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By SARAH WHEATON
Tips, tales, traumas to @swheaton or influence@politico.eu | View in your browser
HOWDY. Welcome to this week’s edition of EU Influence, where we’ve been hearing from many loyal readers about our colleague Mari Eccles’ deep-dive into the chaos at the European Public Health Alliance. While this newsletter, over the past two years, has delved into bullying cultures at two of the bubble’s most prominent health organizations — the European Cancer Patients Coalition and EPHA — this sense that mission supersedes mental health (or even basic due diligence) doesn’t seem to be unique to any particular sector. We’re also thinking of the people who worked for NGOs caught up in Qatargate and others we’ve investigated — people who were genuinely committed to human rights, only to see their reputations potentially tarnished when those NGOs’ dodgy connections came to light.
Take care of yourselves, folks. There’s always another job to be had.
CAMPAIGN STRATEGY
HOW EURO-PARTIES CHASE THE VIRAL WAVE: Going viral is hard enough — making it happen in 27 different countries and political contexts is even harder. And to make the task of social media strategists for European political parties even more complicated, it seems the rules are constantly changing. This cycle, for example, platforms have to allow the Brussels-based European parties buy political ads in other countries. Then again, some are opting not to sell political ads these days in Europe at all, including X and LinkedIn, according to Sybren Kooistra, campaign manager for the European Green Party. That means the party is turning to paid influencers.
Green vanguard: We spoke to Kooistra because some new research caught our eye: The Greens were basically the only party to spend heavily on social media during the 2019 campaign. KU Leuven’s Wouter Wolfs crunched the numbers from the Meta Ad Library and found the Greens spent around €400,000 on Facebook and Instagram across 19 countries during that campaign. (Only the European Parliament spent more — a lot more, at €3.2 million — on its broader get-out-the-vote effort.) Kooistra was in charge of the Greens’ 2019 effort, as well.
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What went right in 2019: According to Kooistra, the Greens engaged with 25 million voters online with a pan-European campaign message emphasizing the climate. Of course, the news helped: The Fridays for Future protests were igniting the youth vote, and UN climate reports were delivering dire warnings that helped the issue’s resonance spike. But Kooistra pointed to Austria as an example of the Greens’ success: While national-level political messages tend to dominate, the Greens ad was the 6th-most viewed online campaign.
On the outs with the algorithm: The Greens’ 2024 strategy is driven by two big changes. The first, Kooistra said, is that the algorithm is deprioritizing political content. Platforms are telling political parties “that you will no longer organically reach people that are not following you,” he said. The other big change, per Kooistra: “Social media advertising has become wildly more expensive.”
The influencer exception: That means instead of candidates and parties, the Greens are relying on “a few thousand volunteers” and “dozens and dozens of influencers” to spread the word, Kooistra said. While they are paying some influencers — a Spanish sustainable travel guide with 423,000 followers, for example, and a Croatian abortion-rights campaigner (the issue is surprisingly resonant in parts of Europe, according to Kooistra) — the Greens make sure they align with the party’s mission and message, he said.
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An Instagram reel from @carloartspain includes a disclaimer that it was paid for by the European Green Party. |
TikTok conundrum: The video-sharing app is “really important,” especially in countries where 16- and 17-year-olds can vote. Yet it doesn’t allow political ads — nor does it allow influencers to be paid to produce content. Kooistra said the Greens are being scrupulous about following these rules, but he’s not confident that they’re being enforced. “It’s a very shady area,” he said.
Going after the right: In 2019, the issues seemed to be in the Greens’ favor. This time, we’re speculating about a green backlash. Kooistra said he’s not buying predictions that the Greens will lose a third of their seats, arguing that their new top message — opposing the far right — is resonating. “I think we’ve done a decent job at a European level of making that an issue and fighting against that issue,” he said.
Up next — the right’s message: The other thing that stood out in Wolf’s findings: Heavy social media spending by Identity and Democracy outside of election season. Wolf told us his team will start analyzing the content of those messages in a future round of research.
ON THE RECORD
“It’s a paradox that, in the politically charged corridors of Brussels, being overly different, bringing new ideas and setting your boundaries when it comes to disrespect in the workplace or being exceedingly kind can sometimes put you in the bucket of ‘oh, you are not European enough’ or ‘oh, just do and stop asking too many questions.’”
— Brussels comms pro Shweta Kulkarni Van Biesen, in a LinkedIn missive published Tuesday, “Navigating the power plays in Brussels orgs.”
COMMISSION CONTROL
VESTAGER DEFENDS REVOLVING DOOR POLICY: The European Union’s antitrust chief defended “very strict” rules for how officials quit to work for law firms that represent companies under investigation, POLITICO’s Edith Hancock reports.
“Obviously, it is really important that people can trust that you cannot work in the Commission and then on the next day, leaving the Commission, that you cannot lobby the Commission or work on the same cases,” Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager told reporters told reporters today, amid watchdog complaints about a top competition official’s leap to a law firm.
Ombudsman’s ire: The European Commission risks undermining its work when former antitrust officials join law firms that may help companies they used to police, European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly warned. The EU executive refused to provide information on Henrik Morch’s move to U.S.-based law firm Paul Weiss even though his new employers put out a press release on how he’d be a “tremendous asset to our clients,” O’Reilly told Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in a letter sent last week.
