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By ELISA BRAUN
Tips, tales, traumas to @elisabraun or [email protected] | View in your browser
BONJOUR. Who would have thought that the Azerbaijani embassy’s cocktail party was a good place to hook up with someone who isn’t your wife? That was according to my newest source as we watched the, er, affair unfold before us. There was a devil-may-care vibe at the Brussels reception of the authoritarian regime, with lobbyists who used to work for a Gulf country milling around with a bunch of diplomats from Europe’s foreign affairs corps (aka the EEAS), Russia’s head of mission, Belgian and Turkish officials, not to mention journalists. All were enjoying aubergine caviar diplomacy as if almost nothing had changed in Nagorno-Karabakh. It was also quite the introduction to my new gig.
I’m Elisa Braun, your new EU influence reporter, and I promise I’ll get better at identifying the most interesting characters I meet at fancy parties — if I still get invited. I’m honored to succeed the great Sarah Wheaton, and will do my best to ensure a smooth transition.
Now a little profession de foi. I’m usually into crime and corruption stuff, so I will of course tell you stories of those who behave badly and need to be put under the spotlight or held accountable. But I also know from my experience in Paris — where I used to cover politics and lobbying — that interest representation can work in a transparent and orderly way, and tells us a lot about policymaking well done.
So let’s team up. Supported by our newsroom’s best reporters covering the likes of tech, agri, trade, health, energy, defense and finance, I’m here to bring you all the behind-the-scenes influence stories from Europe — and especially from our lovely Brussels bubble. But I hope I can also count on you to help me navigate this world and avoid the traps and clichés. Needless to say, I’m waiting to hear from you and to meet for one of To Meli’s delicious coffees.
ELECTION AFTERMATH: By the time you read this newsletter next week, the election will be over! But the horse-trading will be only just starting. So if you’re a lobby shop/association/NGO with thoughts/lengthy PowerPoint presentations on what you want to see from the next Parliament/Commission, do let me know: I’m really curious to see how public affairs experts view the new-look Parliament/Commission we’re about to get.
KNOW YOUR PRO-RUSSIA PEEPS …
… BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE. Tell us how you voted for the past 5 years and we will tell you if you can seriously claim that you’re not one of the Kremlin’s friends in the European Parliament.
Facts first. My colleague Hanne Cokelaere looked at 16 European Parliament resolutions that were critical of Russia over the past 5 years — from texts condemning the poisoning of Alexei Navalny and the military buildup at Ukraine’s borders to resolutions after the invasion that slammed the escalating war and repression within Russia — and identified EU lawmakers who have consistently shown their true colors. MEPs are ranked by the number of opposing votes, and then abstentions: This is the top 30.
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Surprise, surprise. Lawmakers on the far-left and far-right extremities of the EU hemicycle are those who opposed — or abstained on — Russia-critical resolutions more than others, despite the fact that the Parliament as a whole displayed rare unison on those resolutions.
Tatjana Ždanoka is — to no great surprise — number one on the list. Ždanoka, you may remember, was the subject of a report in The Insider, a Russian investigative newspaper, claiming that she had for years been working on behalf of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), the successor to the Soviet-era KGB. “Yes I am an agent, an agent for peace,” she said as she denied the accusation. Ždanoka is not standing for re-election this weekend.
Other MEPs that stand out (and are running in the election):
Maximilian Krah: The Alternative for Germany (AfD) firebrand appears high up on the list. Although Krah has stopped campaigning in the EU election and stepped down from his party’s leadership after a series of scandals — including remarks on the SS as well as his ties with Russia and China — he did so too late to be removed from the voting lists so is technically still the AfD’s lead candidate.
Thierry Mariani: The National Rally’s Mariani does not make a secret about being close to Russia and even jokes about it. He is being investigated in France on suspicion of corruption and influence peddling related to an association called Dialogue Franco Russe that he still presides over. He denies the allegations.
