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GOOD MORNING and welcome to the final Brussels Playbook for 2022. I’m Suzanne Lynch, POLITICO’s chief Brussels correspondent. Why not start the morning by re-living the year that was in charts and figures, from Russia’s war on Ukraine to climate change and the U.K.’s political implosion. Now, on to the news of the day …
WHAT UKRAINE REALLY WANTS 
KULEBA INTERVIEW: As 2022 draws to a close, Ukrainians face a dangerously uncertain future as bombs rain down on their cities, Russian missiles target key infrastructure, and Kyiv warns that Moscow is preparing to launch attacks from the Black Sea. Playbook caught up with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba to find more about what Kyiv wants from the EU in 2023 as Russia’s war, which upended peacetime Europe this year, enters its 11th month.
MORE SANCTIONS — AND TARGETED: The EU agreed a ninth sanctions package targeting Russia earlier this month, but for a country facing almost daily bombardment by its neighbor, it’s not enough. “Yes, we welcome the ninth package, which includes elements that Ukraine had insisted on for months, but we regret that these sanctions were not applied earlier, such as de-SWIFTing more Russian banks and shutting down Russian propaganda outlets in the EU,” Kuleba said.
Food insecurity: Kuleba expressed disappointment at the derogations the EU agreed to due to concerns around food security. “Some Russian companies will try to manipulate the issue of food security in order to circumvent sanctions. This element of the sanctions package makes it very vulnerable to possible abuse,” he said.
Tenth package: Ukraine is now pushing for the EU’s next package of sanctions to go further and tackle a new headache for President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government in 2023: Russia’s apparent ability to source material to power its offensives. New measures “need to hit the Russian military industry,” Kuleba said. “They are producing more missiles — they have found a way to get more chips and spare parts. We expect the next sanctions package to hit companies involved in the supply of spare parts necessary for the production of missiles, and close loopholes in the global supply chain.”
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MORE ARMS — AND FASTER: “You cannot defeat Russia only by sanctions or political condemnation …This is a complicated struggle, with the factual battlefield at its core,” said Kuleba, capturing the central fact of this war: Ukraine needs more arms, and fast. “We understand that it’s not just a supermarket where you just walk in and put another defense system in the trolley and pay the check and walk out. But we have a very simple and honest request to everyone: Do whatever you can, but make sure you are doing everything that you can,” he said.
Looking at you, Berlin: In particular, Ukraine needs more equipment for the IRIS-T air defense system provided by Germany. “Because this is a brand new system, there are no rockets in warehouses,” Kuleba said. Tanks, fighter jets and cannons are also needed, he added.
MORE FUNDS — WITHOUT DELAY: The EU signed off on a fresh aid package worth €18 billion for Ukraine earlier this month, after overcoming a veto by Hungary. Kuleba welcomed the move, but was critical of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government. “Hungary is playing its own game … it took Ukraine as a hostage for its fight for money it believes the Commission owes to them. The good news is that the Commission found the way how to make this financial aid to Ukraine possible without securing a vote by Hungary, so now we know for critical cases there is a solution.”
Like, yesterday: Given the long delay with the EU’s disbursement of the first round of funding for Ukraine earlier this year, is Kuleba confident the funds will be delivered quickly? “We expect the first tranche in January,” he said. “We appreciate all the help we are receiving, but timing is always the issue. When you fight a war, everything is needed yesterday … The help is appreciated but someone in Ukraine has to freeze and live without electricity and water for weeks until this decision is made.”
MAKING RUSSIA PAY: Another focus in 2023 will be holding Russia accountable — both in terms of seeking to use assets frozen by the West to help fund the reconstruction of Ukraine and convening a war crimes tribunal. Both will prove difficult. “The compensation mechanism and the tribunal are the most challenging issues we have on the agenda in 2023,” Kuleba acknowledged.
Accountability key: Kuleba this week demanded the establishment of a war-crimes tribunal as a prerequisite for any peace talks with Russia — a proposal Moscow shot down. Nonetheless, securing support at the U.N. General Assembly will be a key focus for Kyiv, following the European Commission’s backing for a special international tribunal.
Work in progress: Ukrainian officials are currently trying to drum up support for a U.N. resolution on Russian accountability, which will include a reference to the crime of aggression — a key stepping stone for the creation of a special court, because the International Criminal Court can’t prosecute the Kremlin for the crime of aggression.
Use the yachts: As for using seized Russian assets to help fund the reconstruction of Ukraine, Kuleba urged the West to act faster: “We see broad political agreement that Russia has to pay with its assets frozen in various countries, but we see very little progress in setting up an efficient functioning system to make it happen.”
