Von der Leyen’s very special €150K adviser

EPP EATS ITSELF: MEP Jüri Ratas, a former Estonian prime minister, posted a picture of a cake with his 187 fellow EPP lawmakers’ faces on it. Now the European People’s Party can finally have its cake and eat it.
EXECUTIVE EMOJIS: The EU commissioners who served between 2014 and 2019 have their own WhatsApp group, a spy whispers to Playbook. The only former member of the College not in the chat? Jean-Claude Juncker, the former president famed for his use of a brick phone.
GOOD THURSDAY MORNING. This is Eddy Wax clattering the Playbook keyboard. Let’s start with an exclusive, and then get the latest on when commissioner hearings will take place.
VDL OFFERED AGRI ADVISER €150K FOR 6 MONTHS’ WORK: Ursula von der Leyen pushed the Commission’s rules to the max to pay a German academic the highest possible EU salary for a sensitive piece of work.
Strategic checkbook: Earlier this year, von der Leyen contracted Peter Strohschneider, a German academic whose background is in medieval history, to lead a so-called strategic dialogue on the future of agriculture. She announced the initiative in her highly political 2023 State of the Union address, where it became clear she was pivoting away from her Green Deal to a more farmer-focused, pro-industrial policy agenda.
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Piepergate echoes: That was the same speech in which von der Leyen announced she would be naming an EU SME envoy. That position would later spiral into the scandal dubbed “Piepergate,” after then-center-right-MEP Markus Pieper from Germany, whom von der Leyen wanted — but failed — to install in the role.
Magic beans: Von der Leyen allocated close to €150,000 for Strohschneider’s work, a document seen by Playbook shows. That’s a “waste of public money,” reckons Christoph Demmke, a professor at Vaasa University in Finland who’s written a study on special advisers. He said the selection of top advisers in the Berlaymont is “not merit-based.”
The political context: As von der Leyen was contracting Strohschneider, mass farmers’ protests were spreading around Europe against the mounting EU environmental legislation. Strohschneider’s consultation exercise helped take the sting out of this — amid attempts by von der Leyen’s EPP family to portray itself as the farmers’ champions in the lead-up to the June EU election.
Pitchforking out: As Playbook can reveal exclusively today, von der Leyen made sure the person leading this initiative was paid a top-whack EU salary. In fact, Strohschneider was offered 64 percent more than the normal daily rate given to European commissioners’ special advisers. (That’s if they’re paid at all. Many aren’t.)
Special guy: Commission rules say special advisers should be paid a maximum of €594.22 per day. However, in “duly substantiated exceptional cases” this can be bumped up. Strohschneider’s getting €973.79 per day, equivalent to the highest EU civil servant salary grade.
TBC: A Commission spokesperson confirmed €149,963.66 had been allocated in the budget for Strohschneider. But they said this was an “indicative” amount, with his actual paycheck dependent on how many days Strohschneider — whose contract runs until the end of September — ends up working.
Draghi’s slow agony: In comparison, Mario Draghi didn’t receive a centime for his report on Europe’s competitiveness, meaning he didn’t get a very competitive salary. Strohschneider has chaired a similar commission for his federal government, though he wasn’t paid for that job.
What it also shows: “There’s loads of money in agriculture except for the small farmer,” said Irish MEP Luke “Ming” Flanagan, the Left group’s point man on farming.Read my full story here.
TEAM BONDING IN ITALY: If you spot fewer EPP lawmakers around Brussels this week, that’s because they’re on a four-day trip to Naples, for a “summer university” — a chance to get to know each other and chart a political strategy far from the gaze of pesky journalists. The Naples trip was postponed last year in the wake of controversial comments the late Silvio Berlusconi made about Ukraine. A year on, the EPP is in celebration mode, having won the most seats in the June EU election.
