. This would trigger Uber to stop working in “hundreds” of the three,000 cities throughout the EU that it serves at the moment, she added, and lengthen buyer wait occasions.

Her feedback come within the week that the EU’s fundamental establishments — the European Commission, the parliament and the Council of Ministers — have kick-started negotiations over the ultimate textual content of the brand new regulation, which is geared toward enhancing financial situations for gig staff within the bloc. Here’s extra from Diaz’s interview with the Financial Times.

Here’s what else I’m conserving tabs on at the moment:

• US rates of interest: The Federal Reserve is anticipated to take care of its benchmark rate of interest at a 22-year excessive.

• Economic information: The UK publishes its shopper value index for final month and its home value index.

• King Charles in Paris: Britain’s monarch will go to France for 3 days after host President Emmanuel Macron was pressured to cancel the King’s deliberate journey in March due to protests over unpopular pension reforms.

Join Martin Wolf, FT China watchers and UBS China economist Tao Wang for a subscriber-only webinar on China’s financial slowdown tomorrow at 11am BST. Register at no cost right here.

Five extra high tales

1. Exclusive: Crispin Odey urged a girl he groped to downplay the incident to the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority whereas it thought-about whether or not he ought to retain his regulatory approval as a “fit and proper person”. The lady, the twentieth to come back ahead to the FT with claims of sexual misconduct towards the financier, stated she was assaulted in 2005 when she was an worker at Odey’s hedge fund. Read the complete story.

2. US president Joe Biden urged world leaders to oppose early peace talks that will result in Ukraine being “carved up”, arguing that standing agency towards Russia would deter future invasions of unbiased nations. Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy additionally delivered his personal attraction. Here’s extra from yesterday’s UN General Assembly.

3. Exclusive: The price of recent armed drones for the UK army has jumped greater than 40 per cent partially because of makes an attempt by the Ministry of Defence to seek out financial savings in its price range two years in the past. The further prices of the programme had been revealed in response to the opposition Labour occasion’s written parliamentary questions over latest months. Here are the opposite points that raised the value tag.

• UK politics: Rishi Sunak has been accused of presiding over a “slow-motion car crash” because the prime minister prepares to delay essential internet zero measures.

• Red tape: UK-based broadcaster Sky has referred to as on the federal government to deal with extreme regulation which it says has added “significant cost” to its enterprise and the media business.

4. The CBI has delayed its annual assembly because of happen at the moment, telling members it had “short-term cash flow challenges” after dropping company members following claims of sexual misconduct this yr. The group had hoped to safe £3mn of funding earlier than the assembly. Here’s extra on the existential disaster engulfing Britain’s largest enterprise foyer group.

5. Justin Trudeau has denied making an attempt to impress India with what he referred to as “credible allegations” that New Delhi’s brokers might be linked to the killing of a Sikh chief in Canada. Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s workplace has dismissed his Canadian counterpart’s claims as “absurd and motivated”, with the spat resulting in tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions.

Deep dive

The inexperienced transition is fuelling rising demand for uncommon earths in Europe. Although they’re discovered internationally, no nation has exploited these minerals like China, which accounted for 70 per cent of rare-earth mining manufacturing final yr. With the EU virtually fully depending on the nation for the provision and processing of uncommon earths, can Europe go inexperienced with out China? The FT’s visible workforce investigates.

We’re additionally studying . . . 

Chart of the day

Understandably, enormous consideration is being paid proper now to China’s slowdown, its over-reliance on funding in property and its monetary fragility. All that is comprehensible, writes Martin Wolf, but it surely may also be exaggerated.

Take a break from the information

To mark Deaf Awareness Month, HTSI interviews members of the deaf neighborhood on how they’ve embraced and challenged their diagnoses. “I hope to open people’s eyes to the fact that deaf people can achieve in sports,” stated rugby participant Jodie Ounsley.

Additional contributions from Benjamin Wilhelm and Gordon Smith