The Brief – A spoonful of sugar

As you may have heard, I’m calling time.

We started by dismantling and reinventing the newsroom, where 90% of staff have joined within the past two years.

The influx of new talent allowed for the most important shift: a hard-nosed (some would say pugnacious) approach to our core mission of covering European politics.

In a town where most media are fueled by ‘access’, we haven’t played favourites, much to the chagrin of the people and institutions we write about.

Along the way, we introduced a new morning newsletter on the goings on in the EU, Rapporteur, as well as daily briefings in each of our core policy areas: tech, agrifood, energy, health, and, most recently, defence. We also added Red Thread – a weekly update on the relationship between Europe and Asia – as well as our Budget Brief, a key read for anyone who wants to really ‘follow the money’.

Some of our most significant investigative work over the past two years concerned our colleagues in the Fourth Estate itself. European media, much of which remains dependent on the largesse of the very institutions they’re supposed to be covering, don’t welcome much scrutiny of their inner workings. But then, who does?

Ok, enough of the not-so-humble brag. If you’re interested, you’ll continue to find the odd screed penned by me in these pages as well as on Substack (@karnitschnig), LinkedIn and, if you dare, X. I’ll have more to say about my next chapter soon.

Until then, thanks for the support, and the resistance.

Keep your feet on the ground!

Roundup

How many Italian Eurocrats? – Italian candidates may not dominate the final list of successful applicants in the EU’s latest staff recruitment round, despite making up almost half of all candidates, a senior Commission official said. Nearly 80,000 applicants – of a record-breaking 170,000 – are Italian. Only 1,490 candidates will make it onto the final list.

Russian sanctions, Mk 21 – The European Commission has unveiled a fresh package of sanctions on Russia, in Brussels’ latest effort to pressure Moscow to end its war on Ukraine. Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday that the new round of restrictive measures – the bloc’s 21st since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 – would freeze the EU’s adjustable price cap on Russian oil exports until January next year.

How virtual wargaming is shaping the modern battlefield – In a conference room opposite NATO headquarters last week, Lockheed Martin demonstrated what it believes is the future of wargaming: the ability to test battlefield decisions quickly and in a risk-free environment. There were no tedious Excel sheets, no physical maps on large conference room tables, and no troops or equipment that had to be moved, which typically requires weeks, if not months, of planning.

Across Europe

De Wever talks tough on China – Europe’s leaders are increasingly wary of China and must urgently develop a serious strategy to ward off Beijing’s economic domination, Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever said on Tuesday. He criticised the time it takes for the EU to act: “We do take a lot of initiatives [and] it is time to adopt a strategy. China does not take a lot of initiatives. These people have a strategy. And a strategy is going to eat our initiatives for breakfast.”

FCAS is dead; what next? – Germany is examining several alternatives to the Future Combat Air System, including buying additional F-35 fighter jets or joining another international programme, Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said on Tuesday. Germany and France announced on Monday that they would end work on the €100 billion FCAS fighter jet project, which had been stalled for a year due to industrial and political disagreements.

Three detained over Greece farm subsidy scandal – Greek authorities have remanded three key suspects in custody over an alleged €2.5 million EU farm subsidy fraud scheme, linked to a wider investigation by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office. Earlier this week, Greece’s Financial Crimes Unit dismantled a network that allegedly secured subsidies through false declarations submitted via agricultural aid application centres.