GOOD TUESDAY MORNING. French President Emmanuel Macron is next in line to debate the future of Europe in Strasbourg today. Jean-Claude Juncker’s Commission is set to make another push to woo European voters, while behind the scenes MEPs wrestle over how much they can criticize Juncker … without calling his bluff on Martin Selmayr. Who said European politics are boring?

DRIVING THE DAY

Macron laid out the vision for Europe he has in mind in his Sorbonne speech last fall. Today’s speech to Parliament will be all about finally getting others on his bandwagon — and more importantly to impress upon them a sense of urgency, given there’s only one year to go until the European election. He’ll also use the opportunity to remind liberal Europe that it’s been a year since it celebrated Macron’s victory over the far right as an EU comeback story, and as far as Macron is concerned, there’s a debt to be repaid.

Standing in the way: Macron has by now realized that reforming Europe is tougher than it may have first seemed — from his failed bids to change the way the European Commission chief and parliamentarians are chosen to his slow-moving eurozone reform plans, the French president’s difficulties on the European stage show the limitations of his style of politics, writes POLITICO’s Pierre Briançon.

A mixed reception: MEPs tend to treat coldly attempts to use the façade of European ambitions as a means of pushing national interests (which is how some view Macron’s efforts). Case in point: Opposing Parliament’s position that MEPs will elect as the next Commission president only a candidate who has campaigned as a Spitzenkandidat does make a red-carpet reception less likely (though of course Macron will get one anyway — speakers of his caliber aren’t that common in Strasbourg).

EPP group chief Manfred Weber is set to stress that parliamentary democracy will strengthen the EU, according to aides. Expect a call for service and an invitation to EU commissioners to run in the European election next year.

Some practicalities: The debate starts at 10 a.m., with Macron kicking things off with a 20-minute or so introduction. Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker will reply (officials told Playbook the two have been in contact over the past few days). Then, MEPs will join in, with Macron wrapping things up, before hosting a lunch for Parliament’s group leaders, including the National Front’s. Watch the debate live here.

Watch out for: Around 50 NGOs want Macron to do something about people’s work-life balance. And as French president, Macron’s voters will note if he doesn’t talk about Strasbourg as the center of European democracy (read: European Parliament ain’t going anywhere).

Meanwhile in Berlin: Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU group in the Bundestag will today debate euro reforms (future European Monetary Fund included) (h/t Sven Giegold). The message: Macron is not Germany’s only suitor, and besides, it’ll be the Bundestag that decides if and when German taxpayers’ money or the Sparkassen’s own deposit insurance pot will be spent to show solidarity beyond national borders.

Foot off the brakes: Germany shouldn’t put Macron off any longer, German European Commissioner Günther Oettinger, from the CDU, told FAZ: “German politics cannot strip, disassemble and then reject all his proposals.” That sentiment is shared by German Social Democrat Udo Bullmann, chairman of the S&D group in the European Parliament, who said that “a reform of the eurozone is rightly one of the priorities in the German coalition agreement” and that the proposals discussed betray “the spirit of this commitment and even make the misguided dogmatism of the Schäuble era appear rather progressive.”

We’ll see: Merkel will receive Macron on Thursday.

SELMAYR LATEST: European Parliament’s committee on budgetary control voted in favor of a resolution that stated that while the promotion of Martin Selmayr to Commission secretary-general wasn’t transparent and other candidates should have been allowed to apply for the job, it’s really a matter of the next Commission under the control of another Parliament doing better next time. POLITICO’s Maïa de la Baume has more from Strasbourg.

The big question is whether or not that olive branch — and that really is what the resolution was intended to be, according to some generally Juncker-friendly MEPs — will be enough to coax the Commission president into a conciliatory mood this morning. Put the popcorn on the stove just in case it isn’t — he has previously thrown temper tantrums over issues that displease him in less personal ways.

SECURITY MATTERS

OTHER BUSINESS: Macron won’t be getting all the attention at the College of Commissioners’ meeting in Strasbourg today — there’s a long list of concrete proposals, both legislative and otherwise (such as the reports on the progress — or not, in Turkey’s case — of enlargement candidate countries).

A big, fat security package is in the legislative grab bag, according to EU officials Playbook spoke to. Top lesson to be learned from recent elections in EU countries: You don’t need an influx of migrants to make security — disguised as a migration-related issue — voters’ top concern. Trouble is, the very same politicians who want the EU to act on security have also been campaigning about Brussels already holding too many competencies.

