NEWSLETTERS
BRUSSELS
PLAYBOOK
Peacocking
for von der Leyen
BY SARAH
WHEATON
16 MINS READ
JULY 24,
2024 7:00 AM CET
https://www.politico.eu/newsletter/brussels-playbook/peacocking-for-von-der-leyen/
Brussels
Playbook
By SARAH
WHEATON
HOWDY.
Welcome to Wednesday’s edition of Brussels Playbook. Eddy Wax will guide you
through the rest of the week.
TOP JOBS
RACE, COMMISSIONER EDITION
LET THE
PORTFOLIO PEACOCKING BEGIN: And just like that, Ursula von der Leyen goes from
being a candidate to being the only vote that matters. Now that she’s cemented
her second term as Commission president, it’s up to her to dole out leadership
assignments within the EU executive to nominees from the capitals. Her letters
formally asking countries to nominate a man and a woman will be in the mail any
moment now.
Pursuing
prestige: What counts as a good assignment varies by country. Economic
portfolios are the hottest commodities, while some geopolitical posts are also
desirable — think enlargement and the new Mediterranean commissioner. It’s all
basically up to von der Leyen and her team, so capitals have limited leverage.
In their
tiny toolboxes: Relationships and human resources. Let’s look at how leaders
are trying to steer her choices.
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from DIGITALEUROPE: Shockingly, only 8% of EU SMEs trade across borders.
Companies need scale to succeed in the digital era, but they’re hiring lawyers
not coders. Let’s reignite the single market love story and make Europe the
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EXHIBIT A —
MITSOTAKIS REMINDS VDL WHAT HE DID FOR HER: Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos
Mitsotakis is adamant that his country should get a very important job when von
der Leyen puts together her top team. “I would certainly like a portfolio that
highlights on the one hand the progress that Greece has made economically, but
also Greece’s sort of strategic position at the southeastern flank of Europe
and of NATO,” he told Barbara Moens in an interview in the Maximos Mansion, the
official office of the Greek leader in Athens.
Name game:
Mitsotakis hasn’t yet announced Greece’s choice for the next Commission, and
wouldn’t be drawn on who his pick will be. The current Greek commissioner,
Margaritis Schinas, told Brussels Playbook this month he would like to stay on
and doing so would be a “great honor.” But there are others in the frame,
including Governor of Central Macedonia Apostolos Tzitzikostas and Labor
Minister Niki Kerameus.
Power/guilt
trip: Together with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Mitsotakis was one of
the European People’s Party (EPP) negotiators who clinched a second term for
von der Leyen in the European Council. With French President Emmanuel Macron
and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in weakened positions, and bridge-builders
such as former Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Belgian Prime Minister
Alexander De Croo leaving the Council, Mitsotakis can style himself as a leader
of leaders — for example on how to finance defense investments. Read more of
Barbara’s interview here.
EXHIBIT B —
SCHOOF SENDS A FAMILIAR FACE: As expected, Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof
officially backed Wopke Hoekstra, currently the EU’s climate chief, to stay as
the Netherlands’ commissioner. “This gives the Netherlands a strong candidate
for a substantial portfolio,” Schoof tweeted. “Substantial” likely means a
financial or economic portfolio.
All in the
family: Hoekstra’s Dutch party, the Christian Democratic Appeal, isn’t part of
Schoof’s unwieldy coalition. But it is part of von der Leyen’s political
family, the EPP. (As Barbara notes in her must-read primer on the commissioner
nomination process, capitals don’t have to send in two names if they’re
renominating an incumbent.)
EXHIBIT C —
LITHUANIA’S DOMESTIC FEUD HITS FOREIGN AMBITIONS: Sure, EPP chief Manfred Weber
may have publicly endorsed Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis
to serve in the Commission. But it’s not up to Weber, a German MEP. It’s
(ultimately) up to Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda, and he’s in a
long-running feud with Vilnius’ top envoy.
Changing the
subject: Nausėda is now publicly saying that Lithuania should focus on an
economic portfolio in the next Commission, Barbara reports, instead of a
foreign policy one — suggesting that Landsbergis is not the right man for the
job. Nausėda is hinting at other names, including the Lithuanian Prime Minister
Ingrida Šimonytė and finance minister.
More drama:
It’s up to Šimonytė to nominate a candidate — who then needs sign-off from both
the president and the Lithuanian parliament.
SIDEBAR —
D-DAY FOR MALTESE HEALTH ASPIRANT: The Covid-19 pandemic was a reminder that
even unsexy, seemingly powerless posts like health commissioner can sometimes
become very important. So the fact that Malta’s Chris Fearne, formerly the EU’s
longest-serving health minister, wants the job would seem a win-win. In May,
however, Fearne resigned from his post as deputy PM because of fraud charges
related to hospital contracts — while protesting his innocence.
