Outrage over ‘protecting our European way of life’ job title

Name of Margaritis Schinas’ portfolio has MEPs fuming.

The European way of life is under serious threat — at least as the new title of a portfolio for a European Commission vice president.

Commission President-elect Ursula von der Leyen was on Wednesday under pressure to change the title she had proposed for the new vice president overseeing migration policy after an outcry from MEPs and others who said it was deeply offensive and implied migrants and refugees pose a threat to Europe’s way of life.

Some of the harshest critics said the title of the job, to be held by the Greek Commission nominee, Margaritis Schinas, was a “dog-whistle” more suited to far-right extremists than to the Commission, which views itself as a defender of liberal values and paragon of inclusion, diversity and multilateralism.

Karima Delli, a French Green MEP and chair of the transport committee, tweeted that a majority of MEPs agreed at a meeting of senior lawmakers to send a letter to von der Leyen asking her to change the name of Schinas’ portfolio.

“The Parliament won’t let this insult to European values pass,” Delli tweeted.

Von der Leyen announced her slate of proposed commissioners on Tuesday along with some odd and verbose portfolio titles. These included not just the vice president for protecting the European way of life but also a vice president for an economy that works for people.

The migration proposal, however, was the one that proved controversial. And some leaders in Parliament warned von der Leyen on Wednesday that she should change the title or gave the prospect of the Parliament doing it for her. (All Commission nominees are subject to confirmation by Parliament).

“We think about all the arguments, but there’s for sure no quick decision,” von der Leyen’s spokesman said.

He noted that the future commissioners were gathered Wednesday evening outside of Brussels for a retreat and seminar on the future of the EU “including bold topics like climate change, digitalization, strong Europe in the world, etc.”

And presumably, though he didn’t say it, the European way of life.

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Manfred Weber wants to be The Man in Brussels.

The overwhelming majority of Europeans have likely never heard of him.

Weber (it’s pronounced Ve-ber) is the German leader of the largest political group in the European Parliament, the center-right European People’s Party. On Wednesday, he declared he wants to be the next president of the European Commission.

Even with the support of Chancellor Angela Merkel, Europe’s most powerful leader and the EPP’s most influential figure, it is a bold move for Weber, who has never served in government in any capacity. The 46-year-old civil engineer — who still lives in the tiny Bavarian village of Wildenberg, 90 kilometers north of Munich, where he grew up — is virtually unknown outside the corridors of power in Brussels.

In other words, in the eyes of most people Weber is a nobody, just a man of the people. And apparently he believes that is among his best credentials.

“The European Union is seen from the perspective of the people too much as bureaucratic, as an elite structure,” Weber told reporters in a brief appearance at the European Parliament to announce his candidacy. “And I want to give Europe back to the people.”

“I see myself first of all as a representative of the people,” he added. “I am elected as a member of the European Parliament. I am elected, and I am proud to be a parliamentarian. And I want to re-establish the bond between the citizens and the European Union.”

Later, he reiterated the point: “Today’s European Union is not connected to the people.”

It was a curious line from a man who has served for 14 years in the Parliament, the EU institution that is supposed to be closest to voters.

Weber’s hope is to secure the nomination to be the EPP’s Spitzenkandidat, or lead candidate, which will be decided at a party congress in Helsinki in early November. Frequently mentioned potential rivals for the nomination include former Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb, who has said he is considering a bid, as well as the EU’s Brexit negotiator, veteran French statesman Michel Barnier.

There is no guarantee that EU leaders, who must nominate the Commission president, will abide by the Spitzenkandidat process. Indeed, they have warned that legally the European Council cannot be bound to choose the lead candidate of the party that wins the most seats in the European Parliament election, as the process envisions.

Lack of experience

If Weber emerges as the EPP’s choice in November, it would catapult him into a small group of front-runners for the top job in Brussels, despite a resumé that is remarkably thin by the EU’s historic standards.

Not since 1985, and the appointment of Jacques Delors, a former French finance minister, has the EU selected a Commission president who was not a former prime minister. Weber, however, has not only never been a head of government, he has never been a government minister of any kind. In the 51 years since the European Economic Community became the European Commission, there has never been a president without experience as a government minster.

