Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Council President Donald Tusk will hold separate meetings with U.S. President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan next Thursday | Pool photo by Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images
Midday brief, in brief
Today at Commission, Trump, Erdoğan and Macron visits
Brexit and the Greek bailout are on the menu for next week.
There’s a packed agenda in EU circles next week, with some high-profile figures heading to Brussels.
Next Thursday is a public holiday in Belgium (and elsewhere) but there’s no day off for the EU’s leadership. On the margins of a NATO summit, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Council President Donald Tusk will hold separate meetings with U.S. President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
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Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas said he believed the talks with Trump would focus on the “strategic partnership” between the U.S. and the EU as well as on how to tackle global challenges such as terrorism and climate change. He said he did not believe a proposed laptop ban on transatlantic flights would come up as “the work will be done in Washington D.C. at the technical level.”
Also next Thursday, Juncker will meet with new French President Emmanuel Macron.
The Commission also took note of the Greek parliament’s vote in favor of austerity measures to pave the way for the next tranche of bailout funding.
Schinas declined to comment on a meeting of EU affairs ministers in Brussels on Monday at which they are expected to sign off on the negotiating directives for the Brexit talks. He also did not answer when asked if the Commission knew about a meeting between officials from Luxembourg and the U.K.’s Brexit team.
Schinas said it was quite normal for EU countries to talk with each other but “regarding Brexit, EU countries agreed [on April 29] on a detailed, cohesive, unique, rather clear and precise framework” for the talks.
The full agenda for next week is here.