EU SEALS US TRADE DEAL: In the early hours of Wednesday morning, EU lawmakers and governments agreed on the terms for implementing the so-called “Turnberry deal” struck with Washington last summer, after Donald Trump threatened fresh tariffs if Brussels kept dragging its feet.
Under the agreement, the EU will scrap tariffs on hundreds of US industrial and agricultural goods in exchange for a 15% tariff on most EU exports to the US. Sofía Sánchez Manzanaro stayed up late to bring you the full report.
You’re reading Rapporteur on Wednesday 20 May. This is Eddy Wax in Strasbourg (say hi), with Nicoletta Ionta in Brussels.
Need-to-knows:
🟢 Exclusive: Commission says no to further trade-based Israel sanctions
🟢 Kallas questions EU outreach to Taliban
🟢 Exclusive: Austria and Italy’s new enlargement pitch
On the Schuman roundabout: An MEP slipped Kallas a cheeky note
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From the capital
Banning trade with illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Golan Heights was the hot topic in Brussels just last week, after France and Sweden floated the idea. Questions swirled over when the Commission might produce a proposal, or even a paper laying out the legal options, while countries like Spain, Belgium and Ireland piled on the pressure. Since then, an eerie silence has descended.
Now we know why.
Kaja Kallas received robust pushback from her Commissioner colleagues at Wednesday’s top-secret College meeting, according to three people I spoke to. Many were miffed at her apparent attempt to throw Maroš Šefčovič, the trade chief, under the bus at a press conference two days earlier, when she said she didn’t know why he had not produced a proposal to stop trade with the settlements.
The idea would have been to impose tariffs so high on settlement produce that exports to Europe would become effectively impossible.
“I asked [for] this, but the proposal is not there, and I can’t draft it,” she said.
Those comments were not well received inside the Berlaymont, to say the least. At Wednesday morning’s meeting, commissioners – seven or eight of them, we hear – lined up to argue that Kallas should focus instead on advancing existing sanctions proposals against Israel that have so far stalled.
One measure would end research cooperation; another would suspend the trade pillar of the EU-Israel association deal. Neither has enough political support from European countries to pass, and there are plenty of countries and commissioners who feel their continued ghostly presence is doing needless damage.
Even the Commission’s legal service took the floor to say that as far as it was concerned, trade restrictions on settlements could not be imposed through tariffs. Any proposal, it said, would require a foreign policy legal basis – meaning it would fall to Kallas to propose it and get it done.
DG Trade also prepared figures showing just how microscopic trade with the settlements really is. The commerce, which falls outside the EU-Israel trade deal, accounts for less than 1% of Israel’s exports to the bloc. Peanuts. Sanctioning it, several commissioners argued, is therefore overtly political and treating it like standard trade policy won’t fly.
The result is that the ball is back in Kallas’ court to propose sanctions – measures that would require unanimity, which doesn’t exist. One EU official said a dozen foreign ministers backed the move at a meeting last week. But Kallas’ colleagues don’t want the EU to keep piling up punitive measures that go nowhere. Sanctioning trade with Israeli settlements, it seems, is firmly off the table.
“The situation is still terrible,” Kallas told MEPs here last night. “The problem is that we don’t have that leverage over Israel even with those measures that are on the table now because we are not united.”
The EU official told Rapporteur: “Foreign policy works on unanimity, which there isn’t on Israel, while trade measures might get the necessary majority. It’s not about foreign versus trade, or passing the buck – it’s about having a credible proposal. If member states want options, trade is the most realistic one right now.”
Kallas questions Taliban invitation
Kaja Kallas on Tuesday questioned the EU’s outreach to the Taliban after the Commission invited a delegation from Afghanistan’s rulers to Brussels for migration talks.
“If we have put conditions in place that we don’t engage, then if these conditions are not changed, then why are we changing our posture?” Kallas said in response to a question from Slovenian Renew MEP Irena Joveva. “We should keep the same line.”
The EU’s foreign policy chief suggested she had little involvement in the invitation, describing it as a migration matter handled outside her services. Kallas also made clear she saw no case for engaging with the Taliban regime.
Niebler steals Merkel’s headlines
Tuesday in the European Parliament was meant to be the grand unveiling of the European Order of Merit, a swanky new ceremony rewarding the likes of Angela Merkel, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and all “the people who build Europe.” (Here’s my parliamentary sketch on the knights of the policy roundtable).
But Parliament grabbed headlines for all the wrong reasons instead. The German press was more interested in the EPP’s chivalric defence of Angelika Niebler, the Bavarian member facing accusations of misusing public money and staff. Parliament voted against lifting her immunity, freezing an EU investigation at a preliminary stage. Niebler denies wrongdoing.
Now, Elisa Braun tells me, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office has said it “reserves the right” to mount a legal challenge against Parliament’s decision. Transparency International denounced an “obstruction of justice.”
Exclusive: Austria, Italy push ‘sectoral’ Balkans entry
Five EU countries are pressing the Commission to rethink how prospective Western Balkan members are integrated into the bloc’s single market, arguing that gradual economic integration could help the region out of Russia’s sphere of influence.
“To sustain the momentum of enlargement and advance European integration, strong and attractive incentives are needed,” Austria, the Czech Republic, Italy, Slovakia and Slovenia wrote in a confidential paper seen by Rapporteur and circulated among EU countries in Brussels last Friday.
The proposal calls for candidate countries to gain phased access to parts of the single market step by step – including energy, transport and digital policy – as they do their homework on aligning with Brussels’ rulebook. Read my full story.
Awkward US charm offensive in Greenland
Trump’s envoy Jeff Landry arrived in Nuuk promising friendship, MAGA hats and unlimited chocolate chip cookies. Many Greenlanders, however, saw something closer to a geopolitical sales pitch, our colleague Pietro Guastamacchia reports from the island.
