Deutsche Bank turmoil puts harsh spotlight on EU regulators

In recent days, the European Commission had sided with banks in pushing back against global banking regulator’s proposal to beef up capital requirements.

Talk about bad timing.

On Thursday morning, the European Commission’s top finance tsar delivered a speech in which he hinted that the global banking regulator’s proposals to toughen capital rules weren’t going to work for European banks. That evening, some hedge fund investors in Deutsche Bank reportedly began pulling their money out from Germany’s biggest lender — fearing that the ailing bank may be headed for a cash crunch.

Then, on Friday, Deutsche Bank’s share price touched its lowest level in 30 years. Also pulled into the turmoil was Commerzbank, Germany’s second-largest lender, which had already announced a €1.1 billion restructuring plan.

Watching the fast-moving drama unfold, some incredulous EU politicians were shaking their heads at the Commission’s move to soften up global capital rules in these volatile times.

“The IMF considers Deutsche Bank the most dangerous bank in the world,” said Fabio de Masi, a German MEP. “We don’t make it less dangerous by watering down Basel rules.”

The Switzerland-based Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has proposed bolstering the viability of banks around the world by forcing them to hold a specific amount of capital against loans and other exposures. But weeks of pushback from European banks has culminated in EU regulators speaking up against Basel — citing the potential damage to lending and ultimately the European economy.

The dissonant view coming out of Brussels encapsulated the huge gap between EU officials and market players, who have been wringing their hands about Deutsche Bank’s capital position since it was slapped with a $14 billion (€12.5 billion) fine from U.S. authorities for mis-selling mortgage-backed securities.

Clearly, investors were starting to vote with their feet, having concluded that Deutsche Bank does face a liquidity problem and that EU regulators don’t have the wherewithal to prevent a potential implosion.

Yet at a banking conference in Brussels on Thursday, Valdis Dombrovskis, the Commission vice president in charge of the financial portfolio, said: “We want a solution that works for Europe and does not put our banks at a disadvantage compared to our global competitors.”

Banks cheered the message — which they read as a sign that the Commission was on their team.

“It was surprising to see Dombrovskis saying this,” said Paul Tang, a Dutch MEP. “It’s short-sighted, really. When I see him taking the industry’s points onboard, I really start to get concerned.”

However, the spokesperson for Dombrovskis, Vanessa Mock, said: “We are not talking about diluting Basel rules. These discussions are about how to approach the challenges that the banking sector faces and how we best ensure strong and healthy banks, without at the same time hampering the financing of the economy.”

With things in the market going from bad to worse, investors are looking to German Chancellor Angela Merkel to save the day — though the German government has dismissed the idea of a state-led bailout of Deutsche Bank.

And tellingly, neither are investors looking to an EU fund that was set up after the global financial crisis to deal with precisely the possibility of another massive bank failure.

The Single Resolution Board was established in 2015, with a collective fund to be used as a last resort in bank rescues. Currently, that fund stands only at €10 billion, though it is set to be built up gradually until 2024. It eventually seeks to hold at least one percent of all covered deposits in the eurozone.

The SRB is there as a backstop. If a bank is failing or likely to fail, national supervisory measures set out in the bank’s recovery plan aren’t working, and resolution is in the public interest, then it can step in.

In an interview with POLITICO in July, SRB’s head Elke König said the agency was “of course” ready to take on a failing bank.

But others aren’t so sure.

“The fund is not fully filled yet and even if it were, I have my doubts that it would be capable to resolve a really large bank that is failing,” said Markus Ferber, a German MEP.

MEP Tang said the SRB still has to prove itself and is concerned “national interests” will get in the way of its effectiveness. “This is a crucial line of defense that we need,” he said.

Meanwhile, banks and industry associations declined to comment on this inside-Brussels brouhaha, but Commerzbank CEO Stephan Engels appeared to side with the Commission when being interviewed on Bloomberg TV Friday.

The negative market sentiment on banking stock is a “short-term view,” he said. But, he added: “I think regulation needs to be predictable, and that’s the part that investors are currently missing.”

As for the Basel Committee, it has always maintained that although it does not want to “significantly” increase capital requirements for banks, more capital is necessary for safer banks.

