Could influencers crash future EU summits?

Summary

Brussels Playbook Podcast

Episode Title: Could influencers crash future EU summits?
Date: May 12, 2026
Host: Zoya Sheftalovich (A)
Guest: Nick Vinocur (B)
Notable Interview: Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand (C)

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Episode Overview

This episode explores three major stories shaping the EU's political agenda:

• Contentious debates about who should represent Europe in Ukraine peace talks,
• New European and international efforts to "childproof" artificial intelligence,
• The European Council's plan to open its doors to social media influencers.

With a mixture of candid analysis and light-hearted banter, Zoya and Nick unpack the power dynamics and cultural shifts pulsing through Brussels.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Who Should Represent Europe in Ukraine Peace Talks?

[00:58–07:57]

• Context: The latest round of EU negotiations centers on Ukraine—ongoing sanctions, kidnapped children, and fresh Canadian support.
• Schroeder Suggestion: Russia floated the idea of ex-German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder as Europe's representative for peace talks, causing uproar.
  • “If Schroeder is the negotiator for the EU, that means that Putin is effectively sitting on both sides of the table.”
    —Nick ([02:18])
• Ukrainian Response: Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha rejects Schroeder’s candidacy as “ridiculous,” humorously suggesting Russia sympathizers like Steven Seagal or Gérard Depardieu could be proposed next ([03:48]).
• Europe’s Role: Despite being Ukraine’s main backer, the EU hasn’t had a seat at ongoing peace negotiations; the US, meanwhile, is distracted with Iran ([03:04]).
• Concrete Proposals: Ukraine suggests the EU help secure an “airport ceasefire” to restore air travel and reduce civilian disruption, especially as summer holidays near ([04:41]).
• Canadian Initiatives: Canada becomes the first non-European nation to join the International Claims Commission for Ukraine, pledges more sanctions, and discusses strengthening “like-minded” international alliances.
  • “At rock bottom, it’s about like-mindedness. The values that we share [...] including support for Ukraine [...] is incontrovertible.” —Anita Anand ([06:26])

Notable Quotes

• “He may as well propose Steven Seagal, Gerard Depardieu, some other Russia sympathizers for the role.” —Nick relaying Andriy Sybiha’s reaction ([03:48])
• “I mean, I didn’t hear no when I asked her whether Canada might join the EU.” —Zoya ([07:39])

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2. Europe Debates Childproofing AI

[07:57–11:49]

• Danish Children & AI Summit: In Copenhagen, major figures from politics and tech (including Ursula von der Leyen and Hillary Clinton) gather, with Common Sense Media launching a Youth AI Safety Institute.
  • “The idea here is to create something like a crash test rating for AI products aimed at children.” —Nick ([08:40])
• AI Risks for Kids: Studies show that 50% of American teens regularly use AI “companions,” with many finding AI conversations as satisfying as those with real friends ([09:16]).
• Regulatory Challenges: The EU fears that regulations may arrive too late, after AI is already deeply embedded in daily life, especially among youth.
  • “There’s growing fear that we could end up regulating only after the technology is so deeply embedded in kids’ lives that they’ll find ways around it.” —Nick ([10:11])
• Potential Conflicts of Interest: Some AI companies funding the institute are also building the very tools under scrutiny (e.g., Anthropic, OpenAI Foundation).
  • “Whoops. Might be a little conflict of interest.” —Zoya ([10:34])
• Soft vs. Hard Regulation: The initiative is “soft regulation”—not bans, but pressure and standards—which is more palatable for tech firms.
• Coalitions of the Willing: Belgium is advocating for an “AI coalition of the willing”—a group of proactive countries (possibly Netherlands, Estonia) taking stronger regulatory action ([11:06]).

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3. Influencers Set to Crash the European Council

[11:49–14:37]

• New Pilot Program: From July, the European Council will test inviting YouTubers and TikTokers into its high-security environment.
  • “The European Council is launching a pilot project that will see YouTubers and TikTokers welcome into the high security world of the European Council.” —Nick ([12:10])
• Mixed Reactions: Officials are lukewarm, with one diplomat likening the pitch to “the classic dynamic where the boomer in the room thinks he is pitching a very novel and interesting idea and the others more or less kill it with questions.” ([13:17])
• Journalistic Standards Concerns: Reporters worry influencers lack the transparency and ethics required of accredited journalists, including proper financial disclosures.
• Listener Call-to-Action: The team encourages younger audiences to nominate their favorite EU-focused content creators for future summit access ([13:59]).

