[ by Melanie Gretchen ] NYSE CEO Duncan Niederauer said the EU antitrust regulators' analysis of his company's planned merger with Deutsche Börse AG was "fundamentally flawed," after regulators recommended blocking the deal. In a video message to his employees, Mr. Niederauer said that competition authorities - who have viewed a planned combination of the 2 exchange groups' futures markets as a monopoly on European futures and options trade - have ignored competing markets in off-exchange derivatives and overseas platforms. EU antitrust examiners determined that the merger candidates compete with one another for futures and options trade carried out on exchanges - but not with the private market in swaps and other instruments, or foreign-based derivatives exchange operators like CME Group Inc., which controls an estimated 90% of U.S. futures trade. They recommended Tuesday the EU not allow the merger to go ahead, according to a senior EU official - though members of the European Commission will make the final decision. Basing his comments on news reports Tuesday, Mr. Niederauer said that the competition authorities exchanges haven't yet received a formal decision from competition authorities.  Over the next few weeks, NYSE, and Deutsche Börse executives will focus resources on lobbying these lawmakers, with a final ruling on the deal expected by 2/9/12. Mr. Niederauer said, "we're going to continue to press our case directly with various Commissioners in the EU, both to highlight the serious flaws in the case team's core argument, and to ensure that there is a clear understanding of the strong benefits that our combination will bring to a broad set of stakeholders in Europe." [WSJ, 1/11/12]