Politicians siding with the Basel Committee now feel Deutsche Bank’s woes vindicate that message. Given all the verbal hits it has taken of late from European banks, the Switzerland-based global banking regulator must be pleased that it’s gone from enemy to hero in some people’s eyes in the space of just a couple of days.

Bjarke Smith-Meyer contributed reporting to this article.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article misspelled the name of Fabio de Masi.

First Lady Melania Trump is spending her winter in mostly black ensembles thus far, with subtle touches of her Euro-centric luxury style.

This week, Melania Trump embodied a streamline American sportswear aesthetic but with the sensibilities of her favorite Made-in-Italy staples.

While boarding Air Force One alongside President Trump, Mrs. Trump wore a black swear, black J Brand skinny jeans, and a double-breasted wool herringbone coat by Valentino that hinted at the mid-1980s. The coat retails for $790.

Mrs. Trump wore the coat with buckle boots — a more edgy version of the Christian Dior pair she wore in February 2018 — Yves Saint Laurent sunglasses to shade out the flashbulbs of the photogs.

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To honor Veterans this week, Mrs. Trump chose an American military-style coat by Michael Kors from the label’s Pre-Fall 2019 Collection.

The coat, with its sharp shoulders and giant gold buttons, was similar to that of Kate Middleton’s Alexander McQueen coat she wore for Remembrance Day.

Mrs. Trump wore the Michael Kors coat with black acetate sunglasses by Bottega Veneta with the brand’s signature gold ribbon detail and Bottega Veneta black leather gloves. The sunglasses retail for $440.

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John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder. 

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TTIP Lite, less filling — but tastes great?

US and Italian officials are weighing a deal to lock in elements that can be finalized before Obama leaves office.

U.S. diplomats are sketching out a last-ditch plan to salvage core sections of the EU’s moribund trade deal with Washington.

The U.S. and EU countries supporting free trade are increasingly worried that the landmark Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership will collapse if they do not secure a preliminary accord before U.S. President Barack Obama leaves office in January.

They now accept that a full agreement will not be possible by the end of 2016 because of an impasse over agriculture and public procurement, but they don’t want to surrender what they regard as concrete progress made in other fields over the past three years of negotiations.

U.S. and Italian officials are now weighing the option of a “Step 1” deal to lock in elements that can be finalized by December, possibly including joint testing regimes and mutually agreed upon standards for cars, pharmaceuticals and medical devices.

The idea has sparked immediate skepticism in the European Commission and in some EU member countries, which argue that any form of a downgraded deal will be very hard to sell politically, particularly after French Trade Minister Matthias Fekl and German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel turned hostile on the negotiations.

The debate over the survival of TTIP has reached fever pitch after France said that it would propose halting the talks at a meeting of EU trade ministers in Bratislava on September 22.

In legal terms, it will prove almost impossible for the French to kill TTIP in Bratislava because the deal still has broad support from Italy, Poland, Britain, Nordic countries and Baltic states. Perhaps most importantly, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel also backs the accord, in direct opposition to her economy minister.

Still, the growing political threat to TTIP has spurred U.S. trade officials into a flurry of action. Michael Punke, deputy U.S. trade representative, last week visited numerous trade officials in EU countries as well Jean-Luc Demarty, the director general for trade at the European Commission.

People briefed on the meetings said that discussions focused on nailing down “tangible outcomes” so that “something is agreed on” before the end of the Obama administration. Diplomats stressed that Washington had not drawn up any formal proposal but was discussing the options for “landing zones.”

A senior official at Italy’s trade ministry said that Rome fully supported the idea of trying to conclude a preliminary political agreement before the end of the year. “Italy proposed a very similar plan during its presidency of the EU [in 2014],” the official said.

The discussions on how to save TTIP are due to continue Thursday when U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman is slated to travel to Brussels with Punke to meet EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström.

The USTR said that it would still “prefer a fully comprehensive outcome” but noted that it had “heard conflicting statements from European leaders about their interest and ability to conclude a comprehensive deal.”

“We look forward to continued discussions,” said spokesman Matt McAlvanah.