Naples is the new Brussels: EPP leader Manfred Weber boasted about having defense Commissioner-designate Andrius Kubilius among the group. Several other Commission nominees and EPP heavyweights are also in Naples: Henna Virkkunen, Dubravka Šuica, Christophe Hansen, Roberta Metsola, Mairead McGuinness, Joseph Daul, Antonio Tajani, to name just a few.
Fossils at Pompeii? According to a draft program, the MEPs are having private panel discussions with academics, think tankers and lobbyists from the likes of DigitalEurope and the dairy sector (a.k.a Big Cheese), and meeting the boss of Italian energy company Enel and assorted Italian politicians in the Royal Palace of Naples. They were treated to a guided tour of Pompeii last night, while a van featuring the pictures of all 188 MEPs drove around the city.
Ironic coda: MEPs were meant to meet in Brussels in the agriculture committee today to debate Strohschneider’s report on the strategic dialogue. But the EPP — yes, the same farmer-lovers whose lead candidate in the EU election splashed €150,000 of taxpayers’ money on this exercise — requested a delay because so many of its MEPs are in Naples.
“Disrespect”: “It’s a show of power and disrespect to the Parliament,” said Austrian Green Thomas Waitz, who, along with Ming Flanagan, pushed against the EPP’s postponement (which the other main groups backed). In any case, MEPs debated Strohschneider’s report in the Strasbourg plenary last week, and EPP lawmaker Herbert Dorfmann said a “large majority” of coordinators agreed to postpone today’s meeting.
PLAYBOOK FACT CHECK: Weber boasted to journalists at a press briefing on Wednesday that only the EPP group had gained seats in the June election. Not so. The Left group, having swallowed up Italy’s 5Star Movement, grew to 46 seats from 37 in the last Parliament.
In bocca al lupo: Furthering the EPP’s sense of untouchable confidence right now, von der Leyen’s crusade against the wolf is picking up steam. At a meeting of EU ambassadors on Wednesday, Germany decided to back the proposal to downgrade the protection status of wolves, which would make it easier for national authorities to allow farmers to shoot those that threaten livestock. Louise Guillot has the story.
ON COURSE FOR NOVEMBER HEARINGS: In Brussels, everything is political, especially the timetable. So when will the Parliament start grilling new commissioners — and probably rejecting some of them? Officials with the latest intel told Max Griera and me they’re edging ever-more steadily toward a Nov. 4 kick-off date.
Not till Halloween: “My understanding is that the hearings … will be scheduled for the period 4 to 12 November,” a well-informed Socialists and Democrats source told Max. “It is indeed the most likely scenario,” agreed a senior Parliament official, who said that squeezing hearings into the only week in October that’s not penciled in for the plenary or constituency time is “very, very difficult.” Bernd Lange, a Social Democrat MEP who chairs the powerful Committee of Committee Chairs, said this timetable is not confirmed but is “likely.”
Brussels it is: The Parliament decamps to Strasbourg for two whole weeks in October — but under no circumstances does it want to repeat the nightmare of holding hearings there. Remember last October, when Wopke Hoekstra was being grilled before taking over Frans Timmermans’ seat in the Commission? Hoekstra’s microphone kept failing, and there were farcical scenes as bureaucrats desperately ferried furniture around when everyone suddenly had to change rooms.
Get off my turf! Another senior Parliament official warned of a “dreadful” squabble between committee chairs over which committee gets to grill which commissioner — made even more tricky by the overlapping spheres of influence in the new College. Group leaders will officially finalize a timetable on Oct. 2.
And yet … senior Commission official Enrico Forti told diplomats this week that the Commission is still working toward the option of starting in mid-October.
MEPs PROBE COMMISSIONERS’ PAST CONDUCT: MEPs have written to the next cast of commissioners to demand they disclose any occasions when they broke the code of conduct of the governments or parliaments where they previously worked. The request — which isn’t legally binding — comes in a letter obtained by POLITICO and sent by two MEPs chairing an unofficial anti-corruption group, the Greens’ Daniel Freund and EPP’s Kamila Gasiuk-Pihowicz. “In the last 5 years, have you respected all relevant transparency and integrity obligations … ?” they ask, setting an Oct. 4 deadline for replies.
