Good morning from Brussels, it’s Monday 2 November. Don’t forget to send tips to our mailbox here.

In today’s Rapporteur AM:

• Commission switches focus to implementation

• Le Pen wades into Polish court fight

• Meet the AfD lawmaker who’s pro-Ukraine

On the roundabout: Stubb rejects FT reporting of Putin call

What will the European Commission do for the next year? Not much, if the rumblings from the Berlaymont are to be believed. 

Under pressure from right-wing national leaders and her own political family, who want to stem the flood of laws from Brussels, the Commission will shift its focus to implementing existing legislation when it announces its annual work programme on Wednesday. 

At a dinner last Tuesday night in the 13th-floor restaurant of the Berlaymont, Commissioners’ heads of cabinet received instructions from Ursula von der Leyen’s team to put the brakes on new laws.

Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis – self-dubbed the ‘simplificator’ – has been among those supporting her efforts to slim down the laundry list of legislative tasks. Wide-ranging ‘omnibuses’ that repeal burdensome laws could be supplemented with more surgical tweaks.

While some even called for a moratorium on any new legislation, other top officials whose directorates-general are used to pumping out laws were resistant to such abstinence. “Every head of cabinet has to push for some kind of agenda,” said one senior official in the room, describing the problem as "institutional inertia.”

Last year there were 38 initiatives on the work programme. This time, several officials expect it to be shorter and heavily focused on implementing the Draghi agenda – meaning reforms to the single market. It will be “streamlined,” said a second EU official.  

Another conundrum facing the Commission is how to push legislation through the other institutions, the Council and the Parliament, where it can often get stuck. Von der Leyen faced pushback, according to a third official, when she first put her brief proposal in front of senior MEPs last month. The deputies complained it was too empty, wouldn’t create enough rapporteurships for their members, and told her to go back to the drawing board, the official said.

This will be von der Leyen’s penultimate work programme. “If you want to have a legacy you have to make sure it’s agreed and implemented,” the first official said.

Le Pen wades into Polish court row

The European Commission has backed Donald Tusk, Poland’s prime minister, in an escalating court crisis which has pitted him against Karol Nawrocki, the country’s nationalist president, and his allies.

Protests erupted in Warsaw this weekend amid a dispute related to the president's refusal to swear in top judges elected by parliament, where Tusk’s coalition holds a majority, and an internal power struggle at the Constitutional Tribunal.

The Commission effectively backed the Tusk government’s stance. But Marine Le Pen expressed “profound worry” in a social media post on Sunday – which then drew its own criticism from the likes of Radosław Sikorski, Poland’s foreign minister, who accused her of interfering in Poland’s domestic politics. Read the latest.

AfD’s Russia rebel

Rainer Kraft is an unlikely dissenter in the ranks of the German far-right AfD – a party generally considered pro-Russian.

The Bavarian member of the Bundestag, who formally serves as the party’s climate policy spokesman, has repeatedly challenged his party's stance on Moscow, putting himself at odds with a political movement that has campaigned against military and financial support for Ukraine.

“Germany has a fundamental interest in supporting Ukraine, because the upheaval in Europe and the instability caused by Russia would affect us, too,” Kraft told Rapporteur, pointing also to Moscow’s threats against NATO allies. Read the full story by Björn Stritzel. 

Pitchforks are coming back

Europe’s farmers are preparing to return to the streets this autumn, driven by fresh economic pressures that Brussels is struggling to address.

Copa-Cogeca, the European farmers’ lobby, agreed last week to stage a protest in the EU capital in November or December. The planned mobilisations echo those of 2023-24, when farmers demanded changes to the EU’s environmental plans. Despite the Commission’s reversal of much of that agenda, farmers’ concerns have not gone away. Read my colleague Alice Bergoënd's full story.

Here are three new stories from Rapporteur:

• Can French Riviera bling bring wealthy conservatives to Le Pen?