Diplomats in Brussels and Paris noted that U.S. trade officials were ramping up pressure on their EU counterparts by arguing that TTIP had become considerably less attractive after Britain voted to leave the 28-member bloc. The U.K. accounts for about 25 percent of U.S. exports to the EU, and is a crucial market for wine, financial services and procurement.

Supporters of the “Step 1” plan say that it must only be an initial phase and must not represent an end of the TTIP talks. They reject the idea that such a step should be labeled TTIP Lite, which they argue originally referred to the idea of a deal focused on slashing tariffs, without any form of regulatory harmonization.

But other EU diplomats expressed concerns that the “Step 1” idea would kill enthusiasm for any “Step 2” which would, by definition, include more problematic and politically toxic issues such as agriculture, government procurement and geographical indications.

They also argued that supposedly “easier” topics such as convergence on safety standards on car parts would still be politically difficult. EU and U.S. trade officials argue that small companies on both sides of the Atlantic would benefit greatly if they shared common standards and testing rules for products such as paints and car seatbelts.

Two European diplomats noted that a “Step 1” deal in these sectors would also trigger accusations that Europe was surrendering “regulatory sovereignty,” even if not in sensitive areas such as healthcare and the environment.

A Commission source agreed that a downgraded version of TTIP would be politically unpalatable.

“We have agreed on eliminating 97 percent of tariffs, expecting that the Americans will also move forward on issues such as public procurement or geographical indications,” the source said. He added that Brussels was still working on the basis of goals mapped out by Malmström in July, when she called for a “highly ambitious” agreement.

Paris also insisted that there was no question of a pared down deal.

“France will not accept a TTIP Lite,” said Timour Veyri, a spokesperson for France’s Fekl. “[Such] a TTIP Lite would be inevitably made at the expense of French interests.”

Additional reporting by Doug Palmer

This story has been updated with comments from the U.S. Trade Representative

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Empire star Jussie Smollett is facing prison time and the loss of his career if it’s proved he lied about being the target of a hate crime, experts tell the far-left Variety.

According to police sources and all kinds of media reports, Jussie Smollett (who is black and gay) did lie about being assaulted by two racist, homophobic Donald Trump supporters in the middle of the night on January 29.

The story was preposterous to begin with. In order to believe it, one was forced to buy into the idea MAGA hat-wearing bigots were running around downtown Chicago in subzero weather carrying bleach and wielding a noose in the hopes of running into an openly gay black man like Smollett.

“This is MAGA country!” the face-masked yahoos reportedly yelled as they poured bleach on Smollett’s black skin and tied a noose around his neck. Bruised, humiliated, and still carrying his cell phone and Subway sandwich, Smollett somehow survived.

Nevertheless, due to their own prejudices and bigotry, a number of terrible people in politics, media, and Hollywood chose to believe Smollett’s story; and they ran with it, and now they look ridiculous (including a handful of Democrat presidential candidates) and are being forced to clean up their own appalling role in advancing Smollett’s hate crime.

On top of all this, it appears as though Smollett might have mailed that infamous hate letter (filled with powder that turned out to be harmless) to himself, or he at least had some role in arranging it.

What we do know is that Smollett’s co-conspirators have rolled on him. The two brothers (both black) he hired to stage the attack are singing like Sinatra, and that includes the news of the phony hate mail.

And so there will be a reckoning, experts say, a legal and reputational one that could result in Smollett being tossed in the clink for a few years, followed by his banishment into a career wilderness from which he will never return.

“It’s a very high-profile case,” a former prosecutor told Variety. “Prosecutors tend to be tougher because everybody’s watching. … I think they may come down hard, in terms of not reducing it to a misdemeanor.”

Defense attorney Steve Greenberg believes Smollett could also face obstruction of justice charges, but it’s unlikely he will go to prison.

“They’re not going to ruin a guy’s life over this. People make false reports all the time to the police. They get in a DUI, they call police and say, ‘My car was stolen.’ Ninety percent of the time, even if they’re charged with a felony, those people end up pleading to a misdemeanor,” he said.

On the career front, things could be even more unforgiving; we are talking a Lance Armstrong-style expulsion from the rarified world of celebrity.

“If he made this up, he broke the trust of a lot of his fans,” a PR expert told Variety. “Say you lied and you’re sorry for that lie. Apologize to the people who have supported you, promise to make it up, and find a cause that’s near and dear to your heart and devote yourself to it.”