E-EVIDENCE: The Commission will today propose making it easier for judges and prosecutors to obtain so-called electronic evidence such as texts, emails or IP addresses located on servers in other EU countries directly from companies for the investigation and prosecution of crimes such as terrorism and cybercrime. The proposal would involve the creation of a warrant called the European Production Order, an official told Playbook.

Under the current system, obtaining such evidence involves a request for assistance and is reliant on contact between authorities. If the new system is implemented, the EU would inch closer towards a common judicial area — meaning that trust is key to making the system work. The regulation “provides for strong safeguards to ensure full compliance with fundamental rights,” an EU official said, and will be applicable only for serious crimes punishable by a minimum of three years in prison, or cybercrimes including child pornography.

Bank secrecy no longer a national issue: Using the same rationale, the Commission will propose a directive that makes it easier for police to gain direct access to bank account information in another country and allows for (or enforces) better cooperation between law enforcement authorities and national financial intelligence units. Plus Europol, under the proposed rules, will be able to request financial information to fight cross-border crime.

Explosive! The Commission will add two substances to a list of restricted explosive precursors, attempting to make it harder to build the types of home-made bombs that have been used in many attacks in the EU, from those in Madrid in 2004 to Paris in 2015, Brussels a year later, and most recently Manchester and Parsons Green last year.

ID cards revisited: Finally, in a proposal designed to strengthen the security features of identity cards and residence documents, the Commission will propose raising the minimum standards of those documents EU-wide. The Commission wants to make biometric photos and fingerprints mandatory. The EU wants to “tighten the screws until there is no more room for terrorists or criminals and no more means for them to carry out attacks,” Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos told Welt. “This means blocking their access to money, forged documents … while preventing them from crossing our borders undetected.”

According to the findings of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, national identity cards with weak security features (mainly those issued by France, Greece and Italy, according an EU official) are the most common fraudulently used travel documents in the EU. There are “dozens of millions” of them in circulation, an EU official said. The Commission wants standards similar to those that already exist for passports.

TUESDAY ROUNDUP

FULL LIST OF PULITZER PRIZE WINNERS.

MERKEL UNDER FIRE: More than a dozen authors and academics have published an open letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, accusing her of “complicity” with Hungary’s Viktor Orbán. The signatories accuse Merkel of a “shameful silence” in the face of Orbán’s attacks on democracy and anti-Semitic dog-whistling.

DONALD TRUMP’S SHADOW OVER UK’S SYRIA DEBATE: British Prime Minister Theresa May locked horns with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in a debate on Monday over airstrikes on Syria, repeatedly forced to deny she had been dragged into war on the “whim” of Donald Trump. But, writes POLITICO’s Tom McTague, the discussion revealed most about the fractious state of British politics.

PUSH FOR PEACE: EU foreign ministers called on Russia and Iran to pressure Syria’s Bashar al-Assad to resume talks to end his country’s civil war — a largely vain hope that highlighted the bloc’s marginal role in the crisis, as POLITICO’s David Herszenhorn writes.

HOW DANGEROUS IS TRUMP? In her final podcast, POLITICO’s Susan Glasser reflects on the president’s erratic foreign policy — and discusses scenarios for the year ahead.

Lawyer up: Fox News’ right-wing commentator Sean Hannity has been named as the third client of Donald Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen. Hannity has repeatedly criticized the FBI on his show for raiding Cohen’s home and office, without declaring any personal interest. POLITICO’s Laura Nahmias and Josh Gerstein have the story.

SCANDAL OF DEGREES: Spain’s ruling party is battling a corruption scandal that could end the career of a potential successor to Mariano Rajoy, and it’s all about her allegedly dodgy master’s degree. POLITICO’s Diego Torres has the story.

MEANWHILE IN SLOVAKIA, Interior Minister Tomáš Drucker announced his resignation on Monday after three weeks in office, saying he couldn’t find a reason to fire Police Corps President Tibor Gašpar, as demanded in mass public protests.

BREXIT SLAP: In his first media interview since becoming ambassador to the EU six months ago, Zhang Ming told POLITICO that EU-U.K. talks must be finalized prior to any detailed trade negotiations with China.