Shadow over Gdańsk

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

82% : at the Switzerland-Canada watch party at EFTA House: MEP Andreas Schwab; Switzerland's Ambassador to the EU Rita Adam and Ambassador to Belgium and NATO Jacques Pitteloud; the Canadian Mission to the EU's Susanne Connolly and Mission to NATO's Jonathan Yendall; the Swiss Mission to the EU's Sabrina Thalmann; Ireland's Mission to NATO's Shane Griffin; U.S. Mission to the EU's Sara Mathews and Sophie Coremans; North Macedonia's Mission to NATO's Ismail Ebipi; Republic of Korea's Mission to the EU and NATO's Ellen Kang; the U.K.'s Mission to the EU's Caitlin Griffith; António Costa's cabinet member Veronika Şentürk Musilová; Keystone-SDA's Raphaël Zwahlen; Neue Zürcher Zeitung's Antonio Fumagalli; MLex's Kait Bolongaro; the European Correspondent's Julius E.O. Fintelmann; and POLITICO's Koen Verhelst, Sergio Bernabè and Gerardo Fortuna. ALSO SPOTTED ...
67% : Watch the stories driving the EU agenda come together in real time, take part in a live Q&A, and hear what's next for Brussels.
62% : " In today's Playbook: -- Sometimes the biggest power play at an EU summit is where you sit. -- Prepare yourself for potentially the hottest night on record in Belgium. --
62% : Preview: Von der Leyen will make the case for investing in Ukraine now, an EU official told Zoya. Costa will underline the EU's long-term commitment to Kyiv, pairing calls for continued pressure on Russia with a vision of Ukraine's reconstruction and EU accession moving hand in hand.
60% : European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa are among the leaders attending.
60% : SUBSCRIBE to the POLITICO newsletter family: Brussels Playbook | London Playbook | London Playbook PM | Playbook Paris | Berlin Playbook | Sunday Crunch | EU Influence | London Influence | D.C.
59% : Or maybe it's not that deep: Since leaders were talking about Beijing, it was perfectly natural for one of the architects of the EU's approach to China to be at the table at that moment, the second diplomat noted.
58% : Politicians, investors, businesses and civil society groups gather in Gdańsk today for the start of the two-day Ukraine Recovery Conference -- but the political rupture between Kyiv and Warsaw is threatening to overshadow the EU's show of support.
58% : As Ukraine becomes "an ever-stronger military power," she argued, the EU must work "to anchor it firmly inside the European Union.
58% : Former Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren will become secretary-general of the European External Action Service, the EU's diplomatic arm.
58% : At summits of EU leaders, chiefs of staff are usually in the room but behind their principals.
57% : TALK TO PLAYBOOK: On the Brussels Playbook Podcast, Zoya asked for your thoughts on the European Council inviting influencers into EU summits.
56% : What to watch: The conference starts at 10 a.m. with addresses by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Ukrainian PM Yulia Svyrydenko, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa, Playbook's own Zoya Sheftalovich reports from Gdańsk.
56% : [so it] makes sense he is in rooms when the strategic direction on this is being discussed," said an EU official close to von der Leyen's team.
56% : The European Trade Union Confederation will call on the Commission to give workers the right to paid cooling breaks, water and shade during heatwaves in a new model directive to be presented today.
56% : Von der Leyen will also attend the Eastern Flank Summit. -- Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos will meet U.K. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper at the Ukraine Recovery Conference, and take part in a high-level dialogue on Ukraine's EU membership. -- Environment Council meeting in Luxembourg.
55% : The Council wants influencers to cover EU summits -- but not if they question the bloc's values, Mari Eccles reports.
55% : Seibert took the seat normally occupied by Commission Secretary-General Ilze Juhansone, two diplomats, an EU official and a diplomatic note confirmed.
54% : Don't start from here: Poland's deregulation minister Maciej Berek told Playbook the EU's efforts to cut burdensome legislation will never be fast enough.
54% : Elżbieta Czetwertyńska, CEO of Citi Handlowy; Joanna Makowiecka-Gatza, president of Pracodawcy RP; Mariia Zakharenko, director of the Recovery and Reform Support Team at Ukraine's economy ministry; Tomasz Bardziłowski, CEO of the Warsaw Stock Exchange; Konrad Wilczak, deputy head of Poland at the EBRD; William Beach, U.S. Treasury representative for Europe; Michał Baranowski, undersecretary of state at Poland's ministry of development and technology; and Zoya Sheftalovich, POLITICO chief EU correspondent.
54% : Playbook is brought to you by POLITICO's EU Politics team: Gerardo Fortuna, Nicholas Vinocur, Gabriel Gavin, Zoya Sheftalovich, Max Griera, Mari Eccles, Hanne Cokelaere and Sebastian Starcevic.
52% : "We know what is at stake and what that means to the Ukrainian people," another EU official said.
52% : CHAIR POLITICS THE SEAT SWITCH THAT CAUSED A STIR: Bjoern Seibert's decision to sit at the leaders' table during last week's European Council -- instead of the seats at the back, where the chief of staff to the Commission president would usually be found -- is being talked about by diplomats as a classic power move by one of the EU executive's top political operators.
51% : Getting involved: The move comes amid growing talk in Brussels about the influence of Ursula von der Leyen's team over the Commission's Secretariat-General -- the administrative nerve center of the EU executive that is currently being beefed up.
36% : The EU is facing a major bottleneck in its efforts to cut bureaucracy, with just four working months left for envoys to agree on six whole "omnibuses" -- the instruments used to slash legislation deemed too burdensome for businesses.

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.