BRUSSELS – The Commission is on lockdown – at least when it comes to its dealings with the US.
Euractiv has learned that the Commission is setting up a secretive ‘clearing house’ for American affairs, a star chamber of top panjandrums who will ensure that nothing more than a friendly nod with a US passport holder can happen without the watchers’ knowledge.
If past clearing houses are anything to go by, potentially any interaction between Commission staff and anyone from the US – be they government officials, lobbyists, journalists, or mischievous grey squirrels – has to be approved by the clearing house, or heads will roll.
The same goes for any public or private discussion of EU-US affairs with anyone, from little birds to the Euractiv hacks they talk to.
Russia and China get similar treatment. But they are adversaries, while the Americans – at least on paper – remain Europe’s friends.
There’s also a clearing house for dealing with the British, five years on from Brexit’s denouement, from which Brussels insiders “still have post-traumatic stress disorder,” one EU diplomat said.
Early last year, well before the election of “Tariff Man” Trump, the EU executive set to work preparing for “all possible outcomes” from the election, a Commission spokesperson said.
Commission top brass recently held crisis talks on Trump’s new trade war in a ‘secure room’ – an isolated faraday cage that no phone signals can penetrate.
Why they went to such extreme lengths isn’t entirely clear, though anxiety about US electronic surveillance can’t be ruled out. In any case, the discussion addressed how Brussels could respond to Trump’s tariffs, sources tell Euractiv.
Read more. | 