Trump meets Zelenskyy, Europe on edge

KALLAS BOMBARDED BY CVs: Incoming EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas has received no less than 2,000 CVs from people jostling to join her Cabinet. Does this make her the most popular Cabinet maker since Jesus?
LEONARDO DA MEP: The European Parliament is holding a Christmas card illustration contest. “This is a great chance to showcase your talents,” MEP Marc Angel wrote in an email calling for “budding artists” to submit their work. “Guess less damage is done if they are painting instead of working,” snarked one skeptic.
GOOD FRIDAY MORNING. Congrats on (nearly) making it to the end of the week. This is Eddy Wax.
TRUMP BLASTS EUROPE BEFORE ZELENSKYY MEET: U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump will meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Trump Tower in New York on Friday morning local time, my Global Playbook colleague Suzanne Lynch writes in to report.
Election looms: Trump and his Democratic rival Kamala Harris are heading for a Nov. 5 election showdown, and their stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is one of their most significant dividing lines.
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Are you hearing this, Brussels? The Republican nominee reignited Europe’s worst fears about U.S. support for Ukraine in a press conference in New York Thursday. “The United States is paying for most of it, and Europe is not chipping in … It’s very unfair on the United States,” Trump said.
More NATO threats: “The European nations — they should be equalizing, they should be paying up. I did this with NATO,” Trump said. “I made them all pay … I said ‘If you don’t pay I’m not going to be there.’ And the money came pouring in.”
Peace plan talk: The Trump-Zelenskyy meeting is taking place despite Republicans reacting furiously to the Ukrainian leader’s decision to visit an ammunition plant in Pennsylvania at the start of his U.S. trip, accompanied by Democratic politicians. In a letter to Zelenskyy, House Speaker Mike Johnson decried the visit to the crucial swing state as a political stunt, calling on Zelenskyy to fire his ambassador to the United States.
Art of the deal? Trump, who also met British Prime Minister Keir Starmer last night, repeated claims that Russian leader Vladimir Putin would never have invaded Ukraine if he was still president, declaring: “I believe I will be able to make a deal between President Putin and President Zelenskyy quite quickly.” Claiming he knew Putin well, Trump repeated his assertion that he’d warned the Russian leader against invading Ukraine. “I said, ‘Vladimir, don’t even think about it.’” 
Playing both sides: Today’s meeting comes after Zelenskyy had a day of meetings in Washington on Thursday, including with President Joe Biden, Vice President Harris and a bipartisan group of Congress members, as he seeks to shore up military and financial support for Ukraine ahead of the November election. Suzanne has the full details in her story.
NOW HEAR THIS: This week’s edition of the EU Confidential podcast tracks Zelenskyy’s journey to the U.S. We start in Kyiv, where POLITICO’s Veronika Melkozerova recounts meeting the president ahead of his crucial lobbying mission. Then we analyze his “victory plan” with Jan Cienski, POLITICO senior policy editor; Dave Brown, Defense Editor at POLITICO U.S.; and Olga Oliker, program director for Europe and Central Asia at International Crisis Group. Listen and subscribe here.
QUICK-FIRE STUFF: The European Parliament last week called for capitals to lift restrictions on the use of long-range missiles for Ukraine “immediately.” But getting that call up online wasn’t so immediate. As of Thursday night — nearly a week after the non-binding resolution passed — the HTML version of the text was “still being processed for publication in your language.” Or rather in all languages, as Playbook’s Sarah Wheaton spotted. 
COMMISSION GRILLED OVER €150K VDL ADVISER: The cream of the Brussels press corps grilled the European Commission for 13 minutes at a press conference Thursday after Playbook’s scoop about Ursula von der Leyen allocating €149,000 — akin to the highest possible salary grade — to pay German academic Peter Strohschneider for a farming report. 
Piepergate echoes: The Commission’s spokespeople dodged a question on whether von der Leyen’s fellow commissioners, who had to sign off on hiring Strohschneider, were unanimous in supporting that pay rate.