From 2002 to 2004, Weber was a member of a local government council in Kelheim. He was then elected to the Bavarian state parliament, where he served from 2002 until 2004, when he was elected to the European Parliament. He has been chairman of the EPP group since 2014, propelled to leadership in part because Germany, as the EU’s most populous nation, also has the largest delegation in the Parliament.

Weber — who in his youth, and for many years in adulthood, played guitar and sang in a band called The Peanuts (their name was in English) — is a vice president of the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party and coalition partner of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union.

As an avowed champion of the EU project, Weber is considered a moderate in the arch-conservative CSU, which positions him far closer politically to Merkel than either of the other two prominent CSU leaders — Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, and Markus Söder, who replaced Seehofer as minister-president of Bavaria in March.

But while Merkel’s boosting of Weber might make perfect sense in the context of German politics — a recent clash with Seehofer over migration policy seemed to leave her government coalition teetering on the brink of collapse — for many politicians on the left the idea of Weber as Commission chief is abhorrent.

“Weber’s candidacy is the gravestone of a Europe that the founding fathers had dreamed of,” said Laura Agea, who leads the Italian 5Star Movement delegation in the European Parliament. “Weber’s EPP is responsible for the current European crisis: disaffection of British citizens who voted in favor of Brexit, the lack of reforms such as the eurozone, the budget obligations that suffocate citizens, the shameful treatment reserved to the Greeks. All of this will have an impact on the ballots.”

In many ways, it is hard to reconcile such strong reactions to Weber’s generally cautious, soft-spoken, understated and conciliatory manner in the Parliament — characteristics that were on display during his announcement on Wednesday, where he seemed a bit overwhelmed by the attention.

“I want to bring together the interests,” Weber said in English. “I want to build up bridges, because I deeply believe that only together we can be strong, otherwise Europe has no chance in today’s world.”

“I see myself as a European politician,” he continued. “For me the team comes first, I will listen. I will try to manage a compromise and then I will lead. That is what I did as a group leader and that is what I will continue also in the future.”

Man of the people

Friends and supporters have sought to portray Weber’s “everyman” profile as one of his best attributes.

“He has two lives, one in Brussels and one in Bavaria, and gives a lot of importance to his private life,” said Esteban González Pons, vice president of the EPP group and a close Weber ally. “He’s a politician from a small village, he continues to live in his small village and that makes him very close to ordinary citizens. He’s more like a citizen in politics than he is a politician trying to be like a citizen.”

In the Parliament, Weber pushed aggressively — and successfully — to provide free rail passes to thousands of European high school graduates as a way of promoting cultural integration, but even supporters could not point to any significant legislative policy file on which he was a major player. Rather, his role has been to deliver his group’s votes in favor of the EPP’s established positions, regardless of the issue.

Among colleagues, Weber is known for returning home to his village, where his wife lives, virtually every weekend, and for staying across the Rhine River, in Germany, whenever the Parliament is sitting in Strasbourg.

“From a European standpoint, he’s a European politician but not a bureaucrat from Brussels,” González Pons said. “If he is president of the Commission, he’ll do things differently and more similar to what governments — not what bureaucrats — would do. We know that the high ranks of the Commission are a closed garden for Brussels bureaucrats. But Manfred is young, he means fresh air, he’s from a new generation.”

Critics, however, see Weber as part of a conservative movement that is eager — perhaps too eager — to include right-wing parties on the edge of extremism under its tent. Weber is seen as close to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, whose Fidesz party is in the EPP family, and who has publicly declared himself in opposition to “liberal democracy” and used anti-immigrant rhetoric to fuel his popularity.

Weber fueled the suspicions of his critics earlier this year when he said that a “central theme of Europe in 2018” would be “the final solution of the refugee question.” Critics noted that the phrase (finale Lösung in German) sounded uncomfortably close to the Nazi rhetoric to describe the Holocaust.

Weber expressed regret for his choice of words but accused critics of being “dishonest” in trying to link him to anti-Semitic rhetoric.

At his campaign announcement on Wednesday, Weber’s rhetoric was entirely pro-EU. Close associates said he has long contemplated the possibility of seeking higher office in Brussels, and that he is keen to be part of a generation of new, young conservative leaders that includes Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.