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TOP COURT RULES ON CATALANS: The EU’s top court is set to rule today on whether the European Parliament’s former president, Antonio Tajani, broke the law when he refused to recognize two Catalan separatist MEPs as members of the Parliament.
Refresher: Back in 2019 Catalan separatists Carles Puigdemont and Toni Comín were elected to the Parliament, but refused to travel to Madrid to declare their allegiance to the Spanish constitution, as is required of all newly minted MEPs in that country. As a result, Madrid left both their names off the official list of lawmakers submitted to Brussels; for this reason, then-President Tajani decided to withhold their credentials and barred them from entering the institution’s buildings. The lawmakers — who were eventually admitted to the Parliament by Tajani’s successor David Sassoli — sued.
Odds favor the Catalans: Earlier this year, Court of Justice Advocate General Maciej Szpunar issued an opinion saying Tajani had breached EU law. While the opinions issued by advocates-general aren’t binding, their independent input aligns with around three-quarters of the court’s final decisions.
Why it matters: Comín was reelected to the Parliament in the June election and once again refused to take the required oath in Madrid; Spain subsequently left his name off of its list of official MEPs-elect. European Parliament President Roberta Metsola has been waiting for the EU’s top court to issue its ruling before deciding what to do.
So today’s judgment will determine whether Comín can finally take his seat … or Comín to the Parliament.
INVESTIGATION INTO NEW FAR-RIGHT SPANISH PARTY: The Spanish supreme court’s prosecutor will investigate alleged illegal financing of The Party is Over, a far-right party that won three seats in the June EU election. The court will investigate allegations by Álvaro Romillo, the CEO of a crypto-trading firm who claims he gave €100,000 in cash to Alvise Pérez, leader of SALF and one of its three MEPs, El País reported.
TAKING THE SHINE OFF SHEIN AND TEMU: It’s time for Europe to crack down on big online platforms under its Digital Services Act — and that includes Chinese e-commerce giants such as Shein and Temu. That’s the message from six EU countries (Germany, Austria, Poland, Denmark, the Netherlands and France) ahead of today’s Competitiveness Council, in a letter obtained by Playbook’s Nick Vinocur.
What infringement? The letter warns products sold “on certain online trading platforms” don’t comply with EU requirements, and a failure to rigorously detect and punish infringements “will do harm to consumers.” It urges the Commission to “collect wide-ranging data on infringements” to pick up on systemic misconduct.
ICYMI: France is already leading a crackdown on fast-fashion websites like Shein and Temu via a law passed earlier this year. The DSA has been online since November 2022 but has yet to serve up any headline-grabbing enforcement actions. Reading between the lines of the six-nation letter, part of the problem is a lack of means to detect systematic infringements.
We’ve had it: “Fair competition is in Europe’s DNA,” Sven Giegold, Germany’s state secretary for the economy and climate, wrote to Playbook. “We can no longer accept a daily inflow of hundreds of thousands of parcels filled with products that do not respect EU law. The EU Commission needs to ensure that EU law is effectively enforced.”
THINK TANK VS. BUBBLE BOOKSTORE: MCC Brussels, the think tank that’s closely linked to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government, declared free speech to be “under serious threat” after the hip Schuman bookstore/aperitivi bar PiolaLibri canceled its event booking. The venue was reserved to host a launch party on Monday for MCC Brussels Executive Director Frank Furedi’s new book, “The War Against the Past,” the think tank said, but the offer was withdrawn after management learned more about the event.
The talking points write themselves: “It is deeply ironic that the bookstore cited a commitment to ‘inclusivity’ — whilst taking the decision to exclude certain viewpoints from consideration,” said Furedi in a statement. 
Not the first time 1: PiolaLibri has canceled one-sided political events before, owner Jacopo Panizza told Playbook in an email — it just doesn’t usually cause such a stir. In the case of MCC, the cafe canceled “when we realized that it was not an office drink or celebration of some kind but a launch and promotion event for a political publication.”
