Welcome back, this newsletter comes to you from a train departing Luxembourg to Brussels, with very dodgy internet, wrapping two days of meetings.
For those who don't know, I started my career in politics covering Eurogroup meetings, doing more doorsteps in the cold than I can remember. And still get a kick out of it after all these years, even if that means a three-hour train ride.
What's new this week? Negotiations around the next European common budget are underway, and that means one thing: not a cent will go down without a fight.
Personally, I find these discussions uninspiring for as long as European sovereignty is reduced to petty fighting over a "nego box" and the real issue is ignored: funding independence. If you don't know what a "nego box" means, congratulations, you get to keep your sanity with zero jargon in mind.
Ultimately, the budget story is roughly always the same: the richer countries will try to rein in spending, suggesting they pay too much into the common pot, although they tend to ignore that they benefit equally from a well-functioning single market, and the not-so-rich — I'm trying to be polite — will push to keep their agriculture money and cohesion funds unchanged. And then, there's Italy.
