Brussels Playbook: Big Tech faces EU heat — Huawei spooks Berlin — Another Eva Kaili probe

 

Brussels Playbook: Big Tech faces EU heat — Huawei spooks Berlin — Another Eva Kaili probe

 

BY JAKOB HANKE VELA

APRIL 25, 2023 7:10 AM CET

https://www.politico.eu/newsletter/brussels-playbook/big-tech-faces-eu-heat-huawei-spooks-berlin-another-eva-kaili-probe/

 

Brussels Playbook

By JAKOB HANKE VELA

 

 

DRIVING THE DAY: COMMISSION POLICES BIG TECH 

A HAMMAM FOR GAFAM: The Commission is turning up the heat on Big Tech platforms — known in Brussels as GAFAM for the initials of Google, Apple, Facebook (Meta), Amazon and Microsoft.

 

Sort of like a bathhouse, the Commission hopes that by applying heat and pressure (and forcing them to disclose their private parts), the companies will become cleaner and smell better to the noses of EU regulators.

 

Today, Commissioner Thierry Breton will announce 19 providers that will be designated as “very large online platforms” and search engines under the Commission’s new digital rulebook, the Digital Services Act.

 

“These platforms and search engines will not be able to act as if they were too big to care,” Breton tells Playbook. The EU’s internal market chief added the platforms will face audits and supervision by the Commission to make sure they comply with EU rules on avoiding harm to consumers — checks “which they should expect to be very tough,” he said.

 

**A message from Together for Sustainable Packaging: Independent studies show a move to 100% reusable packaging by 2023 could significantly increase greenhouse emissions and water use - whereas using recycled materials in packaging could reduce CO2 emissions by up to 70%. Beware the unintended consequences of well-meaning legislation. Learn more at forsustainablepackaging.eu.**

 

What it means: These designated platforms with more than 45 million EU users will face more obligations than smaller ones and come under additional regulator scrutiny, including an obligation to let researchers access their inner workings. The algorithms, which decide what we see and read on those sites, will be inspected by the Commission’s own in-house experts at the EU’s new Centre for Algorithmic Transparency in Seville.

 

Elon Musk be warned: Breton warned again that platforms that fail to comply with the EU’s rules on moderating harmful content will face “sanctions including fines of up to 6 percent of their group’s global turnover and, as last resort, a temporary ban from the EU.”

 

Meet the VLOPs: Breton only said that 19 such “very large online platforms” (VLOPs) and search engines will get the designation today. Officials tell us the biggest names (Google, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Amazon, Apple) will all be in, as they have already come forward and said they fall under the Commission’s definition.

 

But Brussels is checking the user data of other platforms that claimed they don’t fall under the scope of the Digital Services Act (such as Telegram, Airbnb, PornHub and Spotify). Some of those could be designated in a second batch, after the Commission checks whether they indeed fall below the threshold of 45 million EU users.

 

MORE TECH NEWS: THE HUAWEI KIT THAT CAUSED GERMAN OFFICIALS TO FREAK OUT: A component embedded within Huawei’s network technology could allow the company to remotely take down Germany’s telecoms networks, German security officials told lawmakers in a secret briefing.

 

The discovery of this crucial piece of tech — in theory, meant to regulate power consumption, but which could also be used to disrupt telecoms operations — caused Germany to change course on allowing Chinese tech giant Huawei to build its 5G networks, my colleague Louis Westerndarp reports.

 

In March, Germany’s interior ministry launched a probe to check all components with security implications from two Chinese telecoms suppliers, Huawei and ZTE. The review was launched to identify technology “that could enable a state to exercise political power,” a high-ranking official from the interior ministry said at the time.

 

CHINA-EUROPE RELATIONS  Share on Twitter  Share on Facebook  Share on Linkedin  Share on Handclap3

BEIJING DISAVOWS ENVOY’S COMMENTS ON EX-SOVIET STATES: China on Monday clearly and repeatedly distanced itself from statements made by its ambassador to France, who caused an uproar by questioning the independence of nations that had previously been part of the USSR.

 

“China respects the sovereign state status of the participating republics after the dissolution of the Soviet Union,” China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters in Beijing. “After the collapse of the Soviet Union, China was one of the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with relevant countries.”

 

China’s embassy in Paris issued a separate note Monday, saying the ambassador’s remarks “were not a statement of politics, but an expression of personal views during a televised debate.”

 

Case closed? EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said “this incident has now been duly clarified,” but sidestepped a question on whether China could be trusted as a peace facilitator in Ukraine.

 

“I’m satisfied with the response from Beijing that this doesn’t reflect an official line of thinking in China,” Slovak Foreign Minister Rastislav Káčer told POLITICO’s Jacopo Barigazzi.