• EU to seek global action against climate super-pollutant SF6

• Climate scientists paint devastating picture of ice loss worldwide

THREE PEOPLE FAMILIAR WITH THE CONVERSATION: The Financial Times had a startling write-up of last week’s phone call between Vladimir Putin, Norway’s Jonas Gahr Støre and Finnish President Alexander Stubb. Citing “three people familiar with the conversation,” the pink paper reported Putin used the call to run through a "lengthy rant" on medieval Slavic history, which took up “most” of the 90-minute conversation.

Støre was the first one to slap down the FT, saying this account was incorrect. He demanded a correction, which the FT refused. Then over the weekend, Stubb also said the FT report was wrong. “That is not true … it is incorrect information,” Stubb told national broadcaster YLE on Saturday. It goes without saying that the Russians also deny it.

Will the newspaper change its story? “We stand by our reporting,” an FT spokesperson said.

🇧🇬 SOFIA

Incumbent President Iliana Yotova, an ally of Prime Minister Rumen Radev, won Sunday’s presidential run-off with around 57% of the vote, against 40% for pro-Western former caretaker PM Andrey Gyurov. Turnout rose to about 29%, from a record-low 23% in the first round. Yotova favours dialogue with Moscow and opposes military aid to Ukraine, while Gyurov signed a ten-year security agreement with Kyiv. Her win keeps both the presidency and the government in Radev’s camp.

– Konstantin Karadjov

🇲🇪 PODGORICA

Montenegro could conclude EU accession negotiations in December, according to a leaked draft of the European Commission’s enlargement package obtained by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The document suggests this could be Montenegro’s final regular country report before concluding talks. It also reportedly finds no progress on fundamental reforms in Serbia, Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina. EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos is expected to present the package on Wednesday.

– Bronwyn Jones

🇪🇸 MADRID

Spain’s main opposition party, the centre-right People’s Party (PP), announced on Sunday that it would join the criminal investigation into the Toledo train crash as a private prosecutor. The accident killed 69 people and left dozens seriously injured. “We want a thorough investigation so the full truth comes to light and everyone responsible is held accountable,” said PP lawmaker Alma Ezcurra. The far-right Vox party had already announced it would join the proceedings to determine the causes of the crash and who should be held responsible.

– Inés Fernández-Pontes

🇩🇪 BERLIN

Karsten Wildberger, the German federal minister for digital affairs, confirmed an alleged cyberattack on devices belonging to members of the Bundestag and members of the government. Speaking to ARD on Sunday, the CDU politician said that this was “a notification from Apple that certain devices may have been compromised by so-called spyware”. The Federal Office for Information Security said it had no further information about the notifications.

– Victoria Becker 

🇫🇮 HELSINKI

Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen said on Sunday that Russian athletes should be barred from entering Finland next year if Moscow continues its war in Ukraine. She pledged to pursue measures after the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled on Friday that Russia could return to international ice hockey championships, potentially as early as 2027. Valtonen has also called for an EU-wide ban on visas for Russian tourists, while five Finnish MEPs backed tougher sanctions and travel restrictions.

– Charles Szumski

🇷🇸 BELGRADE

Tens of thousands gathered in Novi Sad on Sunday to mark the second anniversary of the railway station canopy collapse that killed 16 people. The tragedy triggered nationwide anti-government protests and helped propel Serbia’s student-led movement to victory in parliamentary elections. Two years on, no one has been held accountable for the disaster. Protesters continue to demand investigations into alleged corruption and negligence surrounding the collapse.

– Pavle Kosić

🇷🇺 MOSCOW

Russia has warned NATO it could use nuclear weapons if the alliance attempts to isolate Kaliningrad, its heavily militarised exclave between Poland and Lithuania. In a diplomatic note seen by Reuters, Moscow accused NATO of risking direct military confrontation and threatened strikes on allied command centres. NATO rejected the warning, insisting its activities posed no threat to Russia. Secretary General Mark Rutte said there was no imminent threat to allied territory and urged Moscow to stop its nuclear rhetoric.

– Charles Szumski