PFIZERGATE HEARING POSTPONED: Ursula von der Leyen can safely rule out the Belgian courts offering any fresh insight into her text exchanges with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla ahead of her bid for a second term as Commission president. Last week’s planned procedural hearing in Liège — meant to determine whether the Belgian system can take on a complaint (whose backers include a conservative lobbyist and Budapest), or if the case should be left to the European Public Prosecutor — has been postponed until December 6. In a boastful press release, von der Leyen’s lawyer Adrien Masset brushed off the delay as a last-ditch chance for the complainants to recast their “clearly inadmissible” arguments.
Ace attorney: Masset, a stickler for legal procedure, is the go-to defender for the “establishment,” as Le Vif put it in a 2017 profile, with a long list of bold-faced names in Belgian politics who’ve been accused of corruption, not to mention former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Various Belgian francophone parties have tried to get him to run on their lists, the magazine reported, but Masset has always demurred. “I don’t have right-wing ideas, I’m a good centrist, but I’m not interested in politics at all,” he said.
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POPPING IN OTHER BUBBLES
BELGO-BRUSSELS — LETTING WOMEN INTO THE OLD BOYS’ CLUB: Le Cercle Gaulois, one of the oldest elite social clubs in Belgium, is welcoming women for the first time, POLITICO’s resident Brussels politics expert Ketrin Jochecová reports.
News flash: Founded in 1947, it was essentially only open to men from political, business and literary circles up until now.
Cooties-free zone: The official rules do not officially exclude women, but all of the current 1,400 members are men. (Technically, women were allowed to join upon an invitation from a male member, but were prohibited from coming to the bar or the reading room.) Internal regulations also require members to wear a tie.
‘Stormy atmosphere’: The general assembly, which met last week, took place in a “stormy atmosphere,” according to La Libre. Some 120 members voted in favor of opening up the club to women, but 60 wanted to keep the man cave.
Boldly going where no woman has gone before: The inaugural women members, pending a final confirmation vote next month, are Céline Fremault, a former Brussels region politician; Syensqo boss and (and newly appointed Cefic president) Ilham Kadri; and Françoise Tulkens, a former judge at the European Court of Human Rights.
DAVOS — SCHWAB OUT: Klaus Schwab will step down as executive chairman of the World Economic Forum by January, WEF announced Tuesday. Schwab will instead become the chairman of the WEF’s board of trustees. The FT reports Børge Brende, the president of the WEF executive board and a former foreign minister of Norway, will take over.
Davos wants fewer Davos-men: Don’t miss my colleague Suzanne Lynch’s dishy look at how the Alpine resort’s town council wants to cut down on WEF free-loaders.
INFLUENCERS
VOTEWATCH — WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Since VoteWatch, a website devoted to tracking the power dynamics in the European Parliament, shut down two years ago, its co-founders have taken rather different paths.
For-profit fore-telling: Doru Frantescu went on to start EUMatrix, a consultancy offering customized analysis to corporates thirsty for post-election predictions (a gig that earned him a spot on the Power 40 Class of 2023 list).
Free for all: Now the other half of the founding duo, European University Institute’s Simon Hix, is part of a project (along with Abdul Noury of New York University Abu Dhabi) that’s closer to the original VoteWatch vibe. The European Parliament Vote Monitor is a searchable database that offers visualizations of votes broken down by country, group, etc. It’s hosted by the Institute of Policy Making at Bocconi University.
AGRI-FOOD
— Nikolaus Tacke has joined BASF as global head of public, governmental and industry affairs, agricultural solutions. He was previously with Prosus.
CIVIL SOCIETY
— Kévin Haddad became a director of Europe projects at Missions Publiques, an agency specialized in citizen participation, joining from the European Vocational Training Association.
CHEMICALS
— Triin Kaup is now the manager of the Downstream Users of Chemicals Co-ordination Group (DUCC). She was previously with the European Apparel and Textile Confederation (EURATEX).
COMMERCE
— Andrei Moscal has joined Romania’s North-East Regional Development Agency as Brussels office representative. He was previously with WindEurope.
ENERGY
— Paul Rübig, Austrian politician and former MEP for the EPP group between 1996 and 2019, started work as an administrator for the EU Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER).
INDUSTRY
— Piero Petrucco is the new president of the European Construction Industry Federation (FIEC), succeeding Philip Crampton.
INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
— Reinhold Elges has been promoted to director of the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) Brussels representation, succeeding Andrea von Rauch, who is now director of GIZ’s international services, in Germany.
HEALTH CARE
— Valentina Strammiello has been promoted to director of strategic initiatives at the European Patients’ Forum.
— Agata Pawenska has been promoted to associate director, vaccines policy at MSD.
HUNGARIAN COUNCIL PRESIDENCY
— Anna Atanaszov is now spokesperson in charge of Coreper II issues at Hungary’s Permanent Representation to the EU. Zoltan Aguera will assist Atanaszov as a deputy on Coreper II.
— Dávid Oravecz will become the spokesperson on Coreper I topics.
SUSTAINABILITY
— Nicolás Fuentes Colomer has joined Acumen Public Affairs as account director, sustainability. He was previously with Neste.
THANKS TO: Barbara Moens, Louise Guillot, Carlo Martuscelli, Edith Hancock, Aoife White and especially Ketrin Jochecová; visual producer Giovanna Coi, web producer Giulia Poloni and my editor Paul Dallison.
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