“First of all we have to keep Europe together, we cannot allow that there are so much splits in our European Union,” Weber said, adding of the 2019 election: “It is about the defense of our values and it is about the survival of the European way of life.”

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Rapper Cardi B jumped to Twitter and spread fake news that the mass shooter in Dayton, Ohio, was a “white supremacist.” But in fact he was a left-wing, Elizabeth Warren supporter.

As soon as the second shooting in only hours was reported, the “Bodak Yellow” rapper insisted that the killers — the El Paso, Texas, and the Dayton, Ohio, shooters — were both “white supremacist terrorists.”

“We have enough information already! Both of the shooters are white supremacist terrorist with intentions to kill minority’s,” she said. “Law enforcement took rapid action but what are YOU going to do to control some of your RACIST SUPPORTERS?”

But Cardi B didn’t provide facts to back up her claims, as it turns out that the shooter in Ohio was an extreme leftist.

Reporters tracked down Ohio shooter Connor Betts’ Twitter account and it was filled with support for Democrat presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, pleas for gun control, and loud support for socialism, among other left-wing ideas.

In one tweet, for instance, Betts wrote, “I want socialism, and I’ll not wait for the idiots to finally come around to understanding.”

The shooting in Dayton came only hours after a gunman opened fire at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, killing 20 and wounding 26. The Texas shooter was reportedly a white supremacist whose motives for the shooting were pointedly racist and aimed at killing Mexicans.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.

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A former model has accused a modeling agent close to disgraced U.S. sex crimes suspect Jeffrey Epstein of raping her in 1990, as France pursues its own wide ranging investigation into alleged sex offences on its territory.

A 46-year-old Dutch woman says Jean-Luc Brunel, 72, drugged and raped her at his Paris appartment in the early 1990s, shortly after her 18th birthday. Her allegation is contained in a letter sent to Paris Prosecutor Remi Heitz seen by French media service AFP on Saturday.

As Breitbart News reported, the Frenchman who founded the New York City-based modeling agency MC2, is alleged to possess key information regarding the late Jeffrey Epstein’s sex crimes and has disappeared like a “ghost… without a trace.”

Last week, the Daily Mail published a photo of Brunel cuddling with Ghislaine Maxwell, a longtime friend and alleged procurer of underage girls, at Epstein’s “Little Saint James” private Caribbean island.

French prosecutors opened an inquiry last month into suspected sex trafficking and alleged cases of rape and sexual abuse of women, including minors, with Brunel named as a key figure.

Brunel has been accused in court documents of rape and of procuring young girls for Epstein, charges he has denied in the past.

But since Epstein’s arrest in July and subsequent death by suicide, Brunel has not been heard from publicly.

Epstein visited France often and owned a luxury home in Paris on Avenue Foch, one of the capital’s most expensive streets, favoured by royalty, celebrities and billionaires.

In her letter, the former Dutch model said several girls lived in Brunel’s apartment near the Champs-Elysees, where every day “rich businessmen were accompanied by very young girls.”

“The events are beyond the statute of limitations, and my client knows this will not lead to charges against Mr Brunel,” the woman’s lawyer, Anne-Claire Le Jeune, told AFP. “But she wanted to testify anyway, to help the inquiry move forward,” she said.

It is also investigating claims that Epstein and others participated for years in a vast child sex-trafficking ring.

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Meanwhile, neither detectives nor reporters have established Brunel’s whereabouts, but investigators believe he spent time in France during the summer and then left the country. They have ruled out theories that he is in the U.S. or Thailand, but say it is plausible that he may be in Brazil, according to the Daily Telegraph.

AFP contributed to this story

Follow Simon Kent on Twitter: Follow @SunSimonKent or e-mail to: [email protected]

U.S. President Donald Trump was riffing in the Rose Garden about his prowess in trade talks when he decided to try out his best Jean-Claude Juncker routine.

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“Jean-Claude, a great business person, head of the European Union,” Trump said. “Jean-Claude my friend. I’d say, ‘Jean-Claude, we want to make a deal.'”

“He goes, ‘No, no, no. We are very happy,'” Trump said, slightly rolling the “r” and dropping the “h” and drawing out the “pee” in “happy” for emphasis.

