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POLITICO BRUSSELS PLAYBOOK
Malta Business Review
By FLORIAN EDER
with ZOYA SHEFTALOVICH
PRESENTED BY GOOGLE
4. CZECHOSLOVAKIA MAKING A COMEBACK?
It was new Slovak Prime Minister Peter
Pellegrini’s first summit, but he won’t get to
taste all its pleasures. Pellegrini left Thursday
evening with the impeccable excuse of facing
a vote of confidence in parliament today. So
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (who is,
by the way, Slovak by origin) will represent
his neighbor in the EU27 part of today’s
deliberations, as Hospodářské noviny’s Ondřej
Houska reports. It won’t last long: Slovakia is
a euro member, Czechia isn’t, so for the last,
euro-only part of the summit, Vienna will
make Bratislava’s voice heard.
5. NEVER COMING BACK: A lost tourist walked
up to me on Thursday, beneath a rainy
Brussels sky, to ask where, per favore, he
could see “the main EU headquarters.” Now
that’s a tricky question at any time. Then he
told me he only had half an hour spare to see
the EU for once — to make it tangible. I sent
him Parliament’s way. The only thing he could
have seen around the shining palace where
EU leaders were actually doing business is
barriers and lattice fences. MBR
Luis de Guindos | Raigo Pajula/AFP
via Getty Images
LUIS DE GUINDOS APPOINTED
ECB NO. 2
EU leaders Thursday agreed to hand the
European Central Bank’s vice presidency to
Spain’s Luis de Guindos. Leaders announced
the decision following a vote in the European
Council in Brussels on Thursday. De Guindos,
currently Spain’s economy minister, will take
over the role of vice president from June 1 after
incumbent Vítor Constâncio leaves the post. MBR
WHICH ROAD TO ROME?
Both chambers of the Italian parliament
take seats and will (attempt to) elect their
presidents today. A majority may or may
not emerge. If it does, don’t take that as a
sign there will be a government of the same
colors any time soon. Italy’s status is still “it’s
complicated.” Giada Zampano from Rome
updates us on recent proceedings.
Antonio Tajani, president of the European
Parliament, briefed leaders at the summit about
what his institution expects of them, sneaking in
his advice on what to expect from Italy’s (many
would say opaque) political situation: “The
message that has been sent out about Europe
has been that EU countries close their borders,
dig in their heels with the redistribution of a few
thousand refugees, and let all landings take place
on our shores. This narrative has conditioned
the results of the elections,” he said.
That’s to be read that way: Italy might well end
up having another election, and leaders better
get their act together and pass a compromise
on common asylum rules and the protection of
external borders, do a deal with Africa as they
did with Turkey two years ago, and show Italians
that yes, they care — or risk facing a very clear
result rather than uncertainty next time round
(and that doomsday scenario wouldn’t include
a Prime Minister Tajani).
Advice on what’s going to happen was
particularly welcomed by Merkel and French
President Emmanuel Macron, whom Tajani,
from Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, met with
individually, according to his team. Juncker,
instead, opted for a private chat with Prime
Minister Paolo Gentiloni, from the other
losing party.
MEANWHILE, IN CATALONIA, THE THIRD
ATTEMPT TO APPOINT NEW LEADER FAILS.
**Join POLITICO’s Women Rule Summit on
June 21 in Brussels and hear from Canadian
Minister of Environment and Climate Change
Catherine McKenna on Women in Energy and
Sustainability, and European Commissioner
for Research, Science and Innovation Carlos
Moedas on Women in Entrepreneurship and
Innovation, among other keynote speakers. MBR
DEAL WITH IT
THE REAL ART OF THE DEAL: There’s at least
one company that knows how to get its way
in Brussels. “More than two years after the
European Food Safety Authority signaled
concerns about a pesticide made by Syngenta,
the Swiss agrichemical giant has avoided an
EU ban on the product,” write POLITICO’s
Simon Marks and Giulia Paravicini in a mustread
about how Syngenta used its lobbying
in Brussels to drive a wedge between the
Commission and its own food safety agency.
“Emails, letters and technical papers released
by the European Commission in response to a
POLITICO request show the Commission twice
withdrew a proposal to remove Syngenta’s
pesticide, called diquat, from the market after
the company questioned the methodology
behind EFSA’s science.”
DEALING WITH NO DEAL: The next Brexit
battle in Westminster is over whether to
prepare for a “no deal” Brexit. After securing
agreement with the European Commission
earlier this week for a transition period as the
U.K. leaves the EU, senior government officials
say the battle is on between those who back a
“soft” Brexit, who want the U.K. government
to abandon preparations for a worst-case
scenario, versus hardcore Brexiteers who
want to ensure London looks like it means it
when it says no deal is better than a bad one.
POLITICO’s Tom McTague and Charlie Cooper
have the story.
DEALING WITH FACEBOOK: Elizabeth
Denham, the U.K.’s privacy regulator, is
leading the global investigation into whether
Cambridge Analytica — which used data
from Facebook to try to help Donald Trump
get elected — ran afoul of Britain’s data
protection standards. POLITICO’s Annabelle
Dickson and Mark Scott profile the woman in
the eye of the storm.
POLAND (SORT OF) BACKTRACKS: Poland’s
ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party on Thursday
presented a series of amendments to its
controversial judiciary bills and backtracked on
its Holocaust law.
FOLLOWING UP: The outer provinces we
mentioned in Thursday’s Playbook emailed to
write in that yes, they had paid for what they
ordered, and after thoroughly checking with
all parties involved we can confirm they did.
No offence meant, and none taken, the East
of Scotland European Consortium‘s Joanne
Scobie wrote to tell us. They’re on a “factfinding
mission” to explore how post-Brexit
Brussels will look for them, and it “really
opened our eyes.”
They looked post-Brexit: “It was especially
interesting to hear from counterparts in
Norway and Switzerland. It gives us hope
that we can continue to work with European
colleagues, but this of course depends on the
willingness of the U.K. government. When we
return to Scotland we will make the case of this
at both Holyrood and Westminster,” Scobie
said. “Overall, we picked up on a lot of goodwill
towards Scotland … This was a very positive
experience for us and so we return to Scotland
knowing that this does not mean the end of EU
collaboration for us.” MBR
Courtesy: POLITICO SPRL
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