By Alex Barker

Deutsche Börse and NYSE Euronext are calling on Europe’s top competition regulator to clarify a “wholly misconceived” justification for blocking their proposed merger to create the world’s largest exchange.

In a strongly-worded draft letter seen by the Financial Times, the exchanges argue that recent comments by Joaquín Almunia, the European Union’s competition commissioner, contradict the official legal case against the merger.

The intervention is part of the exchange’s final burst of lobbying to salvage a deal that is almost certain to be barred by the European Commission.

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