POLITICO Brussels Playbook Plus: Oettinger’s ever changing travel story — When Castro hijacked a Commission presser

OETTINGER’S EVER CHANGING TRAVEL STORY: Commissioner Günther Oettinger can’t seem to get his story straight. At first he had Commission spokespeople defending his undeclared flight on the plane of banker-nuclear adviser-Hungarian government lobbyist Klaus Mangold on the basis he simply had to get to Budapest for dinner with Viktor Orbán.

This week at the Think Digital summit in Brussels, Oettinger said his sole reason for going to Budapest was a connected cars summit the following day. The Commission keeps insisting there is nothing to worry about. “The use of chartered air transport can be considered only when commercial flights are not available to reach a destination, when they cannot fit with the commissioner’s diary or for security reasons,” none of which applies to the connected cars summit. The Commission hedged its bets anyway: “When a government of an EU Member State offers a plane for practical reasons to facilitate a mission to this country, I think it’s safe to presume that there is no conflict of interest.”

WHEN CASTRO HIJACKED CENTRAL COUNTERPARTY CLEARING POLICY: Fidel Castro would have been proud of his impact in the European Commission press room Monday. Jean-Claude Juncker’s description of the former Cuban leader as a “hero to many” distracted journalists from the finer points of financial regulation. Perhaps calling journalists “grotesque” (for persisting with questions about Oettinger’s travel arrangements) in the same 24-hour period as giving a hero’s farewell to a communist dictator is not the best way to keep financial announcements on track.

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION VARIABLE: When asked about the differences between Juncker’s “hero to many” and the comments of Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström — “Fidel Castro was a dictator who oppressed his people for 50 years. Strange to hear all the tributes in the news today” — Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas said: “In Cuba, there might not have been freedom of expression, but it does exist in the Commission.” He called questions about Juncker’s statement biased, said the full statement was balanced and “history will judge” the former Cuban leader.

MEPS DEMAND BETTER ANSWERS: One of the ways MEPs like to show they provide value for money is to ask the European Commission difficult questions. However, many parliamentarians are disappointed with the Commission’s answers, which, they claim, tend to be vague and unhelpful. They’ve had enough, and are about to submit a question to the Commission about why its answers “often lack any substantial content.”

I DON’T FEEL LIKE DANCING: Bonnefooi, a popular bar in Brussels is now subject to a loosely-enforced rule that taxes dancing. At first, the bar’s owners and Playbook thought the news was a joke, but it seems city inspectors have been paying visits to the bar and decided that people are doing too much twisting and bopping while they sip their beers, and the bar will now have to pay the city of Brussels €0.40 per person dancing every night.

FIGHT OVER THE GOETHE INSTITUTE BUILDING: The region of Baden Württemberg wants to alter, and perhaps even demolish, a neoclassical façade on Rue Belliard, but is running into opposition from local activist group ARAU. Watch this space.

AN EDUCATION: Senior managers at the Commission’s department for education and culture won’t have been pleased by the 2016 staff survey results. Only 52 percent of their staff have positive things to say about them, according to internal documents seen by POLITICO.

FEUD OF THE WEEK: Donald Tusk versus a group of Euroskeptic British MPs: The MPs wanted the EU to guarantee the rights of Britons living in Europe before any Brexit negotiations begin. Donald Tusk told them their perspective had no relationship with reality.

BY THE NUMBERS:

108: The height in meters of the new dome cover for the Chernobyl nuclear disaster site in Ukraine.
1.5 billion: The cost in euros of the structure
10,000: The number of workers involved
40: The number of governments, mostly European, who contributed to the cost. 

WHO’S UP

François Fillon: The former French prime minister won the primary to become the center Right presidential candidate.
Paul Nuttall: The new leader of UKIP could have broader appeal than the divisive Nigel Farage.

WHO’S DOWN

Marine Le Pen: Look out, there’s another French presidential candidate in town who promotes conservative French values and enjoys cozying up to Russia.
Jean-Claude Juncker: The end of his bromance with Martin Schulz in the European Parliament means Juncker will have to work harder to make political deals.

GAFFES AND LAUGHS:

From Playbook’s Irish source: “My 14-year-old son asked me ‘Is Enda Kenny in the running to replace Donald Tusk?’ I said, ‘There was a report in a British paper today saying that.’ He replied ‘Oh. So it’s not true then.’”

TTIP own goals: In 2013, the European Commission’s development department signed a contract worth €700,000 with an NGO called the Transnational Institute (TNI) to “raise awareness among citizens [in order] to gain their active support for a reformed EU Investment Policy.” The TNI was tasked with creating a network of 600 NGOs and coordinating an online petition to campaign against EU investment policy. Two years later, the Institute’s president, Susan George, said to MEPs: “[TTIP] is a treaty that has to be refused absolutely and entirely.” Fast forward another two years to October 2016, and the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between the EU and Canada is almost sunk by anti-free trade campaigners via Belgium’s Walloon government, while trade negotiations with the U.S. have all but frozen.

SEPARATED AT BIRTH
Wojtek Talko, spokesman at the European Commission, and Kristian Ruby, secretary general of EurElectric.