SUMMIT DAY

THE EU … ON TRUMP: In the end, EU leaders at the Council summit in Brussels on Thursday were fed up waiting for Donald Trump’s administration to produce implementation provisions, or any legal text at all, on the Union’s desperately-awaited exemption from steel tariffs. Instead, they had to go off a few not-particularly-detailed lines from the U.S. president, and they wrapped up their meeting to get a few hours of sleep. Formal conclusions on Trump and trade will land only today, assuming that Washington legalese eventuates at some point before the leaders head home.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel put it this way on her way out: “It’s not yet possible to say conclusively how exactly decisions [in the White House] actually have been taken.” In case increased “unjustified” tariffs were to kick in against EU exporters despite Trump’s (more so, his people’s) assurances, the EU would respond with adequate counter-measures. And while U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May was originally set to go home Thursday, to ensure the union is able to answer Trump’s tariffs as a unit, she will stick around today.

All things considered, talking the U.S. administration into exempting the EU from steep tariffs that would have otherwise kicked in today was a major coup for everyone involved; chief among them, EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström. Now comes the hard part: Trump will want something in return — the question is what.

… ON RUSSIA, the other shadow over the summit table, leaders took their time amidst many, many interventions, according to diplomats, to ponder appropriate language. Key sentence: The European Council “agrees with the United Kingdom government’s assessment that it is highly likely that the Russian Federation is responsible and that there is no plausible alternative explanation” for the Salisbury poisoning.

Key action taken: Leaders avoided sanctions talk. Instead they’ve recalled the EU ambassador to Moscow, Markus Ederer, for consultations in Brussels. No doubt the Kremlin is shaking in its Spetsnaz boots at the thought of having no one to talk to for a month or so. Jacopo Barigazzi and David Herszenhorn have the report.

… AND ON TURKEY, the third country with an unruly chief to be dealt with, leaders showed about as much solidarity with Greece and Cyprus as they did with the U.K., discussing the key issues (Turkish appetites for potential gas deposits off Cyprus; and two Greek soldiers jailed in Turkey for straying into its territory) ahead of an EU meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan next week.

As it happens, the countries with the most pressing issues with Ankara are the same ones who have the least beef with Moscow (add Hungary to the latter). Anyway, call the outcome reciprocal niceness, compromise, or true tit for tat.

QUOTABLE

‘I want Martin Selmayr to become the most famous person in the whole of Europe … [he] should not resign, stay, stay, stay; I want him there as long as possible, give him a pay increase.” — Nigel Farage, Brexit champion.

SUMMIT THURSDAY IN 5 MOMENTS

1. WIEDER DA. Angela Merkel took the floor early on and, back in full swing after her reelection for a fourth term as German chancellor last week, inquired about and commented on Chinese companies’ debt levels and sour loans in that huge empire of the East. She displayed a mastery of the data her people had collected for her and which she broke down for the group, according to Playbook’s reasonably impressed fly on the wall of the summit room.

2. She later shared a few bits of carefully curated information that one of her envoys brought back this week after exploring that great country of the West. That had those in the room thinking she is one of the few who can make sense of what Donald Trump actually wants. She is, in short, back, if she was ever gone.

3. BACK TO THE FUTURE: “In March, we are always deciding to come back to an issue in June. In June, we are deciding to come back in October. And we are never coming back,” Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told reporters, speaking of the preferred working method of European Council meetings.

4. CZECHOSLOVAKIA MAKING A COMEBACK? It was new Slovak Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini’s first summit, but he won’t get to taste all its pleasures. Pellegrini left Thursday evening with the impeccable excuse of facing a vote of confidence in parliament today. So Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (who is, by the way, Slovak by origin) will represent his neighbor in the EU27 part of today’s deliberations, as Hospodářské noviny’s Ondřej Houska reports. It won’t last long: Slovakia is a euro member, Czechia isn’t, so for the last, euro-only part of the summit, Vienna will make Bratislava’s voice heard.