Second
chance: A judge in Malta is due to rule today whether there is enough evidence
for a criminal case to go ahead. Prime Minister Robert Abela has signaled he
would still nominate Fearne as the country’s next EU commissioner if his name
is cleared. More in Morning Health Care for Pro subscribers.
No obvious
alternative: Current Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides of Cyprus ruled
herself out, and Belgian Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke remains unlikely
to go for the post. (No Flemish party seems interested in offering up a
commissioner, Belgian daily De Standaard reports — a situation that improves
the chances of Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders of the Francophone liberals
keeping a Berlaymont job.)
MORE
MITSOTAKIS
LET’S TALK
FRONTEX: In his interview with Barbara, Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis said he
wants Brussels to be more concrete about the role of Frontex in migration
policy.
Role of the
border agency: “It’s not always clear to me whether we have given Frontex the
appropriate mandate to actually do its job,” he said. “It’s a question of
making sure we all agree on what we do and what we don’t do when it comes to
border protection.”
Mitsotakis
stressed this is not just a question for countries such as Greece, which cope
with illegal migration from the south. Poland and Finland are dealing with “the
instrumentalization of migration,” he continued. “Frontex should not be a
welcoming committee facilitating anyone who wants to enter the European Union.
That’s simply not acceptable. And I don’t think that’s their job.”
Pushing back
on pushback complaints: The Greek prime minister, whose country has been
accused of pushbacks and causing deaths of migrants by the U.N. Refugee Agency
and several NGOs, said: “We feel that it is within the scope of European
regulation to prevent boats from entering into our territorial waters. I’m very
clear on that. However, if there are people whose lives are at risk, we will
always save them. So there’s a way of balancing these two.”
RULE OF
LAW
RULES REPORT
CARD: Attacks on journalists in Italy and shutdowns of public media in Slovakia
… persistent political blockage of judicial independence in Spain … probes of
civil society groups in Hungary (to name just the latest issue). It can feel
like democratic safeguards are backsliding around Europe. Yet the Commission’s
latest rule of law report — due to be made public today after approval by the
College of Commissioners — offers a more optimistic view.
‘Playbook’
for democratic checks and balances: “We started to build this preventive
mechanism in 2020,” said Commission VP for Transparency Věra Jourová in a
statement to Playbook. Her office’s annual deep dive with tailored
recommendations has itself become a “Playbook,” she said, for governments to
work on their “judiciary, anti-corruption framework, media freedom and other
checks and balances of our democratic societies.”
Responding
to feedback: National governments followed up on some 68 percent of the
recommendations the Commission made in 2023, according to a draft of the
report’s main findings, viewed by POLITICO.
New this
year: The Commission assessed rule-of-law practices in the accession-track
countries of Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia — though the EU
executive doesn’t issue recommendations.
POLITICAL
CONTEXT: Then again, the report itself has been subject to concerns about
accountability failures. As POLITICO’s Clothilde Goujard reported last month,
it was due to be released on July 3. However, officials said von der Leyen
sought to slow-walk the report to avoid criticizing Italy on media freedom
issues while she sought Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s support for a
second term. A Commission spokesperson said at the time that the report was
still being prepared.
RESPONDING
TO RUSSIA’S WAR
THAWING
RESISTANCE ON RUSSIAN ASSETS: As G7 finance ministers meet today in Rio de
Janeiro, the EU is trying to soothe U.S. concerns about lending $50 billion
from frozen Russian assets to Kyiv, Gregorio Sorgi writes in to report.
Why the US
is worried: Washington fears the loan is risky, since a single EU country can
block the renewal of sanctions every six months and unfreeze the assets that
are mainly held in Europe. This would force G7 countries to pay back their
share of the loan using their own money.
Perpetually
frozen? The EU executive proposed an “open-ended immobilization” of the assets
to be reviewed at “regular intervals” in a bid to offer certainty to the U.S.,
according to a document seen by POLITICO. Under this scheme, the Commission
could recommend unfreezing the assets if Russia agrees to pay post-war
compensation to Ukraine. The idea will be discussed by the EU’s 27 ambassadors
today. (Bloomberg and the FT also have details.)
Softer
option: The second proposal involves extending the renewal period of sanctions
from the current six months to 18, 24 or 36 months. But EU officials are
worried that Hungary’s Russia-friendly government won’t agree to either option,
as they both require unanimity.
Nearing a
deal: EU and U.S. officials informally agreed to equally share their
contributions to the loan, giving $20 billion each, according to two officials
with knowledge of the proceedings. But the U.S. is looking for concessions to
give its political blessing to the agreement.