Clare Daly and Mick Wallace: The well-known pair of leftist Irish MEPs voted against a resolution in the European Parliament calling for the establishment of a tribunal to prosecute Russia’s leadership for the crime of aggression against Ukraine. A 2022 investigation by the Irish Times revealed that the MEPs have been covered widely in state-controlled media in Russia, China and elsewhere, largely cast as supporters of the policies of those governments.
Where’s Jordan? Marine Le Pen’s protégé Jordan Bardella’s voting record was marked by his absence. He voted down four resolutions related to Russia, abstained on two, and approved two others — but missed the remaining eight.
Deep divisions. The votes of these lawmakers do not, however, mean that the Parliament’s political groups collectively opposed the texts on Russia. In fact, the data shows there are deep splits between different countries’ delegations within the same parliamentary groups.
In detail: In the far-right Identity and Democracy group (to which it belonged for most of the past five-year term), Alternative for Germany lawmakers voted down or abstained on nearly every Russia vote they attended. French members of ID — from the National Rally — collectively opposed or abstained on over half of the votes. But members of Italy’s League — the largest national party in ID — largely supported the resolutions condemning Russia.
RUSSIAGATE’S BACK: The EU’s Russiagate drama has reared its head again just days before the elections, according to media reports in several European outlets. Nicolas Bay, a far-right MEP from Reconquête, is being investigated as part of the probes into Russian influence that are being carried out in Germany and Belgium and involved several EU secret services. Bay denied any involvement to Le Monde, adding that he was not worried about the outcome of the probe.
CHINA’S NON THINK TANK
CECI N’EST PAS UNE PIPE. The Chinese embassy has been hosting a series of events under the banner Club 19, a name inspired by its first address in Belgium, Boulevard Général Jacques, 19 (it has since moved to Avenue Tervueren), my colleague Nick Vinocur found out. Club 19 is not a think tank, nor is it a formal organization or association, one of the people involved in the organization told EU influence on the condition of remaining anonymous, but “a platform to engage with diplomats, scholars and journalists.”
If it looks like a duck. Background briefings take place under the auspices of the embassy, which makes no secret that it wants to influence EU policymaking and narratives with China’s vision. Around five such meetings were held in April, on topics such as artificial intelligence and Chinese economic policies, and involved Chinese officials as well as journalists from big media organizations — not ours though!
“Trade is a priority,” said the person involved in the organization, adding that “the U.S. or the U.K. often organize their background briefings themselves.” The organizer also said that there was still “an information gap” between China and the EU that Club 19 hoped to bridge based on providing “factual” and “transparent” information. EU influence has obviously requested an invite in the hope of fact-checking the Chinese fact-checking as part of a never-ending fact-checking loop.
COOPERATION ON MOROCCAN INFLUENCE
MOROCCOGATE, EPISODE 2. Back in April, just as Belgium was about to cozy up to Morocco with an official visit, the Brussels prosecutor’s office confirmed that it was opening an investigation into Moroccan influence in Belgium, which could involve allegations of corruption, Belgian media Le Soir first reported, with the details later confirmed to EU Influence by someone familiar with the case who was not allowed to comment on it publicly.
Scoopito. Belgium is not the only one interested in Moroccan influence operations. Last month, police officers from the Belgian anti-corruption unit took a Eurostar to Paris to meet their French counterparts from anti-corruption outfit OCCLIFF, EU Influence has learned from the same person. The reason for the trip — apart from better croissants — was the hope of securing judicial cooperation and investigating potential criminal acts that may have been committed in the two countries, the person familiar with the case said.
It’s a oui: The French Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) — the most feared serious financial crime investigative body in France (they’re the ones behind ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy’s legal troubles) — should be involved. Contacted, the PNF did not respond to a request for comment. The Brussels prosecutor’s office declined to comment.
Timing is key. We also hear that Morocco has been shopping around looking for a consultancy to help with its EU public affairs.