WAR LATEST: After a massive wave of Russian missiles struck multiple cities in Ukraine on Thursday, Minsk summoned Kyiv’s ambassador, claiming Belarus had downed a Ukrainian missile that had strayed over the border. Ukraine, for its part, said it suspected Russia of creating a “deliberate provocation,” reports Veronika Melkozerova. Early this morning, air raid sirens were again sounding, with Kyiv residents told to head to shelters.
From the history books: Russian President Vladimir Putin likes to mine his country’s history, appropriating dead czars and other notable figures for his preferred national narrative — yet he never mentions Nicholas I, whom he most closely resembles, writes Jamie Dettmer.
PLAYBOOK SCOOP: COVID REDUX
BACK TO THE FUTURE: In scenes reminiscent of the dark days of the COVID pandemic, the EU Health Security Committee met on Thursday, as the bloc seeks to project a united front in the face of surging infections in China. But while Thursday’s meeting was inconclusive — countries broadly stopped short of heeding Italy’s call for EU-wide testing of incoming travelers from China — the drama is not over.
Meeting next week: Playbook hears that a meeting under the Council’s so-called integrated political crisis response mechanism (IPCR) — the nearest thing the EU has to an emergency crisis forum — will take place next week. Once again, the EU’s borderless Schengen area is in focus, as some countries (i.e. Italy) seek to introduce travel curbs.
Keep calm and carry on … In a letter to EU health ministers last night seen by Playbook, European Commissioner for Health Stella Kyriakides urged countries to make arrangements for what she deemed an “evolving situation.” In particular, she called on member countries to assess their national practices regarding genomic surveillance of the virus — and to scale up capacity if needed, plus to implement wastewater surveillance, including sewage water from airports.
Variant of concern: “If a new variant of the SARS-CoV2 virus appears — be it in China or in the EU — we must detect it early in order to be prepared to react fast,” Kyriakides said in the letter seen by Playbook.
More to come: The Commission is also preparing guidance for countries, including for travelers moving between the EU and China, as well as airline staff, Kyriakides told ministers. “In the light of the lifting of travel restrictions announced by the Chinese government and which will take effect on 8 January … I would call for us to remain very vigilant as reliable epidemiological data or testing data for China are quite scarce, the general vaccination coverage in China is low and there is no equivalence decision regarding Chinese vaccination or recovery certificates with the EU Digital COVID-19 Certificate.”
So far, so COVID: Italy, which became the first EU country to reintroduce mandatory COVID testing for people arriving from China on Wednesday, said no new variant of the coronavirus had been detected in incoming travelers from China. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said at a press conference that genomic sequencing of positive cases arriving in Milan’s airports since last week had shown only the Omicron variant.
Further reading: POLITICO’s Helen Collis has this Q&A on what China’s new coronavirus wave means for Europe.
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BREXIT REFLECTIONS
THE BIG 5-0: This weekend marks the 50th anniversary of the first enlargement of the European Community, as the EU was then known. Ireland, Denmark and the U.K. joined the club on January 1, 1973, bringing EC membership from six countries to nine. While the anniversary has been the subject of some celebration and reflection in Dublin and Copenhagen, needless to say it has gone unnoticed in Britain, which became the only country to leave the bloc following a 2016 referendum.
YULETIDE CHAT: I spent some of the festive period in Oxford, where I caught up with Uwe Kitzinger, a man more familiar than most with the early days of the European Union. He was an adviser to Christopher Soames, the first British vice president of the Commission, who was the commissioner for external relations when Britain joined in 1973. Kitzinger also worked as an economist at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg in the early 1950s, preparing the ground for the Messina conference — the 1955 gathering of the six founding countries of the group (France, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands) that paved the way for the European Coal and Steel Community.
Lessons learned: Now 94, and with a dozen books behind him, Kitzinger reflected on the early days of the European project. He fled Germany for Britain in 1939 as an 11-year-old boy and was part of a generation of academics who believed in the need for pan-European cooperation. “The prevailing idea was, we had three Franco-German wars, let’s not have a fourth,” Kitzinger told me. “The forward thinking at the time was how to avoid the next world war, how to reconstruct a devastated Europe, and that pointed in the direction of more collaboration. The Americans also got behind it. Their view was, let’s build up economies that can work together.”
Flying high: Kitzinger remembers flying with Soames and other advisers to Brussels 50 years ago this weekend for the first meeting of the new Commission. But fog scuppered the tiny plane’s flight plans, and they were forced to land in The Hague instead, arriving a few days late, but not without enjoying some fine dining in the Netherlands en route. Soames was then given the role of commissioner with responsibility for external relations — with a remit that excluded Africa. “That was considered the French sphere of influence,” Kitzinger said wryly. “But it worked out rather well.”
