Brussels Playbook: Zelenskyy in Moldova — Harassment rife in Parliament — Macron’s ‘Zeitenwende’

Опубликовано: Friday, 02 June 2023 05:19

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By NICHOLAS VINOCUR

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GOOD MORNING. This is Nick Vinocur, wishing you a sunny and peaceful weekend. Rapid scan: Elon Musk is once again the world’s richest man … U.S. President Joe Biden tripped on a sandbag at a graduation ceremony … Author Salman Rushdie is writing a book about being stabbed on stage …

Now start with this: A major POLITICO investigation uncovers the hidden scale of intimidation, bullying and abuse in the European Parliament. (Much more on that below.)

DRIVING THE DAY: EUROPE AND UKRAINE

ZELENSKYY PUTS PRESSURE ON EU LEADERS: As European leaders gathered just 20 kilometers outside of Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy showed up in person to deliver a blunt message: It’s time to show you’re serious about letting Ukraine into NATO and providing us with security guarantees.

Polite smiles: It was a message bound to test the unity of leaders who’ve gone to great lengths to present a united front, Suzanne Lynch and Clea Caulcutt report from Moldova.

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Macron’s ‘Zeitenwende’: Zelenskyy’s message followed a landmark speech by French President Emmanuel Macron a day earlier in which he voiced support for Kyiv in his starkest terms to date, calling for “tangible and credible” security guarantees for Ukraine. Macron watchers have described the speech as “historic,” comparing it to a “zeitenwende” or policy U-turn in French security policy, away from his previous perceived ambiguity on Ukraine and Russia.

German caution: The French push was met with a more guarded approach from Berlin. Chancellor Olaf Scholz backed the call for security guarantees, but only after the war ends. “We have always said that there must also be guarantees for a peace order after the war,” he said, adding that Ukraine’s ongoing conflict ruled out NATO membership for the time being.

Slow lane: Equally divisive was the question of accession to the EU for Ukraine and Moldova. While European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said accession talks for Moldova should start this year, other leaders were more circumspect. The consensus view remains that EU membership for either country isn’t coming anytime soon.

PLAYBOOK INTERVIEW — MACRON AND RUSSIA: In an attempt to understand what led to Macron’s speech, in which he also appeared to scold ex-President Jacques Chirac over callous comments directed at Eastern EU countries, Playbook got in touch with Isabelle Lasserre, reporter at French daily Le Figaro. She’s just published a book (en français) examining the president’s evolving thinking on Russia.

Out-Bidening Biden: “Until a month-and-half ago, he wasn’t thinking this way on the Eastern countries,” said Lasserre. “Previously, there was always a form of ambiguity. Now I feel he’s more pushy on letting Ukraine into NATO than [U.S. President Joe] Biden.”

So what happened? Lasserre said that Macron had been “very influenced” by U.S.-skeptic politicians in France, including ex-ministers Jean-Pierre Chevènement and Hubert Védrine, though Macron himself was not anti-American. This may have had an impact on his approach to Russia, but not necessarily. “At the end of the day, he [Macron] decides,” said Lasserre. “He’s got such hubris — he thinks he can do anything.”

Dragged by events: “Over the past few months he has gradually changed,” she said. “He’s being pulled forward by history, rather than leading. Today, you can’t be the leader of Europe if you’re not leading on Ukraine.”

EPC — WHAT’S IN A NAME? As a week of chatter about the European Political Community wraps up, spare a thought for the other EPC — the European Policy Centre, a think tank that had a largely unopposed claim on its three-letter initials for 26 years until last October, when the EPC political community was born. In a series of tweets, members of the think tank described the Moldova gathering as a meeting of the EPoC rather than the EPC.

There can only be one: EPC (the original one!) policy analyst Marta Mucznik told Playbook: “There is no disagreement, and we are not asking the European Political Community to change its name, but we will continue to refer to it as #EPoC … to avoid confusion with an acronym that has been in town for more than 25 years. We will remain #EPC as there is only one #EPC, the European Policy Centre.” Take that, Macron!

SANCTIONS DEAL NEXT WEEK? EU countries aim to make a deal on the EU’s latest Russian sanctions package next week, three EU diplomats said. There will be consultations, including in Moldova, ahead of the next discussion by EU envoys at their meeting on June 7, Barbara Moens reports.

But but but … The diplomats stressed there’s still a range of outstanding issues after their latest discussion Wednesday. Greece and Hungary are still holding out over Ukraine listing some of their companies as “war sponsors.” Concerns remain, too, about the measures to tackle sanctions circumvention, which could cause diplomatic repercussions with other countries. A new version of the proposal, dated Wednesday and seen by POLITICO, introduces a careful, step-by-step approach for the European Commission to follow before targeting third countries on circumvention.