Another PR exec told Variety that if Smollett lied his only hope is to fess up immediately and throw himself at the mercy of the legal system and the court of public opinion.

“He needs to get ahead of this as much as he can,” he said. “He needs to go see the police. He needs to apologize. He needs to make the announcement about what happened instead of letting the facts leak out. If he lied, there’s no excuse, but there may be some explanation.”

On top of everything else, if Smollett is convicted of anything involving the filing of a false police report, he may also have to reimburse the taxpayers the cost of the investigation, which could be a sizable amount of money considering the manpower the police dedicated to the high-profile case.

CBS reports that a grand jury is already deliberating, which could very well mean Smollett is indicted.

As of now, though, Smollett is sticking to his story, which seems to be that the two brothers are lying about being hired by Smollett, which can only mean that, for whatever reason, they disguised themselves as Trump supporters and waited outside his condo all night in subzero weather looking for the opportunity to beat on him.

Smollett has hired two high-powered defense attorneys, but already his career is showing signs of hoax-related stress. His role in Empire has been slashed, including an episode that was supposed to revolve around his character that would have included a showy musical number.

The Lance Armstrong comparison is probably as close as you can come to the Smollett Hoax, but it is still lacking. Armstrong was a liar, a cheat, and a ruthless bully, but the damage he did, which should not be dismissed, was confined to his orbit. Smollett is something altogether different.

Had Smollett pulled off his hoax, had his ginned up hate crime been caught on video as he likely planned, it could have been the “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” media-hoax all over again. That hoax resulted in the burning down of the predominantly black, working class city of Ferguson and countless acts of violence and murder against innocent police officers. Smollett’s hoax could have caused riots, violence against innocent Trump supporters, who knows what else.

Because I have needed more than my share forgiveness and second chances, I always lean in that direction for others. We all need a path to redemption. Time and circumstance might change my mind, but as of now I believe Smollett needs to be made an example of. Yes, he deserves all the due process our system allows, but if found guilty, he should be given no leniency and his show business career should be over forever.

Smollett’s path to redemption should happen in an Appalachia soup kitchen or a Heartland drug rehabilitation center. He is a bigot who sought publicity and moral authority by defaming and smearing a whole group of people. If he wants redemption, that path is through them, not an apology tour on Late-Night TV.

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.

EU debates free InterRail passes for teenagers

Free train travel becomes a weapon in popularizing EU.

Brussels is mulling a plan to give every 18-year-old in the European Union a free month-long rail pass, in an effort to promote environment-friendly transport and interest in the EU among young people.

European Commissioner for Transport Violeta Bulc told the European Parliament in Strasbourg late Tuesday that the plan to make InterRail passes freely available is an “excellent idea,” but cautioned that a lot work still has to be done on the practicalities and costs.

“Currently, there are 300,000 people using InterRail every year,” Bulc said. “They buy passes at a cost of between €200 and €480. Extending access to all 18-year-olds for free would therefore present many challenges which require further analysis.”

German TV news program Tagesschau estimated it would cost €1.5 billion per year if 70 percent of those eligible signed up. Last month, the Parliament’s budgetary committee rebuffed the project.

The Commission has already turned down two pilot project seeking launch funding for the scheme, one from Hungary’s Socialists & Democrats MEP István Ujhelyi and another from Green MEPs Rebecca Harms and Karima Delli and the chair of the transport committee, Michael Cramer.

But the idea is gaining in popularity. Manfred Weber, leader of the European People’s Party, backs the idea, though his political grouping helped vote down similar proposals in the past.

Green and Socialist MEPs have also put their name to the InterRail idea — initially proposed by two Berlin-based activists Vincent-Immanuel Herr and Martin Speer, who see it as a way of binding Europe’s youth closer together in turbulent political times.

One way to keep costs under control would be to hold a lottery to hand out tickets, or to limit the freebies to specific categories of young Europeans, Bulc said.

Matteo Renzi, Italy’s prime minister, has voiced encouragement for the plan and Alexander Graf Lambsdorff of the Parliament’s liberal ALDE group said there was “enormous support” in Germany.