Who won’t be
there to help smooth things over: European Central Bank President Christine
Lagarde is set to miss the G7 and G20 finance ministers’ meetings this week and
will instead be soaking up the Olympic buzz in Paris, attending a sustainable
development conference and Friday’s opening ceremony, Johanna Treeck reports.
PARLIAMENT’S
PARTISANS
WHERE THE
FIREWALL ENDS: Tuesday’s votes for committee leadership posts in the European
Parliament show exactly who’s allowed to help govern — and who’s kept out in
the right-wing cold.
Meloni in,
Orbán out: The Parliament’s third-largest group, the Patriots for Europe,
should have been allocated two committee chairs based on their sheer numbers.
But the new formation, which includes lawmakers from Hungary’s Fidesz and
France’s National Rally, was completely blocked, Max Griera, Paula Andrés,
Louise Guillot and Giovanna Faggionato report. Italian PM Meloni’s European
Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), meanwhile, will lead panels in charge of
budgets, agriculture and petitions. It also nabbed 10 vice presidencies across
other committees.
KEEPING
SCORE 1: ECR group Co-Chair Nicola Procaccini posted on X Tuesday that he was
going to get a tattoo of the number 13, in honor of the group’s total
leadership posts. Playbook is sincerely unsure whether he is being sincere.
KEEPING
SCORE 2: After doing some math following the von der Leyen vote, the head of
Italy’s EPP delegation, Fulvio Martusciello, said he wasn’t going to vote for
any leadership nominees from the Greens. “Our candidate started with 401 votes
and 401 votes she got. The Greens are 53. If there had been a block vote of the
group she would have had many more votes,” he wrote to colleagues over the
weekend, in an email seen by Playbook’s Eddy Wax.
Only the
Greens? We’re not clear on how Martusciello’s math accounts for likely
defections from von der Leyen’s core coalition of EPP, the Socialists and
Democrats and Renew Europe in the secret ballot. But the bottom line, he told
us Tuesday evening, was that all of the Greens hadn’t voted for von der Leyen,
as promised, in exchange for committee leadership posts — so he considered the
deal null and void.
KEEPING
SCORE 3: One Renew MEP who said she voted against von der Leyen, Marie-Agnes
Strack-Zimmermann, was nonetheless able to win the chair’s seat on the
Parliament’s defense subcommittee. More here for Defense Pros from Jacopo
Barigazzi.
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With MEDEF, you are never alone: never alone in your concerns, never alone in
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IN OTHER
NEWS
ECR COZIES
UP TO TRUMP: The European Conservatives and Reformists are starting to make
moves towards Donald Trump. According to Italian newspaper La Repubblica,
Meloni’s hard-right party is eying a joint confab with the Republicans before
the U.S. presidential vote on Nov. 5. One of the ideas would be for Trump
allies to attend the ECR European Congress of Families scheduled for September
in Croatia.
Setting
misgivings aside: While Viktor Orbán’s Patriots for Europe has made no secret
of its Trump fandom, the ECR has been more reticent. The transatlantic
relationship is a big part of the historic ECR brand, and Trump’s stances on
NATO and Ukraine have been hard for some members to swallow. ECR
Secretary-General Antonio Giordano attended the Republican National Convention
in Milwaukee last week, where he met with members of the presidential campaign.
“Everyone was asking me about Giorgia Meloni,” Giordano told Secolo d’Italia, a
conservative Italian daily.
VDL TO MEET
STARMER: Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the U.K.’s new Prime
Minister Keir Starmer will organize a meeting “within weeks” to reset Britain’s
relationship with the EU, the FT reports. Von der Leyen missed Starmer’s big
European political summit last week, but her team is now aiming for a meeting
next month or early September, officials told the paper.
SETBACK FOR
TUSK: Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has hit a brick wall on one of his main
campaign promises, to increase access to abortions, after narrowly losing a
parliamentary vote earlier this month. On Tuesday, about 1,000 demonstrators
gathered in front of parliament in Warsaw demanding that Tusk’s government
uphold its election promises. “What the f**k did they think was going to
happen: that we’re going to give up?” said one of the organizers. Wojciech Kość
has more.
MACRON SLAPS
DOWN LEFT’S BID TO GOVERN FRANCE: President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday pushed
back on plans by the left-wing alliance (which won the most seats in this
summer’s snap parliamentary election) to install a little-known Paris city
official, Lucie Castets, as prime minister. In a TV interview, Macron said his
outgoing government will remain in place until mid-August while Paris hosts the
Olympic Games. Write-ups from POLITICO and Reuters.
Now read …
why Parisians are pissed at Olympic disruptions: French authorities have gone
to great lengths to protect the millions of tourists and athletes descending on
the capital for the Summer Games, but some locals are angry that their daily
commutes have been upended. Giorgio Leali has the story.
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