Not adding up: The Commission document POLITICO obtained showing Strohschneider’s maximum salary allocation is dated Feb. 2, but it wasn’t until March 5 that the College of Commissioners agreed to appoint him. And the dialogue on the future of farming Strohschneider led began in January. Confused? We are.
Will Lamberts see green? Commission spokesperson Balazs Ujvari said he was “not aware” of the recent Financial Times report claiming that former Greens Parliament leader Philippe Lamberts will become a von der Leyen adviser, according to an unnamed EU official. There was no news from the Commission on whether that is a paid or unpaid role.
FAR-RIGHT FPÖ AHEAD: Austrians will vote in a parliamentary election on Sunday, with the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) leading in polling on around 27 percent, followed by the Austria’s People’s Party (ÖVP) on 25 percent.
But does it really matter who wins on Sunday? In a word, no, argues Matt Karnitschnig. “Everyone here already knows which party will really be running the show. The ÖVP will not only be a member of the next coalition but stands to play a central role in it, just as it has done for as long anyone here cares to remember,” he writes.
Don’t ever take sides with anyone against the family again: In his curtain-raiser ahead of Sunday’s vote Matt tells the story of his appearance on a TV show, during which he compared the ÖVP to a “political Cosa Nostra whose members grant one another advantages.” How did that go down? The show has been canceled. Read Matt’s story here.
JOB HUNTING REVS UP IN BRUSSELS: There’s been a lull in Brussels this week with the real action happening in at the U.N. General Assembly in New York and the European People’s Party retreat in Naples. (Parliament President Roberta Metsola made it to both.) Adding to the sense of directionlessness, there are still no firm dates for parliamentary hearings for Ursula von der Leyen’s new top team, no clear start date for the new European Commission and 45 (yes, I counted them) commissioners in various stages of coming and going.
But that’s left plenty of time for people in Brussels to line up positions in the new Commission. As Playbook has been reporting, countries are jostling to place their top nationals in commissioners’ Cabinets, and elaborate swaps are being orchestrated. In theory, there is meant to be diversity in nationality, gender and seniority in each cab — but there are already gripes from less well-represented countries about the number of Germans set to lead commissioners’ teams. If the current numbers keep going up, the weekly meeting of Cabinet heads known as hebdo could be held in German, one diplomat quipped to my colleague Barbara Moens.
Where to send your CVs: The jobs frenzy is so contagious that one Commission official even cheekily reached out to Playbook this week to ask for a list of Cabinet heads he could pitch his CV to. We’re happy to oblige. In recent editions, we’ve been keeping track of the top dogs assisting the Commission nominees to prepare for their hearings. ICYMI, here are part 1 and part 2 of our ongoing series. And now we’ve got some more names to add to those, here’s part 3:
— Alexander Winterstein will lead the transition team and then the Cabinet of Austrian Commissioner-designate Magnus Brunner, who will take charge of migration and home affairs. An Austrian, Winterstein was the spokesperson for von der Leyen in her lead candidate campaign this year and became a director for political communication in DG COMM shortly before. He also worked for the late Austrian Chancellor Brigitte Bierlein.
— Cristina Sofia Dias will lead the transition team of Portugal’s Maria Luís Albuquerque, the prospective financial services commissioner. She has worked in all three main EU institutions, as a deputy head of unit in DG REFORM, a researcher in Parliament and a financial attaché for Portugal.
— Carmen Preising, a German national, is in the running to become head of the Cabinet of Luxembourg’s Commissioner-designate Christophe Hansen, who is set to focus on agriculture. Preising — who was the head of Cabinet for ex-Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius — is not a dead cert because her future depends on a swap deal for another head of Cabinet, Barbara reports.
— Raluca Belegan joined the transition team of Commission Executive Vice President-designate Roxana Mînzatu, having worked as an assistant to von der Leyen’s advisers.
WHAT’S AT STAKE: Permanent jobs in EU institutions are highly sought-after, coming with minimal taxation, job security and even the chance of a 16 percent “expat allowance” for your whole career if you’re hired from outside Belgium on Day 1.