Landry told Pietro that Greenlanders had been ignored before Trump. “Be sure, we’re not ignoring them anymore,” he said. Posters reading “USA ASU” (“USA stop”) quickly appeared outside the delegation’s hotel, while Greenlandic officials accused Washington of treating the territory like a laboratory for great-power politics.
Meanwhile, Jozef Síkela, the EU’s development commissioner, also landed in Nuuk. In contrast to Landry, he was welcomed at the airport by Greenland’s foreign minister before heading into talks with the prime minister. Read Pietro’s full dispatch.
The trilogue of no return
MEPs and diplomats meet today for what is expected to be the final round of talks on the EU’s proposed returns regulation – a contentious overhaul of the bloc’s deportation rules.
The legislation would allow governments to transfer rejected asylum seekers and irregular migrants to so-called “return hubs” outside the EU. The proposal, unveiled by the Commission as part of its push for “innovative solutions” on migration, has become one of the most politically charged files in Brussels.
Before a final deal can be struck, however, negotiators still need to bridge divisions over some of the reform’s most sensitive elements, from the mutual recognition of deportation decisions across the bloc to the engagement with non-recognised “third-country entities.” Read Nicoletta’s full story.
Moulin sees rouge
Emmanuel Macron’s former chief of staff faces a key parliamentary vote today in his bid to become governor of the Bank of France, one of the country’s most influential economic posts, Elisa Braun tells me.
Emmanuel Moulin’s appointment can only be blocked if three-fifths of lawmakers oppose it, but the outcome remains uncertain. The far-left France Unbowed, the far-right National Rally and part of the Socialist group have already said they will vote against him, leaving the conservative Republicans holding the deciding votes.
The nomination reignited accusations of cronyism around Macron amid reports of a deal with the Republicans. Critics accuse the president of placing close allies in senior state positions ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
Here are 3 new stories from Euractiv:
Schuman roundabout
BALTIC CHIHUAHUA: Rapporteur spotted Rihards Kols, an ECR lawmaker, sneaking a note to Kaja Kallas during a lull in plenary. The Latvian’s office later revealed it was a “Baltic chihuahua” sticker – a tiny dog on a majestic background of Baltic flags. It’s a play on a common Russian insult for the Balts for being small and yappy. Kols said the Estonian might appreciate the tongue-in-cheek gift, having faced the insult herself.
The capitals
PARIS 🇫🇷
Prosecutors have opened a formal judicial investigation into allegations involving Édouard Philippe, a leading contender for France’s 2027 presidential election, the financial prosecutor’s office said. The probe follows a complaint accusing Philippe and close associates of favouritism, misuse of public funds and conflicts of interest. The move escalates an earlier preliminary inquiry, though Philippe has not been charged and denies wrongdoing.
– Elisa Braun
LJUBLJANA 🇸🇮
Right-wing veteran Janez Janša is poised to return as prime minister after his candidacy was formally submitted to parliament on Tuesday, almost two months after the elections. RTV Slovenia reported the SDS leader has backing from 48 lawmakers in the 90-seat assembly. Janša, a Trump admirer and ally of Viktor Orbán, is expected to lead a coalition including right-leaning parties and an anti-establishment newcomer party.
– Christina Zhao
BUDAPEST 🇭🇺
Péter Magyar is in Poland today for his first official foreign visit since taking office, accompanied by a senior ministerial delegation. In Warsaw, he is due to meet Donald Tusk and parliamentary leaders in a signal of his intention to repair relations strained during Viktor Orbán’s years in power. Magyar is expected to visit Vienna later this week.
– Mátyás Varga
BRATISLAVA 🇸🇰
The European Parliament is set to vote on another rule-of-law resolution on Slovakia on Wednesday, piling pressure on the European Commission to act against Robert Fico’s government. The non-binding text raises concerns over judicial independence, media freedom, NGOs and minority rights, and urges Brussels to consider deploying the EU’s rule-of-law conditionality mechanism, which could ultimately suspend EU funds. Lawmakers passed a similar resolution less than three weeks ago.
– Natália Silenská
COPENHAGEN 🇩🇰
Coalition talks took an unexpected turn on Tuesday when Liberal leader Troels Lund Poulsen proposed forming a centre-right minority government with the Liberal Alliance and Conservatives, nearly three months after the general election. Poulsen, who is serving as royal investigator, shifted attention to Lars Løkke Rasmussen’s centrist Moderates, whose parliamentary support is now likely to determine whether a government can be formed.
– Lucas Harder Anderschou
PRAGUE 🇨🇿
The Czech Republic plans to tighten rules for Ukrainian refugees receiving humanitarian aid under draft legislation unveiled on Tuesday. Refugees with temporary protection would need to work, run a business or register with labour offices, while spending at least 16 days a month in the country, to remain eligible for benefits. Prague also wants stricter residency rules, expanded biometric checks and tighter limits on travel documents to curb abuse and strengthen migration controls.
– Aneta Zachová
BELGRADE 🇷🇸
Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to visit Belgrade this week for talks on a trade-cooperation memorandum, Serbian media reported, citing diplomatic sources. If confirmed, it would mark the Ukrainian president’s first visit to Serbia since taking office in 2019. The visit would underscore Belgrade’s delicate balancing act: backing Ukraine’s territorial integrity at the UN while refusing to join EU sanctions on Russia and maintaining close ties with Moscow.
– Bronwyn Jones
Contributors: Elisa Braun, Sofia Sanchez Manzanaro, Maria Simon, Magnus Lund Nielsen, Bruno Waterfield, Pietro Guastamacchia
Editors: Christina Zhao, Sofia Mandilara, Charles Szumski