It was more a failed imitation of Inspector Jacques Clouseau than an impersonation of the European Commission president, whose accent, like his native Luxembourg, tends to fall somewhere between France and Germany, bordering on Belgium.

There was also quite a bit of hyperbole, with Trump repeating the claim that his tariffs on steel and aluminum and threats of additional levies on cars intimidated Juncker and the EU into agreeing to new trade negotiations.

Trump’s affection for Juncker appears to be growing. Recently, he called Juncker a “tough cookie” but also “nasty” and “the kind of guy I want negotiating for me.”

But his praise has also been laced with disdain, insisting that Juncker “crumbled” and the EU came begging for negotiations because of fear over the additional tariffs.

In fact, the EU stared Trump down and only entered into talks with the U.S. president after slapping down retaliatory tariffs, including on signature goods made in Republican strongholds, like Kentucky bourbon.

Alternative facts aside, Trump used his event in the Rose Garden, where he trumpeted his deal with Canada and Mexico to replace NAFTA, as an opportunity to repeat his claim that he had brought the EU to its knees, and was fighting back against a hugely unfair trade deficit.

“The European Union, it has been very tough on the United States,” Trump said. “Last year and for many years, they have lost in the vicinity of $150 billion a year. They have massive trade barriers. And they didn’t want to come. They didn’t want to talk.”

Then he launched into his bit about Juncker.

It is unclear why Trump referred to Juncker as a “great businessperson.” Juncker has never worked in business. He studied to become a lawyer, but never worked in law either. He went directly into government, eventually serving as prime minister of Luxembourg for almost two decades. He resigned in 2013 and the next year was appointed Commission president.

“He goes ‘no, no, no. We are very happy,'” Trump said. “I said, ‘You may be happy but I am not happy because we have one of the worst deals of any group, we have one of the worst deals with the European Union.’ And they just didn’t want to come because they were happy with the deal. I said but we’re not happy with the deal and finally after, you know, going through a whole process, I said look we’re just going to put a tax of 20 percent on all of the millions of Mercedes and BMWs, all of the cars, the millions and millions of cars that they sell here.”

Trump then launched into a complaint about how American farmers cannot sell most of their products in Europe, before closing on an optimistic note.

“So I announced that we are going to put a 20 percent tariff, could be 25, on their cars coming in and they immediately called and said we’d like to start negotiations,” Trump said. “And we’re having a successful negotiation. Well see what happens. Who knows? I always say, ‘who knows?’ But we’ll see. I have a feeling we’ll be successful.”

Oettinger to German CDU chief: EU officials pay taxes!

Commissioner bats for Brussels in letter to Kramp-Karrenbauer.

European Commissioner Günther Oettinger has some advice for his party leader back in Germany: Lay off EU officials and their taxes.

Oettinger, who is responsible for the EU budget and human resources, put it more politely than that in a letter to Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, leader of the Christian Democratic Union.

But his message was clear after Kramp-Karrenbauer called in an op-ed outlining her vision of Europe for taking “long overdue decisions” and ending anachronisms on issues such as the taxation of EU officials.

“As commissioner responsible, among other things, for personnel, I would like to draw your attention to the following,” Oettinger wrote in his letter, dated March 11 and seen by POLITICO. “EU officials’ incomes are already subject to taxation for the benefit of the European Union.”

The marginal tax rate is “up to 45 percent” (for the upper portion of senior officials’ salaries), “approximately corresponding with the average marginal tax rate in most EU member states” — plus there’s a “solidarity levy of 6 to 7 percent,” Oettinger explained.

The reason EU officials pay their taxes into the EU budget, Oettinger wrote, is to avoid Belgium and, to a lesser extent, Luxembourg — the homes of most EU institutions — being the only countries to benefit.

In a gentle dig at the CDU’s new boss, who took over from Angela Merkel as party chief in December, Oettinger declared that “I am available for further engaged discussions with you, on this as well as other important European political questions.”

In other words: You’ve got a CDU commissioner in Brussels, you might want to consult him occasionally.