 

EU UPDATES CHINA STRATEGY: Borrell also revealed Monday that the bloc’s diplomatic arm is currently updating its 2019 strategy on Beijing, which designated China simultaneously as a partner, competitor and systemic rival.

 

EU foreign ministers are expected to discuss the new paper at their informal so-called Gymnich meeting on May 12. “We are … recalibrating our strategy towards China, as it was defined in 2019, which is a long time ago,” Borrell told reporters after the Foreign Affairs Council meeting, adding the strategy would also be discussed by EU leaders. “Rivalry can be seen to have stepped up, [though] it doesn’t mean partnership has been stepped down … Competition has gone up as well.”

 

Borrell highlighted the fact that the EU’s trade relations with China are “going up all the time too,” adding: “You can’t ignore the trends when you see them.”

 

CHINA DOESN’T WANT PEACE IN UKRAINE, CZECH PRESIDENT WARNS: Newly elected Czech President Petr Pavel sent a warning about China’s intentions for Ukraine during his visit to Brussels. “I don’t think [that] China has a real interest to resolve the war in a short time,” Pavel said in an exclusive interview with POLITICO’s Lili Bayer and Ketrin Jochecová.

 

China as a mediator? The remarks, made shortly before China’s ambassador to France questioned the sovereignty of former Soviet states, also come after Beijing floated a vague roadmap to a political settlement in Ukraine. Unlike French President Emmanuel Macron, who recently argued Beijing can help end the conflict, Pavel said the Asian superpower cannot be counted upon as a mediator. “China is taking lessons out of the conflict every day,” he said, speaking about Taiwan.

 

NATO insider: Pavel, as a former NATO military chief, has extensive military insight and is blunt about what allies should do regarding the debate on defense spending. “We focus too much,” the president said, “on the line of 2 percent,” referring to the targeted portion of GDP that countries should dole out.

 

Closer to home: In the wide-ranging interview, Pavel also talked about the anti-government protests in the Czech Republic and upcoming elections in Slovakia, where the EU risks losing another country to populist forces in the region. Read the whole interview here.

 

COLD WAR WARNING: U.K. Foreign Secretary James Cleverly is set to tell China hawks in his country today that Britain must engage with China rather than isolate Beijing in a “new Cold War.” Cleverly will set out the U.K.’s three-pronged approach toward China in a long-awaited speech, according to words shared by his department ahead of time.

 

“It would be clear and easy — perhaps even satisfying — for me to declare a new Cold War and say that our goal is to isolate China,” Cleverly is expected to say. “Clear, easy, satisfying — and wrong. Because it would be a betrayal of our national interest and a wilful misunderstanding of the modern world.”

 

Cristina Gallardo has the full details.

 

 

 

EVA KAILI FACES ANOTHER PROBE: Documents seen by POLITICO reveal fresh details about a separate criminal investigation that Greek MEP Eva Kaili is facing regarding allegedly fraudulent payments involving four former assistants in the European Parliament from 2014 to 2020.

 

The probe is looking at Kaili for three potential fraudulent activities: whether she misled Parliament about her assistants’ location and work activities; took a cut of their reimbursements for “fake” work trips she orchestrated; and also took kickbacks from part of their salaries, according to a letter from the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) to Parliament President Roberta Metsola, seen by POLITICO. Read more by Eddy Wax and Nektaria Stamouli.

 

SUDAN CEASE-FIRE CALLED: The rival military factions fighting for supremacy in Sudan have agreed to a 72-hour ceasefire starting today. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced the deal last night, saying it followed “intense negotiations” and adding: “We welcome their commitment to work with partners and stakeholders for permanent cessation of hostilities and humanitarian arrangements.”

 

Meanwhile, EU countries stepped up their evacuation missions Monday. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said efforts would continue for the remaining German and EU nationals “whether through further flights, with other partners, by land or by sea.”

 

END OF DAYS FOR RUSSIA’S CHURCH IN UKRAINE? Ukrainian authorities are considering banning the Moscow-tied Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which has been accused of collaborating with Ukraine’s invaders.

 

Draft legislation has already been prepared by opposition parties to do just that, my colleague Jamie Dettmer reports from Kyiv.

 

Even without the ban, the church is in rapid decline, with more priests and worshippers poised to defect to the rival, independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Read the story here.

 

AGENDA

— Agriculture and Fisheries Council. Arrivals and doorsteps from 8:45 a.m. … roundtable at 10 a.m. … press conference at 8:15 p.m. (Times approximate.) Full agenda. Here’s where to watch.

 

— European Council President Charles Michel meets Commission EVP Margrethe Vestager at 10 a.m.; meets Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili at 11 a.m.; has a phone call with North Macedonia’s Prime Minister Dimitar Kovačevski at 2 p.m.

 

— European Parliament President Roberta Metsola is in Prague for the Conference of Speakers of European Union Parliaments; gives keynote speech at a session on the role of the EU in “global cooperation of democracies and the issue of EU Member States’ dependence on totalitarian regimes” at 9:30 a.m.; debate and adoption of conclusions at 1 p.m.

