Brussels Edition: Serving Oysters to Trump

(Bloomberg) -- Welcome to the Brussels Edition, Bloomberg’s daily briefing on what matters most in the heart of the European Union.

The European Union once managed to dodge punitive U.S. tariffs against its car industry by offering to buy a few soybeans. This time, it’s a more high-end menu. The planned offer includes easing regulatory restrictions on shellfish imports, but the idea is the same: giving Donald Trump just enough to allow him to declare victory. We may get a bit more clarity today on whether the proposal has any chance of success when U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue meets his EU counterparts and the bloc’s trade chief, Phil Hogan, in Brussels. Much will depend on its packaging with concessions on technology and energy, but if the plan works, Brussels will be counting its blessings.

What’s Happening

The Brussels Way | The EU’s seafood strategy with Trump underlines the difficulties Britain faces in extracting any concessions post-Brexit. We spoke to several senior officials from far and wide who have negotiated market-access accords with Brussels. Here’s their warning for Britain.

Transatlantic Threats | Not that striking a post-Brexit trade deal with the U.S. will be any easier for Boris Johnson than reaching an accord with Brussels. In fact, the U.K’s plans to introduce a levy on the digital revenue of tech giants and London’s reluctance to ban Huawei equipment from the 5G telecoms networks complicates things even more.

Salvini Reverse | Italy’s fragile ruling coalition got a rare boost when populist firebrand Matteo Salvini failed in his bid to seize the leftist stronghold of Emilia-Romagna, a victory that could have threatened Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte’s government. The center-left bloc led by the Democratic Party held onto power in the northern region that includes Bologna, and their influence within Conte’s administration is likely to grow after support for their Five Star partners collapsed.

Libyan Crisis | Continued fighting in Libya has made a fragile truce agreed in Berlin earlier this month all but meaningless, as the UN warns that foreign powers are setting the stage for further escalation. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and German foreign minister Heiko Maas will give an update this morning.

In Case You Missed It

Budget Summit | EU leaders will hold a special summit with the aim of reaching a breakthrough in stalled negotiations over the bloc’s trillion-euro budget. The meeting will “begin” on Feb. 20 and, given the deep divisions between governments, may last for days. 

German Love | As policy makers reiterate their warnings that low interest rates are here to stay, Christine Lagarde appears to have put in motion a plan to convince Germans about the merits of the ECB’s stance: melt their hearts with love messages. 

Polish Chaos | Relations between Warsaw and Brussels are deteriorating every day, with the EU Commission pulling no punches in its appraisal of the state of Polish democracy. The country is facing legal disarray after more than a dozen court-system changes, with judges questioning each other’s ability to issue verdicts and risking the validity of thousands of cases.

Deadly Virus | A viral outbreak that has alarmed infectious-disease experts worldwide has now reached Europe. As the death-toll rises, here’s our interactive map tracking the spread of the killer-coronavirus, and our deep dive into the global efforts to contain it. 

Chart of the Day

The EU and a group of 16 nations that includes China and Brazil are forming an alliance to settle their trade disputes using an appeals and arbitration system at the World Trade Organization to replace temporarily a process stymied by the U.S. The development marks an advance of the EU’s backup plan now that the WTO appellate body is paralyzed. More details here. 

Today’s Agenda

All times CET.

• 9:30 a.m. EU agriculture ministers meet in Brussels and have “working lunch” with EU Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. Perdue also meets EU trade chief Phil Hogan
• 10:30 a.m. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell gives joint press conference with Heiko Maas, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany, in Berlin. Borrell also meets Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, Wolfgang Schäuble, President of the Bundestag and members of the Bundestag Committees on European Affairs, Foreign Affairs and Defense
• 4 p.m. EU Commissioners Dombrovskis, Gentiloni, Schmit in European Parliament’s ECON Committee to discuss European Semester
• 5:30 p.m. EU tech and antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager speaks to EU lawmakers of the legal affairs committee 
• 6:30 p.m. EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier delivers keynote address at the Queens University Belfast in Northern Ireland; also visits the Republic of Ireland for meeting with Leo Varadkar
• EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen meets Olaf Scholz, Minister of Finance of Germany, in Brussels
• Vestager and Hogan meet Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, in Brussels
• Portuguese Finance Minister Mario Centeno addresses parliament on 2020 budget

--With assistance from Zoe Schneeweiss and Jonathan Stearns.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Heather Harris at hharris5@bloomberg.net, Andrew Blackman

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