Hi there, welcome back to Emlex's weekly podcast covering the top regulatory stories of the week.

My name is James Panicki. I'm Asia Pacific Senior Editor here at Emlex., and it's great to be with you again.

We have a perfect storm of big news brewing for you this week.

In just a moment, we'll cross to Brussels for the announcement of an incredibly ambitious energy policy

that may well define Europe's approach to reducing carbon emissions for the coming decades.

And then we'll go to Washington, D.C. for an equally momentous announcement. Rather than competing for consumers, they are consuming their competitors.

Rather than competing for workers, they're finding ways to gain the upper hand on labor. And too often,

the government has actually made it harder for new companies to break in and compete.

U.S. President Joe Biden there announcing executive orders that have been reverberating throughout

the week. The speech signals a tough new direction in antitrust policymaking and

enforcement, but it also raises questions about whether these orders could be seen as impinging

on the independence of the FTC and the DOJ's antitrust operations. We'll get to that in just a moment.

First up, Europe's raft of environmental policies called Fit for 55.

It covers climate, energy, land use, transport and taxation policies

with the objective of achieving a net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

Our Brussels-based energy correspondent, Julia Bedini, has been leading our coverage of this,

and our reporter Catherine Cowson has been following aspects of the launch as well. Both Julia

and Catherine join me now from Brussels. Julia, fit for 55 sounds like a gym membership for the

middle age, which is possibly why it's resonating with me at the moment.

What's it all about?

Yes, you're right, James.

The name is fairly odd, and it has prompted many jokes and puns in Brussels.

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