But not everyone is on board.

Raymond Finch from the U.K. Independence Party called it “bribery” and a “rotten apple” retrieved from the bin of failed and irrelevant policy ideas. The chances are that the U.K. would have left the EU by the time such a plan got going, so it wouldn’t apply to young Britons anyway.

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Martin Scorsese calls Marvel movies “theme park rides,” Francis Ford Coppola labels them “despicable,” Ken Loach compares them to “hamburgers.”

Over the past few weeks, Marvel has taken a legitimate beating from some cinematic legends, and this is happening during a vulnerable time for a hit factory moving past the Avengers and into a more openly political and woke phase.

Oscar-winner Scorsese went first, saying of Marvel and comic book movies in general, “Theaters have become amusement parks. That is all fine and good but don’t invade everything else in that sense,” he said. “That is fine and good for those who enjoy that type of film and, by the way, knowing what goes into them now, I admire what they do. It’s not my kind of thing, it simply is not. It’s creating another kind of audience that thinks cinema is that.”

Oscar-winner Francis Ford Coppola said, “When Martin Scorsese says that the Marvel pictures are not cinema, he’s right because we expect to learn something from cinema, we expect to gain something, some enlightenment, some knowledge, some inspiration. I don’t know that anyone gets anything out of seeing the same movie over and over again.”

Ken Loach sums it up this way, “”They’re made as commodities like hamburgers, and it’s not about communicating, and it’s not about sharing our imagination,” he said. “It’s about making a commodity which will make a profit for a big corporation – they’re a cynical exercise. They’re a market exercise, and it has nothing to do with the art of cinema.”

My knee-jerk reaction to attacks on genre movies is to cry “snob!,” but there’s some validity to this criticism, especially as it relates to Marvel, which basically reheats the same two plots over and over and over again: 1) We have to come together to save the world, uhm, again!, and 2) Please, for the love of all that is holy, not another origin movie.

I myself have given some of these movies a favorable reviews while comparing them to a theme park ride. And I am getting tired of them… Would I have enjoyed Shazam! In a vacuum, in a world that is not pummeled with a dozen or so comic movies a year, half of which are origin movies? Probably. Even its off-beat sense of humor, that ironic distance thing, is growing tiresome. It felt fresh ten years and a hundred movies ago in Iron Man; enough already.

Obviously, you can’t argue against success. These movies reliably make money and Marvel has done something never before seen: produced more than 20 box office smashes in a row. Eventually, though, audiences tire of the same old. We’ve seen it a million times… Westerns, disaster movies, musicals, biblical epics, space operas, buddy movies, slasher pics, romantic comedies, raunchy comedies… Eventually, we are going to tire of the superhero genre, and maybe Scorsese, Coppola, and Loach are not being snobs.

What I mean is, maybe as successful professionals who not only love movies, but watch and work in the industry, who make a living by eaching an audience, they sense a disturbance in the force, a change in the air, a shift in popular opinion….

Aren’t you a little tired of these movies?

Aren’t they starting to feel a little repetitive and empty?

Joker is a comic book movie, so this might sound counter-intuitive, but maybe it’s breaking all kinds of records (for an R-rated feature) because it feels so fresh, so different, like an anti-Marvel movie. There’s no pretty colors, no saving the world, no obvious CGI, no aliens, no third-act, computer-generated epic battle, and no humor (unless you count the miniature golf joke , which I laughed at).

Critics blasted Joke for aping other movies … that are more than 40-years-old! Meanwhile, every other comic book movie copies movies that are 40 days old.

Honestly, how much are you looking forward to this next Marvel phase, which is going to feature all the same ole-same ole, but fill it with woketardery — Feminism! Gays! Transsexuals! Lady Thor! It all feels a tad oppressive to me.

Maybe Scorsese and company really do dislike comic book movies, or maybe they’re just sick and tired of them. Maybe we all are. I kind of hope so. I’d like to move on to something else.

Guess we will find out soon enough.

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.

For Julian King, political jabs about the U.K.’s impending exit from the EU may be the easiest part of a confirmation hearing before members of the European Parliament on Monday evening.