LUIS DE GUINDOS APPOINTED ECB NO. 2.

WHICH ROAD TO ROME?

Both chambers of the Italian parliament take seats and will (attempt to) elect their presidents today. A majority may or may not emerge. If it does, don’t take that as a sign there will be a government of the same colors any time soon. Italy’s status is still “it’s complicated.” Giada Zampano from Rome updates you on today’s proceedings.

Antonio Tajani, president of the European Parliament, briefed leaders at the summit about what his institution expects of them, sneaking in his advice on what to expect from Italy’s (many would say opaque) political situation: “The message that has been sent out about Europe has been that EU countries close their borders, dig in their heels with the redistribution of a few thousand refugees, and let all landings take place on our shores. This narrative has conditioned the results of the elections,” he said.

That’s to be read that way: Italy might well end up having another election, and leaders better get their act together and pass a compromise on common asylum rules and the protection of external borders, do a deal with Africa as they did with Turkey two years ago, and show Italians that yes, they care — or risk facing a very clear result rather than uncertainty next time round (and that doomsday scenario wouldn’t include a Prime Minister Tajani).

Advice on what’s going to happen was particularly welcomed by Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, whom Tajani, from Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, met with individually, according to his team. Juncker, instead, opted for a private chat with Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, from the other losing party.

MEANWHILE, IN CATALONIA, THE THIRD ATTEMPT TO APPOINT NEW LEADER FAILS.

DEAL WITH IT

THE REAL ART OF THE DEAL: There’s at least one company that knows how to get its way in Brussels. “More than two years after the European Food Safety Authority signaled concerns about a pesticide made by Syngenta, the Swiss agrichemical giant has avoided an EU ban on the product,” write POLITICO’s Simon Marks and Giulia Paravicini in a must-read about how Syngenta used its lobbying in Brussels to drive a wedge between the Commission and its own food safety agency. “Emails, letters and technical papers released by the European Commission in response to a POLITICO request show the Commission twice withdrew a proposal to remove Syngenta’s pesticide, called diquat, from the market after the company questioned the methodology behind EFSA’s science.”

DEALING WITH NO DEAL: The next Brexit battle in Westminster is over whether to prepare for a “no deal” Brexit. After securing agreement with the European Commission earlier this week for a transition period as the U.K. leaves the EU, senior government officials say the battle is on between those who back a “soft” Brexit, who want the U.K. government to abandon preparations for a worst-case scenario, versus hardcore Brexiteers who want to ensure London looks like it means it when it says no deal is better than a bad one. POLITICO’s Tom McTague and Charlie Cooper have the story.

DEALING WITH FACEBOOK: Elizabeth Denham, the U.K.’s privacy regulator, is leading the global investigation into whether Cambridge Analytica — which used data from Facebook to try to help Donald Trump get elected — ran afoul of Britain’s data protection standards. POLITICO’s Annabelle Dickson and Mark Scott profile the woman in the eye of the storm.

POLAND (SORT OF) BACKTRACKS: Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party on Thursday presented a series of amendments to its controversial judiciary bills and backtracked on its Holocaust law.

FOLLOWING UP: The outer provinces we mentioned in Thursday’s Playbook emailed to write in that yes, they had paid for what they ordered, and after thoroughly checking with all parties involved we can confirm they did. No offence meant, and none taken, the East of Scotland European Consortium‘s Joanne Scobie wrote to tell us. They’re on a “fact-finding mission” to explore how post-Brexit Brussels will look for them, and  it “really opened our eyes.”

They looked post-Brexit: “It was especially interesting to hear from counterparts in Norway and Switzerland. It gives us hope that we can continue to work with European colleagues, but this of course depends on the willingness of the U.K. government. When we return to Scotland we will make the case of this at both Holyrood and Westminster,” Scobie said. “Overall, we picked up on a lot of goodwill towards Scotland … This was a very positive experience for us and so we return to Scotland knowing that this does not mean the end of EU collaboration for us.”