Spare a thought (and some cash) for the Luxembourg staff: But EU staff union U4U is advocating for a publicly funded €10.4 million housing subsidy for officials because of the apparent “plight” — as they put it — of those in the Duchy. “Colleagues living and working in Luxembourg face a much higher cost of living than those working in Brussels but receive the same salary as the latter,” wrote the union’s President Georges Vlandas in an email seen by Playbook. National governments want the EU’s institutions to find the money for the measure themselves. 
CRACK OPEN THE CRÉMANT: A document seen by Playbook shows that a whopping 2,411 European Parliament officials are in line for a promotion and pay rise this year. It’s a startling figure, especially given there are some 5,300 permanent officials in the Parliament in total. The list of names is so long that the document, dated September, runs to 70 pages.
Caveat: It doesn’t mean that all 2,411 will get the taxpayer-funded pay bump this year, but they’re in a pool of those eligible when the budget allows for it, and when they do get it, that pay rise will be backdated to January. POLITICO’s Emilia Möbius crunched the numbers and found that 71 of the officials were eligible for a hike to the salary grade AD13, equivalent to €15,234.71 per month — almost double what MEPs take home. “Promotions are decided strictly on the basis of merit,” the European Parliament’s press service said.
COSTAS KADIS PROFILE: Louise Guillot and Marianne Gros have this profile of the Cypriot nominee for commissioner for oceans and fisheries.
**Psst… Did you know our fifth edition of POLITICO Competitive Europe Week is also happening online on October 1-3? From Industrial Policy to Tech & AI sessions, we’ve got you covered with this year’s unmissable 3-day event! Register to watch online!**
PATRIOTS SUE: Jordan Bardella, the French leader of the far-right Patriots for Europe grouping of MEPs, is suing the European Parliament at the Court of Justice of the European Union. Joining him is fellow Patriot Kinga Gál, one of Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán’s top MEPs. 
Taking on the firewall: Earlier this summer, MEPs from other groups ganged up on the Patriots to block them from having any roles representing the Parliament in its committees or bureaus of vice presidents. Gál confirmed to POLITICO’s Parliament reporter Max Griera that they filed the lawsuit to challenge their exclusion from these positions. 
National Rally also in court in Paris: While Bardella builds a case in Luxembourg, Marine Le Pen and other RN officials are facing a court date in Paris on Sept. 30 in a case involving alleged embezzlement of EU funds between 2004 and 2016, Toute l’Europe reports. 
AWKWARD BACKPEDAL: In Thursday’s Playbook we wrote about two MEPs, the Greens’ Daniel Freund and EPP’s Kamila Gasiuk-Pihowicz, who emailed the incoming commissioners demanding to know whether they’d ever breached ethics or integrity rules at other institutions. 
Jumped the gun: It turns out this itself was a breach of procedure. On Thursday, Freund told Playbook the pair recalled the email because their so-called intergroup on fighting corruption was technically not yet up and running. Gasiuk-Pihowicz told Playbook the letter was rescinded “to comply with the rules of procedure.” 
SWEDISH CRIME EPIDEMIC: Shootings by Swedish gang members are spreading around the country and beyond its borders, undermining citizens’ sense of security and increasing the pressure on the government to act. Charlie Duxbury has the story.
CHINA’S SUB SHOCKER: Beijing’s newest nuclear-powered attack submarine sank in the spring, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing U.S. officials.
GERMANY WARNS OF PUTIN’S NEW IRON CURTAIN: German Ambassador to NATO Géza Andreas von Geyr warned last night that Moscow is seeking to erect a new Iron Curtain across the European Continent. “Russia is trying to strangle its neighbor Ukraine, to intimidate us and to reestablish a world order of the past, based on confrontation,” von Geyr, who was previously Berlin’s top envoy to Moscow, said in a reception at his residence celebrating the 35th anniversary of German reunification. “Moscow is working on a new Iron Curtain — and we can well imagine where it is supposed to run.”