Kim Kyu-jong, a member of the Korean boy band SS501, apologized profusely after revealing he is dating a Japanese woman, outraging South Koreans currently engaging in a boycott campaign against Japan for placing export controls on materials necessary for high-tech manufacturing, the Korea Times reported on Monday.

The Korea Times noted that several South Korean celebrities have publicly joined the “boycott Japan” campaign, which has targeted popular Japanese products like cars and beer.

The Japanese government suggested this month that Seoul was allowing chemicals and sensitive materials it imports from Japan to enter North Korea, violating international sanctions. It restricted South Korean companies’ ability to import them. South Korean politicians, in turn, accused Japan of violating North Korea sanctions.

Leftist South Korean President Moon Jae-in also claimed that Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo had a “political” motive for imposing trade restrictions, suggesting they were payback for Moon’s campaign to get Japan to pay more reparations for Korea’s “comfort women” – girls and women Imperial Japan forced into sex slavery during World War II.

South Korea now fears Japan will remove the country from its “white list” of countries that do not need permission for every individual trade exchange suggested with Japan.

Caught up in this diplomatic firestorm is Kim Kyu-jong, who posted photographs on Instagram last week that showed him in Japan with his girlfriend, who had not been confirmed to be his partner before the images surfaced. The images triggered both intrigue given the unknown identity of the woman in the photos, and outrage, as the “boycott Japan” campaign has also encouraged Koreans not to travel to the island nation. Kim rapidly deleted the photos.

On Friday, Kim posted a statement on Instagram apologizing for the images.

“I’m sorry I shocked and upset you. I am currently preparing for a movie, musical, and play. I wanted to greet you with good news, but … I am sorry for posting this message so late because I was thinking about what to say. I sincerely apologize for hurting you so much,” Kim wrote.

Kim promised to be more “prudent and mature” with his personal life.

The K-pop news outlet Soompi reported that Kim confirmed that the woman in the photo was both Japanese and his girlfriend to a South Korean newspaper on Sunday. He insisted that “the trip to Japan wasn’t recent,” implying it occurred before the boycott campaign began, and said he was “afraid and cautious to talk about” his relationship in the current political climate.

The young stars of Korean pop music, or K-pop, often face tremendous public scrutiny, becoming famous typically after years of rigorous dance and music training in record label “boot camps.” From public failed relationships to insufficiently outstanding forced military service, K-pop stars apologize to their devout fans profusely and often. Several incidents of mental health trauma in the pop star community have triggered alarm – notably the suicide of 27-year-old SHINee boy band member Kim Jong-hyun in 2017 and the attempted suicide of Goo Ha-ra in May. Goo apologized to her audience after surviving the suicide attempt and promised to “steel” her heart in the future.

Kim Kyu-jong’s run-in with the boycott Japan movement stands in contrast to several Korean celebrities vocally supporting it. The Korea Times names several actors –including actress Lee Si-young and comedians Oh Jung-tae and Yang Se-hyung – who have publicly called for refraining from buying Japanese products. Oh claimed to have canceled a family vacation to Japan out of patriotism.

Moon Jae-in has clashed with Abe on the “comfort women” issue in the past, notably on the sidelines of last year’s U.N. General Assembly general debate. Abe contends that an agreement Japan signed with South Korea to hand over 1 billion yen ($9 million) to a foundation for “comfort women” fully resolved the issue and Seoul should no longer seek redress for the war crime. Moon at the time argued that South Korea deserves more reparations over the World War II issue and that the foundation is unpopular with the remaining living “comfort women.”

The “comfort women” issue did not immediately surface when Japan announced stricter trade controls on sensitive high-tech materials. Opposition South Korean lawmakers responded by initially accusing Japan of violating sanctions on North Korea. Moon himself then claimed Japan had a “political purpose” behind the move, which would hurt South Korea’s economy. Moon’s accusations triggered a wave of South Koreans rejecting Japanese beer at cars, refusing to fill the gas tanks of Japanese cars at fuel stations, and, ultimately, protesting on the streets of Seoul with signs reading “apologize for forced labor!”, a reference to Japan’s World War II crimes.

This week, South Korean media is reporting that Tokyo is considering removing South Korea from its trade “white list,” which would require every South Korean company looking to buy something from Japan to get approval from the Japanese government, significantly deterring trade. Abe may approve the move as early as Friday.