“An agreement is within reach,” said one diplomat, but cautioned that the exact timing is “still hard to predict.”

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

INSIDE EUROPE’S ‘PARLIAMENT OF BULLIES‘: The European Parliament has repeatedly failed to protect victims of bullying by powerful politicians, this must-read investigation by our colleagues Barbara Moens and Eddy Wax reveals. A picture built up over four months, based on dozens of interviews and confidential documents, showed a system in crisis that has left MEPs’ staff scarred by years of abuse.

Look away, please: The picture that emerged from these conversations was one of a poisonous workplace that has repeatedly shrugged off pleas to reform its anti-harassment policy and is indifferent to harassment. According to the evidence witnesses and victims presented to POLITICO, the current policy fails to protect those who risk everything to speak up. In some cases, victims are actively discouraged from lodging complaints — to protect the Parliament’s image and spare the blushes of MEPs.

‘Death row’: Witnesses and victims described feeling “physically and mentally dead” or even suicidal as a result of harassment, and suffering anxiety and sleep deprivation as they waited for several months — or longer — for complaints to be processed. One likened the experience of delays to “prisoners on death row.”

Reform, but when? On Thursday, MEPs backed yet more calls to tighten up the rules and speed up the procedure for dealing with alleged maltreatment, including sexual and psychological harassment. Similar calls to improve the system adopted by MEPs in 2019 and 2021 didn’t yield much change. European Parliament President Roberta Metsola has ordered an internal overhaul designed to rapidly improve the process for handling harassment claims, according to a letter seen by POLITICO. Read the story — it’s worth your time.

LEAD CANDIDATES — GREENS ALL IN AHEAD OF 2024 ELECTIONS: After European leaders decided to name Ursula von der Leyen as the European Commission president in 2019, many Brussels insiders figured that attempts to inject a bit more democracy into the selection of top EU roles were dead. But there are growing signs that the spitzenkandidaten system will return next year — with the Greens leading the charge.

Spitzen-what? The system was designed to address criticism that the selection of top EU jobs, namely Commission president, is insufficiently democratic. It foresees that each political group in Parliament puts forward a lead candidate for top EU jobs. Leaders are then expected to choose from this pool to name top jobs. The lead candidate of the party that won the most votes should, in theory, become Commission president. Except that last time, leaders dismissed this person — EPP chief Manfred Weber — and stuck von der Leyen in his place.

Green push: This hasn’t deterred the Greens, who will embrace the lead candidate system at a congress that starts today. “We will be the party that can say, with a massive majority, that we definitely want to go with this process,” Tom Zoete, the Greens’ spokesperson, told Playbook. “We want to put some pressure on every party of all ideological origins to do the same.”

Who’s in? The liberal ALDE party has formally backed the process, voting last month to go with a lead candidate. The conservative EPP, which has the spitzenkandidaten system written into its statutes, has backed von der Leyen as their lead candidate, should she want the job. None of the Socialists & Democrats, European Conservatives and Reformists, Identity and Democracy or the Left have shown their cards.

EVA KAILI WANTS OUT OF BELGIUM: With her house arrest lifted, MEP Eva Kaili is lobbying to be able to leave Belgium, my colleague Nektaria Stamouli reports.

Get me out of here: “Legal proceedings have been initiated to abolish the restrictive conditions, especially the ban on exiting the country,” her lawyers, Sven Mary and Michalis Dimitrakopoulos, told Nektaria. Kaili says she wants to be able to attend the June plenary session of Parliament in Strasbourg.

Ready when you are: Yet according to Parliament officials, there’s nothing to stop her returning to work now. Kaili didn’t attend Thursday’s session of Parliament “due to a personal obstacle,” according to her lawyers, but plans to return to her duties “in the next days.”

Friends in media: While keeping a low profile, Kaili has returned to social media, retweeting stories that criticize her alleged mistreatment by Belgian authorities. Some Brussels journalists — led by Libération’s Brussels correspondent, Jean Quatremer — have taken up her case as a cause célèbre, blasting the decision to keep her in jail while showing less interest in other Qatargate suspects such as Belgian socialist Marc Tarabella, who quietly returned to Parliament on May 24.

IN OTHER NEWS

SPANISH EU PRESIDENCY — CONSERVATIVES SEEK DELAY: You’ve read all about Parliament’s push to cancel Hungary’s presidency of the EU in Playbook. Now get this: The EPP is urging Parliament to delay the moment when the Spanish presidency of the EU presents its priorities.

