MIDDAY BRIEF, IN BRIEF

Today at Commission: Juncker’s health and defense procurement

Commission president didn’t make it to Davos, but will soon be heading to Paris.

On the agenda: European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is on the mend after a case of stomach flu prevented him from attending the World Economic Forum in Davos this week. According to Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas, Juncker is “recovering enough to announce that on Saturday he will be in Paris.” The president is scheduled to meet French President Emmanuel Macron to prepare for EU leaders’ informal summit in Brussels next month.

Also happening: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation pledged an extra €50 million to the EU’s External Investment Plan, meant for the health sector in Africa, which was matched by the Commission.

Also today is an education summit, launched by Commissioner for Education Tibor Navracsics, with 18 European ministers set to attend.

Defense procurement: The Commission today began infringement proceedings against Italy, Denmark, Portugal, the Netherlands and Poland over how they bought defense equipment. “The enforcement of defense procurement rules will help ensure that there is really a competitive and open true single market for defense,” said spokeswoman Lucia Caudet.

The Commission said in its statement that Italy, Poland and Portugal granted “a number of defence contracts to national suppliers in breach of the Defense Procurement Directive,” while the Netherlands and Denmark “imposed unjustified offset requirements demanding compensation from non-national suppliers when purchasing defense equipment from them.”

German coalition talks: Schinas said Juncker is following the coalition talks between Germany’s two biggest parties “closely” and with “great interest” as they attempt to form a new government. While Schinas said Juncker “welcomed the Europe part of the the pre-agreement” drafted by the parties, the spokesman added that “it’s not for us to express an opinion or to involve ourselves on the procedure. This is something entirely in the hands of the political forces involved.”

On commissioners wanting another term: Following recent reports that Margrethe Vestager wants a second mandate as European competition commissioner, Schinas said: “This is a different Commission. A political Commission.” The commissioners “express themselves as politicians, at the same time knowing that they are implementing the policies of the institution and of the president and this college got the approval of the European Parliament and the European Council on these policies.”

“You know the president as well as I do. I don’t see him policing this kind of matter. He is very much primus inter pares of a political Commission.”

Consumer rights: Taking note of today’s European Court of Justice ruling on Facebook, spokesman Christian Wigand said the Commission will incorporate the court’s findings into its proposal on reforming consumer rights legislation, to be published in April. The court ruled that an Austrian privacy campaigner could not bring a class-action lawsuit involving more than 25,000 Facebook users against the company.

French-Spanish interconnector: Climate Action and Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete announced a grant of €578 million to help with the construction of a new electricity link between Spain and France. Connecting the Iberian Peninsula to the single energy market “has been a political priority for the European Commission,” said spokeswoman Anna-Kaisa Itkonen. “We can create jobs and growth in the area with this interconnector.”

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