Martin Selmayr: ‘Monster of the Berlaymont’ or committed European?
Brussels’ most powerful and controversial civil servant has just days left in office. In a bid to help German conservative Ursula von der Leyen get elected as European Commission president and calm...
View ArticleWanted: New job for Martin Selmayr
Martin Selmayr, who is leaving the post of European Commission secretary-general, has wasted no time in launching his search for a new job. POLITICO has obtained this letter of recommendation written...
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Don’t underestimate Ursula
She was elected Commission president with a wafer-thin majority — the lowest margin in the office’s history. She’s in political trouble back home, where the German parliament is investigating...
View ArticleMartin Selmayr’s new job: The EU’s man in Vienna
Vienna, brace for impact. Martin Selmayr, the outgoing European Commission secretary-general, will become the Commission’s representative to Austria later this year. The College of Commissioners...
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Ursula von der Leyen struggles to stay in the saddle
Ursula von der Leyen loves horses, but political horse-trading or show-jumping? Not so much. Since her confirmation by a narrow vote in the European Parliament in July, the European Commission’s...
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Meet the most powerful woman in Washington not named Nancy
WASHINGTON — Get used to pronouncing Kristalina Georgieva’s name (it’s Gor-ghee-ava). She’s the most powerful woman in Washington not named Nancy. Her new job atop the International Monetary Fund — the...
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Brussels stuck in the doldrums
November 1 was meant to be a new dawn for the EU. A fresh European Commission would take office and Britain would finally be out of the club. Instead, a fog of uncertainty hangs over Brussels. The...
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The political proxy war driving the race for EU citizens’ champion
To supporters, she is a steadfast defender of EU citizens’ interests. To critics, she is a political meddler who has gotten too big for her boots. With MEP opinions divided on Emily O’Reilly’s record...
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Honorable friends: Awards for Europe’s politicians
As you may have heard once or twice, Britain is leaving the EU but it’s not leaving Europe. And what better way to celebrate the surprise news that the U.K. is not physically moving to another part of...
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Michel Barnier’s new right hand
Her supporters say she won’t blink first in the Brexit talks, but Michel Barnier’s new deputy will need guile and nerve to hold the EU line against a rejuvenated U.K. Clara Martínez Alberola takes up...
View ArticleIlze Juhansone to be European Commission’s top civil servant
Ilze Juhansone is set to become the European Commission’s secretary-general. According to two Commission officials, the College of Commissioners will appoint her at its meeting in Strasbourg on...
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Don’t cry for Commission’s HR chief
Tim King writes POLITICO‘s Brussels Sketch. It would be an extraordinary achievement if Irène Souka, who in her 11 years as head of the European Commission’s human resources department built a...
View ArticleEU Confidential #141: Europe’s coronavirus response — Carnival &...
Listen to the podcast on Spotify | Apple | Google | Acast | Stitcher This episode of EU Confidential explores how Europe is responding to the coronavirus, with POLITICO’s senior health reporter, Sarah...
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Ursula von der Leyen’s disaster management
On paper, Ursula von der Leyen could not be better cast for this moment in EU history: Brussels-born; trilingual in German, French and English; a three-time Cabinet minister; the first ever female...
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Merkel’s Dr. No gets his toughest mission yet
This article is part of a special report: Berlin in Brussels. Europe’s most powerful bureaucrat works from a sparsely furnished mid-sized office on the second floor of a building overlooking a train...
View ArticleFacebook’s top EU lobbyist sends Brussels a friend request
To get her way in Brussels, Facebook’s EU lobbyist-in-chief Aura Salla uses one of the tools she’s been hired to promote: Instagram. Between stills of Helsinki’s waterfront and self-portraits on a...
View ArticleMeet Richard Szostak: The EU’s new Brexit divorce mediator
LONDON — Richard Szostak has been handed a task that some would consider impossible: Breaking the EU-U.K. logjam over its divorce agreement as tempers flare over the pandemic. As the head of a new EU...
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The French people Europe needs to know
French diplomats, civil servants and policymakers will play a key role in delivering set priorities for the country’s presidency of the Council of the EU, which started on January 1. Here are some of...
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European Parliament plots backroom deal to appoint top bureaucrat
In an interwoven series of backroom deals, three of the European Parliament’s political groups are pushing through a power-sharing arrangement that has left opponents accusing the Parliament’s...
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EU Parliament deflects cronyism cries as it appoints top civil servant
It all ended pretty much as it started — despite months of recriminations, patronage allegations and backroom dealings. Alessandro Chiocchetti will become the European Parliament’s new...
View ArticleMartin Selmayr shortlisted to be EU’s man in DC (or New York)
The “Monster of the Berlaymont” might be staging a comeback — in the U.S. Martin Selmayr — once a powerful figure atop the EU’s executive institution — has been shortlisted to become the EU ambassador...
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The EU’s Mr. Aviation seeks emergency exit
BRUSSELS — Henrik Hololei just wanted to say a big thank you to the airlines. Through an uncharacteristic stutter in his otherwise keynote-ready bombast, the EU’s aviation chief told the audience of...
View ArticleEU taps Lithuanian diplomat as US ambassador
BRUSSELS — Jovita Neliupšienė will be the next EU ambassador to the U.S., according to an internal note on appointments dated April 14 and obtained by POLITICO. Neliupšienė, a deputy foreign minister...
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Vienna seeks to calm Selmayr ‘blood money’ furor
Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg signaled his government was de-escalating a row with the EU’s senior representative in the country, Martin Selmayr, who last week accused Vienna of...
View ArticleAustrian ex-minister who danced with Putin moves to Russia
Former Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl, known for dancing with Vladimir Putin at her wedding, will move to the Russian president’s hometown of St. Petersburg to lead a think tank she created....
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Putin exposes the myth of Austria’s victimhood
VIENNA — No one does victimhood quite like Austria. Over the past century, the Central European country has presented itself to the outside world as an innocent bystander on an island of...
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Selmayr ain’t welcome back in Brussels, EU officials say
BRUSSELS — The potential return of the “Monster of the Berlaymont” is freaking out Brussels. The halls of Brussels’ institutions are abuzz with gossip (and some fear) that Martin Selmayr, once the...
View ArticleMartin Selmayr gets his chance to return to Brussels
Martin Selmayr — the divisive chief of staff of former Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker — is preparing a dramatic comeback to Brussels. According to a document seen by POLITICO, the Commission...
View ArticleDark Cardinal Selmayr headed for the Vatican
Brussels is keeping the “Monster of the Berlaymont” at bay — and far away from the Berlaymont. Martin Selmayr, notorious for an abrasive leadership style that led to the above nickname, will be exiled...
View ArticleFormer high priest of EU politics Selmayr finds higher calling in the Vatican
Martin Selmayr, known as the “monster of the Berlaymont,” has been nominated as the EU ambassador to the Vatican, Order of Malta and U.N. organizations. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell...
View ArticleFarewell to the EU’s sharpest in-house critic
Listen on Spotify Apple Music Amazon Music Politics are driving a growing culture of secrecy at the European Commission, warns European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly in this week’s episode of EU...
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