Rewind: Spain’s presidency is due to start on July 1. But the EPP, fresh off election wins in Greece, Finland and a strong performance in Spain, argues that Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez shouldn’t be able to present his presidency’s priorities while he’s campaigning for reelection in a July 23 snap election.

Humble request: In a letter seen by Playbook, EPP chief Manfred Weber asks Parliament President Roberta Metsola to push back the date when Spain presents its priorities until September “to allow the freshly elected Prime Minister to present the priorities of the Council outside the domestic political battles.”

Reading between the lines: The EPP expects that its candidate, People’s Party chief Alberto Núñez Feijóo, will win the election in July. Weber is trying to turn the screw on Sanchez to deprive him of a statesmanlike European platform ahead of the election. What are the odds his push will succeed? Don’t hold your breath.

EU DEFENSE BIGWIGS IN SINGAPORE: The premier Asian security forum, the Shangri-La Dialogue, will convene today in Singapore. Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and the defense ministers of the U.K., Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden will all be there — as will Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov.

Two-way street: According to Borrell’s prepared remarks, seen by POLITICO’s Stuart Lau reporting from the Lion City, the EU intends to play a bigger role working with Indo-Pacific countries (read: as China becomes more assertive) — but Europe also hopes to see a more robust response to help Ukraine and condemn Russia from Asia.

Wonder who he’s talking about: Borrell will also portray the EU as “a reliable security partner,” one that is different from “a great power throwing its weight around.”

From Tallinn to Singapore: Kallas will point out that security challenges in the Indo Pacific and Euro-Atlantic area are “inseparable,” according to her spokesperson. “She will debunk some of the myth regarding Russia and causes for its aggression against Ukraine. Russia isn’t typically thought of as a colonial power.

Kallas will also challenge those who accuse NATO “expansion” for causing the war, the spokesperson added, referring to a line not uncommon among Global South countries. “NATO doesn’t exist to threaten Russia. It exists to keep tens of millions from being enslaved and slaughtered by Russia,” she will say.

CHINESE DEFENSE MINISTER MEETING: Li Shangfu, the Chinese defense minister, is expected to meet Borrell while in Singapore, but declined a similar meeting with U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin (sanctioning someone can make it harder to secure a meeting with them). The EU hasn’t officially confirmed the meeting yet, but a couple of diplomats with knowledge of the planning told Stuart it’s very likely going to happen.

Yikes: Li told the Singapore host on Thursday that Beijing wouldn’t rule out military option to “take back” Taiwan.

REPORT SKEWERS LE PEN’S RUSSIA CONNECTION: French investigative website Mediapart has obtained a copy of a report on foreign influence written by a lawmaker in Macron’s party and due to be published on June 8. It’s scathing of Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party — which is still paying back a loan issued by a now defunct Czech-Russian bank — calling it “an efficient communication channel” for the Kremlin in France. Le Pen called the report “partisan, dishonest and completely politicized.”

LISTEN: This week’s episode of the EU Confidential podcast comes to you from the second meeting of the European Political Community in Moldova. The team dived into the prospects for countries like Moldova and Ukraine to join the EU, as well as other issues that have bubbled up in recent days, including clashes in North Kosovo.

SILLY OCEAN: Russia’s spy whale is back! My colleague Paul Dallison has more on this development — and the history of animals as intelligence operatives.

**POLITICO Pro Central Banker makes sense of the structural transformation of monetary policy in Europe. Start your free trial of Morning Central Banker, the daily newsletter of our brand-new policy coverage service, today! Click here.**

AGENDA

— Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council. Arrivals at 8:30 a.m. … start at 9 a.m. … press conference at 3:30 p.m. Watch.

— High-level meeting on EU support for reconstruction and reform of Ukraine’s child protection system. Press conference with Swedish Minister for Social Services Camilla Waltersson Grönvall, Commission Vice President Dubravka Šuica and Ukrainian Minister for Social Policy Oksana Zholnovych at 8 a.m. Watch.

— Council President Charles Michel in Cholpon-Ata, Kyrgyzstan: meets President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev … President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev … President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon. Attends a plenary meeting with Central Asia leaders.

— Commission Executive Vice President Frans Timmermans in Paris for Conférence Jacques Delors 2023 — la Transition Ecologique.

— Commission Executive Vice President Maroš Šefčovič in Astana, Kazakhstan: meets Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov … gives keynote speech at the Astana Mining & Metallurgy Congress … gives speech at EU-Kazakhstan sustainable energy day.