Far harder for Britain’s commissioner-designate for security may be answering questions about how he intends to improve security and intelligence-gathering on a fractured Continent facing an unprecedented terror threat, and to reassure an anxious, skeptical public.

Lawmakers likely to have a prominent role in the hearing before the Civil Liberties Committee said they are not eager to quiz King on political matters, or even on the U.K.’s longstanding EU opt-out on matters of security. Instead, they said they aim to press King on challenges such as improving intelligence-sharing among EU countries and containing the spread of radicalism, particularly in prisons and among disaffected youth.

“MEPs will not give King a hard time because they know they have an active participant in what is a win-win situation,” said Claude Moraes, the British MEP who chairs the Civil Liberties Committee.

King is widely expected to be approved for the security post, in a vote by the full Parliament in Strasbourg on Thursday — a formal endorsement of Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker’s decision to give a substantive portfolio to the U.K. commissioner even as Britain begins to negotiate its withdrawal from the EU.

But while the desire to support that decision may insulate King from a severe grilling, MEPs said there would be no escaping the shadow of the U.K.’s impending split from the EU.

Brexit, Moraes said, will be “the elephant in the room.”

King was nominated by the British government to replace Jonathan Hill, who held the financial services portfolio in the Commission before resigning in the wake of the U.K.’s vote on June 23 to leave the European Union. King’s confirmation hearing comes in the same week as Juncker gives his State of the Union address and all EU leaders — bar the U.K. — meet in Bratislava. The Brexit issue will loom large over both events.

“We have three British people in key positions when it comes to counter-terrorism,” said Sophie In ‘t Veld, a Dutch member of the liberal ALDE party, referring to King, Moraes and Rob Wainwright (the British head of Europol, the EU’s law enforcement agency). “They are all very competent people, but here nationality plays a role. There is a very sensitive political context that needs to be clarified.”

Other MEPs were less concerned about nationality.

“Brexit or not, security on the European continent is a concrete question … which deserves more financial means, and more urgently,” said Rachida Dati, a French center-right MEP. “As far as I know, the U.K. is not quitting the European continent. Borders are still the same, even with an exit from the EU.”

MEPs said they had questions for King on foreign fighters, returning to Europe after radicalization abroad; on the training of imams in the EU; and on the issue of passenger name records, the collection of data on everyone taking a flight.

“I don’t think there are going to be soft questions,” said Moraes.

Closer, yet still far away

King, formerly British ambassador to France, was assigned the new security union portfolio by Juncker last month, and the stakes are high. According to Europol, there were 211 terror attacks in Europe in 2015.

Ever since the Paris attacks in November 2015, the EU has been pledging closer cooperation in the fight against terrorism. But its fragmented approach has drawn criticism, with opponents citing lack of coordination as a major reason why jihadists operate freely across the Continent.

Experts say the EU struggles to coordinate, implement and secure financing for its anti-terror policies as EU countries are often reluctant to hand over powers on security.

“It’s difficult to imagine how one can tackle such an important question of security without its own directorate-general, with therefore limited powers and no clearly defined portfolio,” Slovenian center-left MEP Tanja Fajon said.

Moraes said King would inherit a portfolio that is “rich in legislation, but also rich in unimplemented cross-border legislation, rules and practice.”

King has already made a good impression on many of those he will face on Monday evening. From 2004 to 2008, he was the U.K.’s representative on the EU’s Political and Security Committee, and later headed the office of Peter Mandelson when he was the British commissioner. MEPs who have dealt with King praise his professionalism, experience and knowledge of the EU and security issues.

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“He seems willing not to be a U.K official, but rather someone who knows and works on the issue of terrorism,” said Jan-Philipp Albrecht, a German Green MEP.

“The British people are very advanced in their programs to fight against radicalization,” said Dati. “We would be wrong to deprive ourselves of the British expertise, which has a crucial role in information sharing, and remains one of the biggest contributors to Europol.”

In London, the government refused to be drawn into MEPs’ concerns about King’s new role. The security portfolio is viewed in Downing Street as a natural fit for the U.K., a major contributor to EU security infrastructure via its domestic and international intelligence services MI5 and MI6.

A spokesman for the U.K. government said King’s new role had been welcomed in London, but would not say whether his appointment might be helpful in forging a new set of security arrangements between post-Brexit Britain and its EU neighbors.