Not the first time 2: The MCC-backed National Conservative conference in Brussels changed venues multiple times earlier this year after several cancellations. The hubbub only served to confirm the far-right group’s complaints about censorship and cancel culture — while drawing more attention to the conference. MCC vowed to proceed with Monday’s event as planned, with a location to be “revealed shortly.” 
REPUBLICANS VS. ZELENSKYY: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is in the U.S., where he’s meeting with President Joe Biden today in a bid to secure more military aid and permission to use Western-supplied weapons in Russia. It comes against the backdrop of Russia making progress on the battlefield, Ukraine’s energy grid nearing the point of collapse, and a hostile Republican Party under Donald Trump.
What’s coming: The Biden administration will shortly announce new funding for Ukraine but is unlikely to lift restrictions on striking deeper into Russia, our U.S. colleagues report in this must-read.
Scranton fallout: Zelenskyy is also having to beat back controversy about his Sunday visit to a munitions factory in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he was flanked by two of the state’s vulnerable Democratic lawmakers. House Republicans have opened an investigation into whether taxpayer funds were misused in providing security to the event and Speaker Mike Johnson called on Zelenskyy to fire his ambassador to Washington.
A preview of what a Trump administration means for Ukraine: Trump, speaking at a North Carolina event, said Ukrainians are “dead” and Ukraine “demolished,” arguing that Kyiv should have made concessions to Russian President Vladimir Putin in the months before he launched the full-scale invasion. Even “the worst deal would’ve been better than what we have now,” Trump claimed. Trump is now unlikely to meet Zelenskyy on his U.S. trip.
Money matters: In slightly better news for Ukraine, Canada’s Deputy PM and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland says money released from seized Russian assets will be arriving in Kyiv “in the coming months.” She made the comments on POLITICO’s Power Play podcast.
MEANWHILE, IN THE MIDDLE EAST: The White House announced Wednesday evening a proposal for a temporary 21-day cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah. Top Biden officials worked with France and Arab allies in the region to draw up the agreement this week during the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to arrive in New York on Thursday and address the U.N. General Assembly on Friday. More here.
Now read this: Israel’s message to Hezbollah is falling on deaf ears, writes Jamie Dettmer.
MASSACRE IN “TOTALANDIA”: A must-read POLITICO investigation uncovered atrocities carried out in 2021 on the premises of a giant natural gas plant under construction in Mozambique by French energy giant TotalEnergies. 
Death toll: POLITICO interviewed survivors and witnesses and conducted a door-to-door survey of the victims’ villages. Witnesses recounted how government soldiers rounded up villagers, separated the 180 to 250 men, then crowded them into shipping containers by the entrance to the TotalEnergies compound. The men were tortured; only 26 of the prisoners survived.
Low carbon future: News of the massacre adds to the gathering sense of catastrophe that now surrounds a project that was once heralded as the biggest private investment ever made in Africa. TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné had intended the Mozambican mega-project to be the showpiece of his ambitions for a low-carbon future. Read the story by Alex Perry here.
STARM OFFENSIVE: U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer will visit Brussels next week for talks with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen about “resetting” Britain’s relationship with the European Union. The meeting was fixed after the leaders met briefly at UNGA in New York on Wednesday. “I want to reset our relationship with the EU and make Brexit work for the British people,” Starmer tweeted. “Looking forward to welcoming you,” von der Leyen responded.
SAVING CETA: Emmanuel Macron is waging a lonely battle to defend the EU-Canada trade deal known as CETA, report POLITICO’s Giorgio Leali and Kyle Duggan.
— Competitiveness Council (internal market and industry) … Arrivals and doorsteps from 9 a.m. … press conference at 3:30 p.m. Agenda. Watch. 
