CAMERON on edge — STYE WARS — BREXIT, the musical — GREEK weed — COMMISSION fast-track on trade
ANXIOUS DAVE: David Cameron has been using pity points as his latest tactic to win the support of EU leaders leading up to Thursday and Friday’s summit. During a visit to Brussels Tuesday with European Parliament leaders the British prime minister was described by participants as nervous as he made an urgent appeal to them to support his deal and not “divide the West” by blocking it. A source in the room during Cameron’s meeting with European People’s Party President Manfred Weber said parliament leaders spent half of the time trying “to calm him down.” “Cameron is stressed, anxious to get a deal knowing that it will maybe not be enough to lead a referendum campaign against Euroskeptics and the U.K. media,” our source said. “We tried to calm him down, saying together with [Socialists & Democrats leader Gianni] Pittella and [European Parliament President Martin] Schulz that we will do whatever is needed to support the stay of the U.K. in the EU.”
WRITTEN ON HIS FACE: If Cameron’s distress wasn’t clear enough from his words days before the European summit, it was surely visible on his face. He appeared to be suffering from the same kind of stress epidemic that sometimes afflicts EU leaders facing tough summits. During last summer’s Grexit marathon, when the fate of Greece’s membership in the eurozone was at stake, Alexis Tsipras had a noticeable cold sore on his lip. While delivering his EU reform package last week, Cameron appeared to have a stye infection in his eye.
British Prime Minister David Cameron
COOL AND COLLECTED FARAGE: As Cameron was making his feverish pitch to Parliament leaders, United Kingdom Independence Party leader Nigel Farage — who’d been shut out of the meetings at the last minute — was spotted puffing away in the European Parliament’s smoking room. Cameron promised last week to meet with all of the Parliament’s political group leaders in the Council of Presidents, but canceled on Monday due to “time constraints.” Farage branded him a “chicken” for ditching the gathering and tweeted: “As Leader of the party that won the European Elections, David Cameron is insulting millions of British people by refusing to meet me.”
BREXIT, STAGE LEFT: At the Conference of Presidents meeting Tuesday that Cameron dodged, Greens Party Presidents Philippe Lamberts and Gabriele Zimmer staged a walk-out to protest what they said was backroom dealing by a British prime minister refusing to meet with all of the assembly’s political leaders. After the meeting, Lamberts told POLITICO’s Maïa de la Baume that he blamed Schulz for letting Cameron “take the piss out of the Parliament as an institution” by not addressing the smaller groups. Another source described Act I of the drama like this: “Greens and GUE made a bit of a staged show, they were peeved that Cameron didn’t bother to speak to them, and blamed it on our President.” In ACT II: “Lambert made a very theatrical appearance and then disappearance which was silly because he said they were behind the line of the Sherpas.” In other words, they support a deal. According to Lamberts, Schulz told MEPs that he had scolded Cameron for canceling the meeting at the last minute.
INSIDE THE DOWNING STREET BUNKER: Playbook asked Downing Street sources what was the most surprising reaction to the U.K.’s renegotiation demands. The reply: “We thought MPs in the national parliaments would love our idea of giving them more power. But they actually resent it, thinking it would undermine their efforts to work really closely with their government to influence summits.” To boot: “Anyway, the proposal won’t change anything,” says our source, who can’t imagine the MPs of multiple parliaments all simultaneously undermining their governments.
PRIORITIES, PRIORITIES: While Cameron tries to keep the Kingdom United over the Brexit debate, the TAO-AFI union is looking out for British Eurocrats who may find themselves jobless soon if the U.K. leaves the EU. The employee union is hosting a “Conference on Brexit” on February 26 to discuss the potential implications for Brits working in the EU institutions. Not sparing any drama, the union is calling it “a worrying situation” for the families of officials and contract agents and is even using Shakespeare to describe the number of questions that might arise from a Brexit scenario: “That is the question…”
Chiarwoman of German populist party Alternative for Germany (AfD) Frauke Petry | Arno Burgi/AFP/Getty
FEUD OF THE WEEK — COMMISSIONER OETTINGER AND THE AFD: Frauke Petry, leader of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, stirred up a lot of controversy earlier this month when she said that law enforcement officers should “use weapons if necessary” to prevent refugees from entering Germany. Günther Oettinger, the EU commissioner from Germany, trained his rhetorical fire on Petry this week on German radio: “This woman is a disgrace to German politics,” said Oettinger, adding that Petry’s comments were “inhuman and unacceptable.” If “Petry was my wife, I would kill myself tonight.” The commissioner then backtracked on Twitter, saying his criticism was not directed at Petry, but at her party’s proposal to control borders by “shooting refugees.”
WEED FOR GREECE: Is growing marijuana the way to save the Greek economy? Greek MEP Stelios Kouloglou seems to think so. He’s holding a conference on February 23 called “Hemp and medical cannabis as a driving factor of growth and employment.” Interestingly, the conference languages will only be English and Greek. Opa!
SEPARATED AT BIRTH: Burson-Marsteller’s Mayssa Badr and “House of Cards” star Kate Mara
House of Cards star Kate Mara
Burson-Marsteller’s Mayssa Badr
UNDER THE RADAR — TRADE POLICY SHORTCUTS: The Commission just can’t resist cutting corners on the issue of China’s trade status. First its trade lawyers tried to fast-track the decision to grant China market economy status, without the hassle of the Commission’s celebrated “better regulation” processes. Then the Commission college agreed to conduct an impact assessment and full consultation, after the backlash the first short-cut efforts generated. However, the Commission has not been able to utter to words “impact assessment” since. Spokespeople fumbled through a background briefing on the issue, and now the latest official announcement promises a “comprehensive assessment,” which means nothing in legal terms; the usual 12-week consultation process has turned into a 10-week consultation for unexplained reasons. Last time the Commission tried that tactic it ended up getting a tongue-lashing from the EU ombudsman.
DEAR PARLIAMENT STAFF, GUARD YOUR APPLES: There were two reports this week of Apple products stolen from locked offices (is it a clever thief or an inside job?). A MacBook Air and an iPhone were stolen from the office of Greens MEP Margrete Auken, while an iPad disappeared from a British MEP’s office.