“The U.K. will continue to fulfill our rights and obligations as a member state until we leave the EU and the prime minister has been clear that we will be an active player so it is right that we should continue to have a commissioner role,” said the spokesman.

“Security is a vital issue for all member states and cooperation across the EU can help to better protect us all from the range of threats we face.”

Giulia Paravicini contributed to this report.

First Lady Melania Trump greeted the President of Turkey and his wife to the White House on Wednesday in one of her signature shades — a coat in icy blue.

Melania Trump stepped out of the White House for a photo-op with the Turkish leader in a sharply tailored wool-blend double-breasted topcoat by Altuzarra from the Pre-Fall 2019 Collection. The coat retails for $2,295 at Nordstrom.

The icy blue shade of the coat is a signature of Mrs. Trump’s considering she’s worn the color on a number of occasions since her debut as First Lady in the iconic custom Ralph Lauren suit she wore for her husband’s inauguration in January 2017.

Mrs. Trump wore the Altuzarra coat with a pair of black leather Christian Louboutins stilettos.

This week, as Breitbart News noted, Mrs. Trump wore American sportswear designs such as a Michael Kors military-inspired coat with European flairs like square Bottega Veneta acetate sunglasses and leather gloves.

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(AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

(AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

(AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

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(Alex Wong/Getty Images)

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(AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

(AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

(AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

(AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

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John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder. 

Oettinger says new ethics allegations ‘unfounded’

Digital Commissioner Günther Oettinger today denied that his decision to take a German lobbyist’s private plane to Budapest in May was unethical.

“These allegations are unfounded,” he said in a statement to POLITICO, and after tweeted “Due to meetings, could not take scheduled flight to be in time for dinner PM Orbán. HU suggested plane.”

The Commission said scheduling issues prevented Oettinger from taking a commercial flight to meet Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for dinner to discuss Hungary’s digital efforts.

The Hungarian government suggested Oettinger take Klaus Mangold’s plane as he was also traveling to Budapest. Mangold is a pro-Russian businessman and a former member of the board of management of automaker Daimler.

The meeting was scheduled ahead of a conference on the development of autonomous cars in Hungary.

The Blaugrana acquired the Leganes forward outside of the regular transfer window – but will he be allowed to compete in European competition?

Martin Braithwaite enjoyed a dream debut following his February move to Barcelona, providing two assists in his first game against Eibar as the Blaugrana recorded a Lionel Messi-inspired 5-0 victory.

Barcelona bought Braithwaite from Leganes for €18 million (£15m/$19m) on February 20 as a replacement for Ousmane Dembele, who is set to miss out on the rest of the season after undergoing surgery .

France international Dembele had been recovering from a hamstring injury when he suffered another setback – leading the Liga side to sign a fresh forward on an emergency basis

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But will Braithwaite be able to compete in the Champions League as he is a late signing?

Can Braithwaite play in the Champions League?

Braithwaite is unable to play in the Champions League, as he arrived at Barcelona after the European competitions deadline for new player registrations (February 3).

Clubs are typically allowed to register three new signings for the knockout phases of the Champions League, but Braithwaite will not be able to compete as he was acquired after the registration deadline.

Barcelona were allowed to sign the Denmark international after the transfer window closed because of an exemption granted to them by La Liga and the Spanish football association (RFEF) after Dembele’s season-ending injury.

According to regulations, when a player is sidelined for five or more months, the club are allowed to sign an emergency transfer outside of the regular transfer window.

The Catalan side were then given permission to sign former Middlesbrough forward Braithwaite as the rules state that a player can be signed should they be a free agent or playing for another club in the Spanish top flight.

Then, since they had to replace Dembele, a forward, the signing had to be made for the same position.

Leganes had felt that they were given a cruel hand as they had to lose a crucial player halfway through the season without being able to sign a replacement.

Braithwaite was Leganes’ top scorer with six goals, with Leganes general director Martin Ortega telling reporters: “We consider that there is a regulation that is unfair, from which Barcelona has benefited. The one who is damaged by this is Leganes.”

Barcelona will miss the absence of the forward from European competition, with the Catalan side eager to lift their first Champions League title since 2015.