— U.N. General Assembly continues in New York. Commissioners Didier Reynders and Stella Kyriakides and Council President Charles Michel among those participating today. Watch Michel’s speech at 9 p.m. Subscribe to Global Playbook for updates. 
— EU High Representative Josep Borrell in New York; participates at UNRWA’s ministerial meeting; participates in ministerial meeting on Palestine; co-chairs the Middle East Process ministerial event.
— NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg is in New York; will participate in a discussion at the Council on Foreign Relations.
— Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager in Montreal, Canada; meets her Canadian counterpart Matthew Boswell; meets Pascale St-Onge, minister of Canadian heritage. 
— Parliament President Roberta Metsola in Madrid, Spain; delivers a speech on the renewal of the EU at the closing session of Campus FAES 2024.
— General Council meeting of the ECB (virtual).
— The European Court of Human Rights issues ruling in the case of Missaoui and Akhandaf v. Belgium, regarding a ban on wearing burkinis in a public Antwerp swimming pool.
WEATHER: High of 19C, mostly cloudy, rain in the late afternoon.
NEW ROUTE TO KYIV: FlixBus has launched a direct route between Kyiv and Brussels, its first connection from Ukraine to the EU capital. The first bus left Kyiv on Wednesday. “This is a significant and symbolic moment in the integration of Ukraine with the European Union,” the company’s Ukrainian branch announced on X. 
POETRY FESTIVAL: The international Transpoesie festival returns with a focus on surrealism. It opens today at the Citizen’s Garden at 5 p.m. before moving on to Luxembourg’s embassy at 7 p.m. Program here.
CONGRATULATIONS: POLITICO’s investigation of the Westminster honey trap scandal by Aggie Chambre and Dan Bloom was shortlisted for the Investigation of the Year prize at the Society of Editors Media Freedom Awards in November.
NEW JOB: Lili Bayer is joining Reuters as European security correspondent in October. She was previously at the Guardian and POLITICO. 
SPOTTED … At the farewell reception of European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly, whose term expires later this year: Commission EVP Maroš Šefčovič; OLAF boss Ville Itälä; European Medicines Agency chief Emer Cooke; Irish perm rep Aingeal O’Donoghue; MEPs Katarina Barley, Marc Angel, Cynthia Ní Mhurchú and Jana Toom; former MEP Sophie in ‘t Veld; the European Investment Bank’s Monique Koning; DG HOME’s Beate Gminder; Christian Linder from the Commission Secretariat-General; Gundi Gadesmann, Markus Spoerer and Honor Mohony from the European Ombudsman’s office; SEC Newgate EU’s Victoria Main; Corporate Europe Observatory’s Vicky Cann; Smoke Free Partnership’s Lilia Olefir; commentator Shada Islam; Euronews’ Jack Schickler; EU Scream podcast host James Kantor; the FT’s Javier Espinoza; Follow the Money’s Simon Van Dorpe; POLITICO’s Elisa Braun and Sarah Wheaton.
As well as aspiring candidates to replace O’Reilly as European Ombudsman, including Dutch Ombudsman Reinier van Zutphen, Frontex Fundamental Rights Officer Jonas Grimheden and Finnish Justice Chancellor Tuomas Pöysti. 
JUMPING THE GUN: In Wednesday’s Playbook, we reported EU ambassadors would hash out the topics for discussion at the October European Council summit during their meeting on Wednesday — but that’s not on the Coreper II agenda until next week.
BIRTHDAYS: Former MEP Thijs Berman; Eubelius’ Hans Plancke; European Commission’s Chantal Hughes; Ukraine’s former President Petro Poroshenko; Google’s Karen Massin; Rud Pedersen Public Affairs’ Nicholas Lunt; academic David Livingstone Smith.
THANKS TO: Aitor Hernández-Morales, Max Griera, Elisa Braun, Giovanna Faggionato, Sarah Wheaton, Nicholas Vinocur, Barbara Moens; Playbook editor Alex Spence, reporter Šejla Ahmatović and producer Dean Southwell.
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