Abe has refused to meet with Moon personally to discuss the issue “unless the Korean government stops victims of wartime forced labor from seeking compensation,” South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo, citing Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun, claimed on Tuesday.

Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter.

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Popstar Pink has dyed her daughter’s hair pink in solidarity with fellow singer Jessica Simpson who was slammed for coloring her daughter’s hair.

Simpson was “parenting shamed” after posting a photo of daughter Maxi’s hairstyle on Instagram. Simpson claimed that the colorful hairstyle was inspired by Descendants character Mal.

Some followers, though, criticized Simpson saying among other things that her seven-year-old daughter was too young to have her hair dyed.

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Popstar Pink was not at all pleased with the attacks on fellow pop star, Simpson.

The 39-year-old So What singer jumped to her own social media to show fans photos of her daughters with newly colored hair, People reported.

“I heard people were bummed on Jessica Simpson for letting her seven-year-old get her hair colored,” Pink wrote on the Instagram. “So we thought we’d share what we did yesterday”

Pink included several hashtags on the photo, including, “blue hair don’t care” and “get your own kids.”

The singer also turned off comments on the post to prevent attacks.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.

Spotify has a new plan to combat Apple in Brussels.

The Swedish music streaming service said on Wednesday that it has complained to the European Commission’s antitrust enforcers that Apple unfairly favors its own music services over rivals.

One of its main criticisms is that Apple can command a 30 percent tax on companies such as Spotify through the company’s in-app payment system.

At heart, Spotify’s complaint centers around Apple’s dual role as both a digital distribution channel, with its own operating system iOS and app marketplace App Store, and as a music streaming provider: Apple Music.

Spotify claims that Apple uses its “complete control over access to its App Store to deprive consumers of choice and disadvantage rival providers,” Spotify’s General Counsel Horacio Gutiérrez said.

Apple did not respond to requests for comment.

The dual role is “fine,”  Spotify Chief Executive Daniel Ek wrote. “But in Apple’s case, they continue to give themselves an unfair advantage at every turn.”

Platforms acting as marketplaces for business users while offering competing goods or services is an increasing focus of many antitrust investigations, mostly against Google and Amazon.

Now Spotify has joined the battle.

“In all these situations, we talk about vertically integrated services where one company controls the marketplace and tries to steer consumers toward their products or services,” said Agustín Reyna, from the European consumer association BEUC. “The problem is that they are in a position in which we expect them to behave more neutrally, and not to favour their own services,” he added.

The Commission confirmed receipt of the complaint and said that it would “assess” whether to open an investigation.

Liaisons dangereuses

Spotify argues that Apple started to impose restrictions limiting its ability to operate in the market as early as 2011, in order to help the launch and the development of its own music streaming service.

“Even though we were successful as a company growing our business, we could have been even more successful,”  Gutiérrez said.

“The most significant of the restrictions unilaterally imposed by Apple was the mandatory exclusive use of Apple’s [In-App Purchase],” its own payment system that Spotify originally sought to avoid, Gutiérrez said. Eventually, the Swedish company adopted Apple’s payment system in 2014, and paid 30 percent of the revenues created through the app.

Apple also limited Spotify’s ability to communicate with customers via the app, and blocked app improvements and upgrades when the company decided to opt out of Apple’s payment system in 2016, according to Gutiérrez.

Spotify is not alone in its fight against the Silicon Valley giant. “We support Spotify’s view,” said a spokesperson for Deezer, a French music-streaming app. “We want a fair playing field so that companies have to compete through innovation, content and customer focus.”

The French company does not have plans to file a complaint but will monitor the developments, the spokesperson said.

Nothing new under the sun

In 2016, Spotify started building an antitrust case against Apple, arguing that the iPhone maker is limiting access to its music-streaming app in an effort to promote Apple Music.

Spotify then changed its strategy, turning to lobbying alongside other European companies. In 2017, the companies asked the European Commission to regulate the relations between tech giants and their business users with a legislation. The “imbalance” between online platforms and downstream business is too great to be resolved by competition law enforcement, the companies argued at the time.