Germans shouldn’t appease Putin: Von Geyr warned that Germans “need to be attentive and vigilant at home” — a veiled reference to the rise of pro-Kremlin far-right and far-left politicians. “It is worrying to see the growing number of those who are ready to accept the illusion of quick and simple answers and solutions,” he said, adding: “Perhaps Germany could have achieved unification sooner — but only without freedom and security.”
NOT AVERSE TO APPEASING PUTIN: Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó told Russia’s state-run TASS news agency that Budapest is open for business with Moscow. “Apart from the fact that we do not like the sanctions regime — although there are European rules that we have to comply with — we are very open about our desire to improve economic relations between Russia and Hungary in all areas that are not affected by sanctions,” Szijjártó said, according to TASS.
Referring to a Hungarian-Russian Economic Cooperation Committee meeting held in Budapest last week, attended by Russian Minister of Health Mikhail Murashko, Szijjártó said: “We also held a business forum, in which 173 entrepreneurs from both sides took part. For me, this shows that there is not only a political desire to improve economic relations, but business also wants this.”
MERCOSUR TALKS: EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell will meet today in New York with the foreign ministers of the Mercosur countries — which includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay — in a push to make progress on the long-stalled trade deal. The meeting on the fringes of the U.N. General Assembly is the latest attempt to make progress ahead of the G20 in November, Suzanne Lynch reports from the U.N. It follows a meeting between Ursula von der Leyen and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva earlier in the week.
ON A HILL, 2,600 YEARS AGO: The European People’s Assembly is launching today in Athens —  on a hill near the Acropolis where Athenians convened to discuss governance 2,600 years ago. The Democratic Odyssey, a crowdsourced campaign, brings together 200 randomly selected citizens to talk about Europe’s future challenges. “Athens in particular is a resilient place with a lot of very active civil society organizations and bottom-up actors working on the ground,” James Mackey told Playbook reporter Šejla Ahmatović. 
Away from Brussels: While the initiative was inspired by the Conference on the Future of Europe, which ran until 2022, Mackey considered it “severely flawed,” adding that it ultimately fell short due to its lack of visibility and a top-down approach. “Our endeavor is not determined by the power struggles of the institutions. We are setting out to gain the trust of the citizens first, and then work from there,” he said. The assembly will travel through Europe. Next stop: Vienna.
PODCAST: On this week’s Westminster Insider, host Sascha O’Sullivan dives into what it’s really like to be a contender in a Tory leadership campaign.
FRIDAY FUNNY: Meat is murder (if you accidentally mention it in a speech), writes Paul Dallison in his latest Declassified humor column.
QUIZ TIME: How closely have you been following EU news this week? Find out here.
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— U.N. General Assembly continues in New York. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu among those to deliver an address.
— EU High Representative Josep Borrell is in New York; co-chairs the Global Counterterrorism Forum’s ministerial plenary meeting; addresses the Council on Foreign Relations.
— Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski in Syracuse, Italy; participates in the G7 agricultural ministers’ meeting.
— Commission Vice President Věra Jourová travels to Ottawa, Canada; meets with Pascale St-Onge, minister of Canadian heritage, Canada’s Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault and senior fellows at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and Ottawa Information Integrity Lab about disinformation and foreign interference.
— Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager in Toronto, Canada; participates in the conference “Attention: the Kids are All Right.”
— Education Commissioner Iliana Ivanova in Lviv, Ukraine; delivers the opening speech via a video message at the IT Arena Tech Conference 2024.
— Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz receives Italy’s President Sergio Mattarella.
WEATHER: High of 16C, more rain.
THE POPE’S HERE: The official Belgian website created for Pope Francis’ visit now has details on where you can see him (including in Brussels on Sunday). Last night the Belgian king and Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib greeted the pope upon arrival.
Now read this: Tensions caused by the Catholic Church’s response to sexual abuse committed by priests are casting a dark cloud over the pope’s trip to Belgium, Elena Giordano writes.