VOTE FIDESZ (SO THIS ONLINE AD SAYS)
HUNGARY’S SPENDING. With a population of just under 10 million, Hungary is by no means the European Union’s biggest country. But in the world of political online advertising, the Central European country — and especially Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz party — are by far the Continent’s largest players. In recent weeks, political ad buys by Fidesz and Orbán have collectively outstripped similar spending for entire countries, including Spain. My colleagues Clothilde Goujard, Mark Scott, Lucia McKenzie and Hanne Cokelaere have more.
**Election week is here! Cure your EU election hangover with POLITICO Live on Monday morning and tune in online with Secretary Generals Thanasis Bakolas (EPP), Giacomo Filibeck (PES) and Didrik de Schaetzen (ALDE). Time to register!**
SANNA MARIN HELPING EU BIDS
ICYMI: Finland’s ex-Prime Minister Sanna Marin is now supporting Ukraine and Moldova in their EU accession bids and has become one of their most prominent lobbyists, our colleagues at Follow The Money reported. As pointed out by lobbyist representative Paul Varakas (president of the Society of European Affairs Professionals), the Tony Blair Institute (for which Marin now works) does not “receive funding from either the government of Moldova or the government of Ukraine” and it declined to comment on who is paying for the institute’s work for Ukraine and Moldova, or how much Marin gets paid.
Question from the audience: “This begs the following questions,” Varakas said on LinkedIn. “Then who is paying for the institute’s work for Ukraine and Moldova? Is the European Commission not bound by its proposal for a Directive establishing harmonised requirements in the internal market on transparency of interest representation carried out on behalf of third countries? Or can we consider that the Directive’s proposal is dead?” Any answers?
HEADLINES
— Germany leads rebellion against EU foreign influence law (Financial Times)
— Transparency gap: The funding of political parties in the EU (Follow The Money)
— Revealed: Russian legal foundation linked to Kremlin activities in Europe (The Guardian)
— Fake news reports and videos seek to undermine the Paris Olympics (New York Times)
INFLUENCERS
FINANCIAL SERVICES
— Ryan Gawn will join the European Central Bank as head of positioning and outreach, digital euro. He was previously director of The LEGO Foundation.
— Citi has hired finance veteran Rachel Goldberg to run the bank’s U.S. government affairs shop. Goldberg was most recently head of government relations and regulatory strategy for the Americas at the London Stock Exchange Group and before that worked for TransUnion, Guardian Life Insurance, Goldman Sachs and was on the House Financial Services Oversight Subcommittee.
— Rob Hailey has been appointed managing director, head of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at the Managed Funds Association (MFA). He was previously with Bank of America.
COMMISSION
— Milanese EU civil servant Mario Nava took over as director general at the Commission’s DG for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion. Former DG Joost Korte retired last year.
TECH
— Ex-EU antitrust official Nicholas Banasevic joins Microsoft as a corporate vice president for competition and regulation.
— Jakob Kucharczyk becomes OpenAI’s competition and AI policy lead in Europe, joining from Meta and a long stint at tech lobby CCIA.
— Ryan Heath, a POLITICO original who helmed the first iteration of Brussels Playbook, becomes head of communication at Robin AI, a tech start-up.
PUBLIC AFFAIRS
— Marie-Myrtille Marichal is the new public affairs director at Logos-Business Bridge Europe, joining from Lysios Public Affairs.
David Mark Arnold started as media and communications manager at Plastics Europe. He was at Weber Shandwick.
ENERGY
— Cristian Signoretto of Eni has been elected president of Eurogas for the next two years, succeeding Didier Holleaux. Signoretto has been on Eurogas’ board of directors since 2019.
TRANSPORT
— Michail Stahlhut, CEO of the Swiss combined transport operator Hupac, has been elected chairman of the board of the International Union for Road-Rail Combined Transport (UIRR). Jürgen Albersmann, CEO of the German operator Contargo, will serve as the vice-chairman at UIRR.
Special thanks to: Sarah Wheaton, Barbara Moens, Clothilde Goujard, Nick Vinocur, Aoife White, Michael Littlehale, Ketrin Jochecová, my editor Paul Dallison, and Brazilian vibes from Elísio de Búzios.
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