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The music-streaming app has changed tack, however, and has now resumed the competition approach, after the results of EU negotiations on the legislation regulating platform-to-business relations proved disappointing for the company.

Only transparency requirements survived the negotiations between the European Parliament and EU countries in the final text, after national governments made it clear they wouldn’t agree to stricter requirements.

Apple, Google and Amazon are still allowed to give preferential treatment to their own services on their platforms. Commissions are also still permitted, despite Spotify’s effort to obtain a ban on such practices. References to “fair terms and conditions” were scrapped.

The Observatory on the Online Platform Economy will be in charge of monitoring the relations between platforms and businesses.

For Spotify, that does not do the job.

“The moment a platform starts tilting the playing field with the specific intent of disadvantaging competitors … that’s the moment regulators need to intervene,” Gutiérrez said.

Italy waves white flag on budget

Rome will cut spending plans to avoid sanctions from Brussels.

ROME — The game of chicken between Rome and Brussels over the Italian budget could soon be over. Because Rome is about to give in.

Italy’s populist ruling coalition is dialing back its spending plans to avoid triggering disciplinary action by the European Commission, according to two Italian officials in Rome briefed on the ongoing negotiations.

Rome proposed running a 2.4 percent deficit next year, putting it on a collision course with Brussels, which had threatened to slap Italy with an excessive deficit procedure as early as December 19, potentially costing the country up to €9 billion in sanctions. In a revision to its plans, the government intends to drop the proposed deficit for 2019 to 2 percent, according to the two officials.

“We didn’t discuss numbers but we’re working on a solution — which is both in Italy’s and the EU’s interest — to avoid the excessive deficit procedure … we’re in the same boat,” Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on the sidelines of his meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici at the G20 in Buenos Aires.

According to the two officials, the European Commission gave the Italian government a little leeway “provided the GDP-to-deficit ratio doesn’t go over 1.95 percent.” Italy had earlier agreed to keep the deficit at 1.8 percent.

For days, top Italian officials have repeated they aren’t “fixated on decimal numbers” and signaled they are open to revisions. But on Monday, Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, head of the far-right League party, told reporters “the EU can’t ask for a 1.9 percent deficit.”

In a joint emailed statement on Sunday night, Salvini and his coalition partner Labor Minister Luigi Di Maio, leader of the anti-establishment 5Stars, said: “We are in good hands with Prime Minister Conte leading the negotiation.”

Keeping the 5Stars and the League on board with spending cuts might prove to be the most difficult part of the prime minister’s task.

The “substantial rework” of the budget demanded by the Commission would translate into less funding available for the ruling coalition’s flagship measures — a limited universal basic income and a pension overhaul — which are due to start in early 2019, according to the government’s stated plans.

Salvini and Di Maio have said they won’t give up on either of them.

Conte’s job isn’t easy. As Italy’s negotiator-in-chief, he has been tasked with avoiding a potentially catastrophic excessive deficit procedure while at the same time helping the government deliver on its promises to voters. According to the latest opinion polls, 68 percent of Italians want the government to rework the budget to avoid the collision with Brussels.

Two center-right MPs in Rome, who discussed the matter with top League officials and spoke on condition of anonymity, said “Salvini has passed the ball to Conte, and he’s willing to play along to avoid further problems within his own party.”

The MPs said top League officials are worried that the basic income pledge, which would mainly target Italians living in poverty in the south of the country, would alienate the party’s base in northern Italy.

Meanwhile, 5Star officials privately insist they are keen on avoiding a disciplinary procedure and want to “engage in a constructive dialogue with the Commission” but also want the basic income and the pensions reform to be implemented as soon as possible.

“It’s a work in progress,” one 5Star official said.

On Monday, eurozone finance ministers will scrutinize individual country budgets, including Italy’s. The ministers will be the ones to decide, at a later date, whether an excessive deficit procedure should be launched. On the sidelines of the meeting, Moscovici confirmed talks with Italy “are going in the right direction.”

“We’ll eventually avoid the disciplinary procedure, but the government must take things one step at a time without handing Brussels too many concessions or they will look weak in the eyes of voters,” one technocrat at the Italian Treasury said.

Bjarke Smith-Meyer contributed reporting.