— Commissioner Stella Kyriakides in Ljubljana, Slovenia: meets Health Minister of Slovenia Danijel Bešič Loredan and Agriculture Minister Irena Šinko.

— Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius in Vienna. Meets Agriculture Minister Norbert Totschnig and Climate Minister Leonore Gewessler … delivers speech at the 37th European Green Party Congress.

**#EUGreenWeek stands for environmental ambition, whatever the economic and political weather. Healthy, restored ecosystems provide us with long-term sustainability, jobs and business opportunities. Follow the debate on 6-7 June and join us on the road to more resilient and fair European societies.**

BRUSSELS CORNER

UPDATE ON SCHAERBEEK PARKING RULES: The entire municipality of Schaerbeek will go back to being in a green zone as of June 15 — which means paid parking for everyone not living in Schaerbeek. Blue zones will disappear, along with the two-hour windows during which motorists can park their cars for free (with some exceptions: here are the parking rules).

STUDENTS PROTEST DEADLY HAZING CASE SENTENCES: Students in Belgium will stage a silent protest in front of the Palace of Justice on Sunday, June 4 to denounce the verdict in last week’s trial over the death of student Sanda Dia, which they deem too light.

Context: The 18 KU Leuven students responsible for the brutal initiation ritual that killed Sanda Dia only got community service and €400 fines. Dia, the only Black student being hazed, died in hospital in 2018.

DEMONSTRATION FOR AFGHAN REFUGEES’ RIGHTS: A demonstration in support of Afghan refugees’ rights takes place today near the Congress Column from 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Three quarters of Belgium’s asylum seekers are Afghan, and its reception system has a 3,000-person waiting list — hundreds on the list live on the street.

DEMONSTRATION TO PROTECT UKRAINIAN CHILDREN: NGO “Promote Ukraine” will hold a demonstration today in front of the U.N. office in Brussels at 3 p.m. to point out crimes being committed on Ukrainian children, including their forced deportation. They call for the end of Russia’s membership in the U.N.

STUDY PLACES: studyspaces.brussels is launching an interactive map featuring study locations in the Brussels region and information like opening hours.

WHAT’S ON THIS WEEKEND…

Literature: Singer Nick Cave and journalist Seán O’Hagan will discuss their book “Faith, Hope and Carnage” at BOZAR on Sunday, June 4. Tickets.

Art: There’s a private Robert Boublil exhibition until June 4 at 7 Avenue des Nerviens. Ring the bell and you’ll be buzzed up to the apartment on the fifth floor. (Be warned, Playbook reckons there’s a good chance you’ll run into some familiar faces from the Commission and elsewhere in the bubble.)

Music: Indie-rock quartet Tigers of Eden play originals and covers at Scott’s Bar on Saturday.

Shopping: For some vintage shopping, you can visit monthly Brussels Vintage Market on Sunday.

NEW JOBS: There’s a reshuffle at the Czech permanent representation to the EU (kudos to Czech newsletter Directors of Europe). Alice Krutilová is expected to become Coreper II spokesperson, replacing Michal Sedláček who left last month. Sedláček will take on a new role as a chairman of the integrated political crisis response.

BIRTHDAYS: MEPs Aurélia Beigneux and Predrag Matić; Former French PM Bernard Cazeneuve; EEAS’ Alceo Smerilli; Friedrich von Heusinger from the representation of the state of Hesse to the EU; Industry Dive’s Noelle Knox; OLAF’s Jana Cappello; Maria Tomasik of the Council of the EU, spokesperson for the Eurogroup president; POLITICO’s Louise Guillot. Italy’s Republic Day;

CELEBRATING SATURDAY: Former MEP Mara Bizzotto; POLITICO’s Bjarke Smith-Meyer; German jurist Sabine Lautenschläger, formerly a member of the ECB’s Executive Board; Katharina Erdmenger of the German perm rep to the EU; Deborah Civico of PwC Switzerland; Societe Generale-Forge’s Stéphane Blemus; The Schuman Show’s Kelly Agathos; Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani; Former President of Cuba Raúl Castro.

CELEBRATING SUNDAY: MEPs Aušra Maldeikienė, Georgios Kyrtsos and Henna Virkkunen; European Parliament’s Samuel Baylet; José Borghino of the International Publishers Association; Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny; U.N. special envoy on refugee issues Angelina Jolie.

THANKS TO: Playbook reporter Ketrin Jochecová, our producer Dato Parulava and editor Joe Stanley-Smith.

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