FARMERS CHOOSE NEW LOBBY CHIEF: Influential farmers’ lobby Copa will elect a new president today, to take over from French pig farmer Christiane Lambert, who has led it since 2020, representing the FNSEA lobby. The candidates are Italian Massimiliano Giansanti, who represents Confagircoltura, and Pole Wiktor Szmulewicz representing KRIR. Copa presidents regularly get privileged access to the EU’s farming ministers at their meetings.
Spotted … at the goodbye party for the outgoing Lambert at the Thon Hotel last night: Copa Cogeca’s Niall Curley and Ksenija Simovic, European Commission’s Catherine Geslain-Lanéelle, World Farmers’ Organisation’s Arnold Puech d’Alissac, ASAJA’s José María Castilla Baró, EFSA’s Flavio Fergnani, Coldiretti’s Paolo Di Stefano and many more. 
SUGGESTIONS DE LECTURE: Our colleagues on the Playbook Paris team have written a book on the turbulent days that followed President Emmanuel Macron’s dissolution of parliament after the EU election. “The chef’s surprise: 28 days that stunned France” can now be pre-ordered here — in French.
MORE THAN A HOME: EU Ambassador to the U.S. Jovita Neliupšienė (and POLITICO 28 alum) made it onto the cover of Washington Life Magazine’s Diplomacy issue, where she gave a tour of the art-filled embassy.
ŽIVELA MULTILINGUISME: Happy Multilingualism Day, everyone! Today and Saturday, the EU celebrates its diversity and the Parliament opens its doors for everyone who wants to meet its multilingual staff and learn about its work operating in 24 languages.
Only problem: Some talks are only interpreted into Dutch, English, French, German and Italian; others not at all. Oops.
ART AND SCIENCE FESTIVAL: Are you fascinated by the mysteries of mushrooms? Or looking for a unique occasion both your artsy and nerd friends could enjoy? CurieuCity it is. Opens today at 2 p.m. All six locations are in Forest.
CLASSICAL CONCERT: Brussels’ leading amateur symphony orchestra is playing on Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Church Notre Dame au Sablon. Together with a Norwegian and Lithuanian choir, they will mark the 200th anniversary of Anton Bruckner’s birthday. Several Parliament and Commission staffers will be playing too.
THE RETURN OF PIMP SHRIMP: Brussels is ready to crown the ultimate shrimp croquette again. Seventeen contenders will face off at the Eat Festival on Saturday.
BIRTHDAYS: MEP Aldo Patriciello; former MEPs Jessica Stegrud, Gabriele Preuß, Agustín Díaz de Mera García Consuegra and Christelle Lechevalier; EEAS’ David Ringrose; Radio Free Europe’s Pablo Gorondi; Former EU Ambassador to the Central African Republic Douglas Carpenter; The Brussels Times’ Dennis Abbott; German Marshall Fund of the U.S.’s Elizabeth Boswell Rega; former President of Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades; Süddeutsche Zeitung’s Gabriel Rinaldi. Day of the French Community in Belgium. 
CELEBRATING SATURDAY: EU’s Ambassador to Israel Dimiter Tzantchev; MEP Tineke Strik; Les Echos’ Hortense Goulard; U.K. Department for Work and Pensions’ Robert Eagleton; Département du Nord’s Jeanne Duhem; Miloš Zeman, former president of the Czech Republic; Ana Brnabić, Serbian PM; author Simon Winchester.
CELEBRATING SUNDAY: Equality Commissioner Helena Dalli; MEP Heléne Fritzon; former Polish President Lech Wałęsa; POLITICO’s Josh Posaner; Doug Frantz, former OECD deputy secretary-general; journalist Beatriz Navarro from La Vanguardia; European Commission’s Daniele Calisti.
THANKS TO: Suzanne Lynch, Barbara Moens, Emilia Möbius, Stuart Lau, Max Griera, Sarah Wheaton; Playbook editor Alex Spence, reporter Šejla Ahmatović and producer Catherine Bouris.
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