Brexit reflections: Having been centrally involved in the first British referendum on EU membership in 1975, and the two failed attempts to join in the 60s due to French President Charles de Gaulle’s resistance, Kitzinger’s views on Brexit are not surprising. “There was no preparation. Most of the popular newspapers said get out; it was obvious that Mr [Boris] Johnson decided over lunch which way he was going to go.” Kitzinger said he regrets not weighing into the debate at the time — a feeling he says is now shared by many others. “We should have spoken up. We all took it for granted, did not think it would happen.”
Economic reality: As an economist who helped draft the founding treaties of the Steel and Coal Community, Kitzinger said he believes the economic costs of Britain’s departure will be devastating. “Johnson’s argument that we could do trade with the ex-colonies better than with Europe — it’s so much nonsense, particularly given WTO rules. As members of an economic union, we had far better trade agreements with Australia, with other jurisdictions, than we can ever have after leaving. Johnson argued the opposite.”
Forecast: “It will be in five years’ time that the full effects will be felt. We are only at the beginning of the effects on business, international relations — it’s a tragedy.”
BREXUAL HEALING? But striking a more hopeful tone, EU and U.K. officials say they’re optimistic about a fresh start to relations in 2023, reports Cristina Gallardo.
CALL FOR EUROBABIES: European Movement Ireland, meanwhile, is trying to track down Ireland’s 160 Eurobabies — everyone who was born in Ireland on January 1, 1973 — the day the country joined the European Community. Those lucky people will be presented with a special commemorative medal, so get in touch if you’re turning the big 5-0 this Sunday.
IN OTHER NEWS
TRADE TRUCE (SORT OF): The Biden administration on Thursday signaled some flexibility in how it would implement a revised tax credit for electric vehicles in the new Inflation Reduction Act that has rankled the EU. In a new “white paper,” the Treasury Department indicated that it would adopt an expansive definition of which countries have a “free trade agreement” with the U.S., which could help some European automakers qualify for at least some of the subsidies that favor American-made vehicles.
Brussels hails a ‘win-win’: The EU welcomed the news, calling it “a win-win” for both sides. “U.S. taxpayers will be able to take advantage of highly efficient EU-made electric vehicles and components, while EU companies that provide their customers through leases with cutting-edge clean vehicles can benefit from the incentives,” the Commission said in a statement. Our Stateside colleague Doug Palmer has more.
QATARGATE LATEST: Greece has asked Panama for information regarding possible money transfers from Qatar to accounts belonging to MEP Eva Kaili, who’s currently detained in Brussels pending trial over corruption allegations. Nektaria Stamouli has the details.
SERBIA-KOSOVO LATEST: Negotiators have resolved the most recent bout of tensions that threatened to explode into violence, but the EU says Kosovo and Serbia must reach a broader deal in 2023. “The level of mistrust is higher than ever before,” Miroslav Lajčák, the EU special representative for the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue and Western Balkans issues, told POLITICO’s Una Hajdari. “What is really important now is to not allow the situation to backslide into another crisis.”
BRUSSELS CORNER
LES GRÈVES STRIKES AGAIN: Travelers are braced for more disruption as Ryanair cabin crew in Belgium prepare to strike. Almost 40 percent of flights at Charleroi Airport have been canceled today, affecting around 9,000 passengers, with further industrial action scheduled over the weekend.
RIP PELÉ: Footballing legend Pelé has died at the age of 82. Unherd has a political obituary of the golden age of football under the Brazilian.
RIP VIVIENNE WESTWOOD: Groundbreaking fashion designer and activist Dame Vivienne Westwood has died at the age of 81. The Guardian has an obituary.
BIRTHDAYS: MEP Bartosz Arłukowicz; Former MEPs Jacqueline Foster and Alessandra Mussolini; Czech Ambassador to the EU Edita Hrdá; ANSYS’ Annabelle Cheney; Kersti Kaljulaid, former president of Estonia; Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Celebrating Saturday: MEP Gianna Gancia; Bloomberg’s Jillian Deutsch; European Commission’s Cláudia Köver; Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, king of Saudi Arabia.
Celebrating Sunday: European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde; MEPs Bart Groothuis and Brando Benifei; European Court of Auditors member Laima Andrikienė; POLITICO’s Giulia Chiatante; ETUC’s Luca Visentini; Alexis Papahelas, Greek investigative journalist and POLITICO 28 alum. Day of the Establishment of Slovak Republic/Restoration Day of the Independent Czech State.
THANKS TO: Producer Grace Stranger.
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