 

— NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg meets Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili; joint statements at 3 p.m. Watch.

 

— Top EU diplomat Josep Borrell is in Colombia; represents the EU at the International Conference on Venezuela in Bogota; meets the head of the U.N. Verification Mission in Colombia, Carlos Ruiz Massieu.

 

— Commission EVP Margrethe Vestager and Commission VP Dubravka Šuica meet the CEO of LEGO Group Niels Christiansen.

 

— Commission EVP Valdis Dombrovskis meets the president of the Finnish Innovation Fund (Sitra), Jyrki Katainen.

 

— Commission EVP Frans Timmermans receives the directors of Green10, a coalition of 10 of the largest environmental organizations and networks active at the EU level.

 

— Commission VP Margaritis Schinas delivers a keynote speech at the 2023 European Cyber Agora; receives the president of the Cyprus Democratic Party, Nikolas Papadopoulos.

 

— Commission VP Vĕra Jourová receives Chairman of Trade Unions of ŠKODA AUTO Jaroslav Povšík, and meets the president of the Works Council of Volkswagen AG, Daniela Cavallo.

 

— Commissioner Helena Dalli holds an online meeting with Spain’s Minister of Social Rights and the 2030 Agenda Ione Belarra; holds an online meeting on Islamophobia in India and among the Indian diaspora.

 

— Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius meets the organizers of the European Citizens’ Initiative titled Save Bees and Farmers.

 

**EU’s Chief Trade Enforcement Officer Denis Redonnet will be speaking at POLITICO Live’s Competitive Europe Summit on June 27-28. Don’t miss out on his ideas on how the European Union should face unfair trade competition. Secure your spot today and register here.**

 

BRUSSELS CORNER  Share on Twitter  Share on Facebook  Share on Linkedin  Share on Handclap

NIGHT TAXI COLLECTO RETURNS: The night taxi service Collecto will start operating again on May 15 in Brussels after it was suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic. Collecto runs between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. and charges €6 per person.

 

SWEDISH MUSIC TIME: This Friday, the Brussels Chamber Ensemble will feature a special program of Swedish music in honor of the country’s Council of the EU presidency, conducted by the European Commission Legal Service’s Clio Zois. This will include the world premiere of a symphony composed by musician and feminist reformer Elfrida Andree, whose score laid languishing for a century in Swedish archives due to a ban on playing music written by women. h/t Jack Schickler.

 

EVACUATION 2022: Ukrainian director Olga Danyliuk and former Russian prisoners will premiere the play “Evacuation 2022” on Wednesday, outdoors next to the Ukrainian Civil Society Hub at Place du Luxembourg, at 12:15 p.m.

 

OSTEND STRIKES BACK: Ostend took issue with Playbook’s description Monday of the city, which hosted this week’s North Sea Summit: “We wouldn’t dare to describe Ostend as a sleepy coastal town,” wrote Margot Neyskens, cabinet chief to Ostend’s Mayor Bart Tommelein.

 

“If Belgium plays a leading role in the field of renewable energy at sea today, it is partially thanks to all the efforts made by the city of Ostend,” Neyskens added. “So we don’t have time to fall asleep here … With an annual film festival, a podcastfestival, our street art festival Crystal Ship, art museum Mu.ZEE, the James Ensor House, two concerts of Rammstein last year, the one and only shrimp croquettes festival and so much more (www.visitoostende.be).”

 

Point taken, apologies! And Playbook promises to visit the shrimp croquettes festival 😉

 

FROM AMBO TO ACADEMIC: Today, former EU Ambassador to the U.K. João Vale de Almeida will teach his last lesson of the term on the topic of the “Divorce of Nations and Role of Diplomacy” at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. He’s preparing to join Cambridge University as a visiting fellow for the next academic year. Congrats!

 

BIRTHDAYS: Juha Sipilä, former prime minister of Finland; European Commission’s Federica Miccoli.

 

THANKS to Jacopo Barigazzi, Stuart Lau, Camille Gijs, Playbook reporter Ketrin Jochecová, editor Emma Anderson and producer Fiona Lally.

 

**A message from Together for Sustainable Packaging: Beware the unintended consequences of well-meaning legislation. A switch to 100% reusable packaging by 2030 as proposed in the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation could bring hidden costs for the environment. New independent studies by expert consulting companies such as Kearney and Ramboll show greenhouse emissions could increase by up to 50% for dine-in and up to 260% for takeaway. More water will be needed too - the EU’s water consumption could increase by up to four billion litres. Reuse models should only be considered where long transport routes, ineffective urban logistics and washing can be avoided. It’s crucial to consider the full environmental life cycle of reusable packaging. Find out why at forsustainablepackaging.eu.**