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Memorable Moments & Quotes

• “Brussels is full of talk once again about who could and absolutely could not represent Europe in future Ukraine peace talks.” —Zoya ([00:41])
• “Negotiatory—a brand new word to describe the vibe today, but it’s spot on.” —Nick ([01:19])
• “Let’s float this idea of an airport ceasefire and have the Europeans lead the discussion on it.” —Nick ([04:20])
• “She even coined the term the Carney Doctrine.” —Nick ([05:47])
• “Me. Why aren’t I invited?” —Zoya, on the AI summit ([08:36])
• “There are some good content creators who have been covering the EU on TikTok or YouTube or Insta or whatever it might be? Snap, doodang, ditzycon, MySpace…” —Zoya ([13:59])

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [00:58–07:57] — Ukraine peace talks, sanctions, and Canadian foreign policy
• [07:57–11:49] — Childproofing AI: Copenhagen summit, Common Sense Media, and regulatory dilemmas
• [11:49–14:37] — Influencers at the European Council: pilot project details and reactions

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Episode Tone and Style

Informal, witty, and conversational, with a focus on sharp analysis and playful asides. The hosts break down complex EU politics into relatable, often humorous insights, while respectfully giving voice to political leaders and drawing attention to policy implications.

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For a quick yet thorough navigation of today’s EU political drama—negotiatory style—this episode is your essential morning listen.

Transcript

[A]

Ready to soundtrack your summer with Red Bull Summer All Day Play. You choose a playlist that fits your summer vibe the best. Are you a festival fanatic, a deep end dj, a road dog, or a trail mixer? Just add a song to your chosen playlist and put your summer on track. Red Bull Summer All Day Play. Red Bull gives you wings. Visit Red Bull.com BrightSummerAhead to learn more. See you this summer. Good morning. It's Tuesday, May 12, and this is the Brussels Playbook podcast. The mood in Brussels today is negotiatory. Just made up a new word, Nick. Brussels is full of talk once again about who could and absolutely could not represent Europe in future Ukraine peace talks. Also on the pod, the EU wants to childproof AI before big tech gets too far ahead of regulators. And influencers could be coming to future European Council meetings with their selfie sticks and their ring lights. I'm Zoya Shetlovic and with me today is Nick Finicker. Hey, Nick.

[B]

Hey.

[A]

What do you think about these selfie sticks influencers? They're going to be crowding us out in press conferences at the European Council summits.

[B]

I'm still stuck on negotiatory as a brand new word. All the English language, we had to invent a new word to describe the vibe today, but it's, it's spot on.

[A]

Well, hat tip to Dionis, our producer, because that's where that idea came from. Thanks, Dionis. Our first story today, Nick, it's about something that connects what we spoke about yesterday before the Foreign Affairs Council. It was a pretty heavy Ukraine event and there are some separate channels that are happening at the same time. So we've got ongoing negotiations around this 21st package of sanctions which we were talking about. There was a separate conference on returning Ukrainian children from Russia who've been kidnapped during the full scale invasion. And now we've got Canada announcing some fresh measures of support for Ukraine. And we'll, we'll come back to that later, Nick. But the discussion has been fueled over the weekend by this suggestion by Vladimir Putin that perhaps maybe former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder could represent Europe in negotiations for peace.

[B]

Absolutely. So that was one of the first questions that the EU's chief diplomat, Kaya Kallis had to answer. And she was not impressed. She pointed to Schroeder's ties to Russian state owned enterprises. He's worked for three and basically saying if Schroeder is the negotiator for the eu, that means that Putin is effectively sitting on both sides of the Table.

[A]

Yeah, but this is really part of this discussion that's now kicking off all around capitals in Europe about who should represent, if anyone, Europe in negotiations. Because obviously the EU is now the major backer of Ukraine in this war, but it isn't represented in peace talks which are happening on and off with various members of the Trump administration and with the Russians and sometimes Ukrainians as well. Sometimes they're cut out, too. But the eu nowhere to be seen.

[B]

Yeah, exactly. And the United States is obviously distracted with Iran. And the negotiators that Trump has appointed, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, are busy trying to sort out and end to that conflict. So they've not been paying attention to the Ukraine process. And in the void there, we've seen these calls increasing for saying Europe needs to step up and engage directly with Russia. So far, the top officials are not going there, but we're seeing this now kind of really come into to a boil.

[A]

Yeah. And you spoke with the Ukrainian foreign minister yesterday, Andrey Sibiha. He didn't sound enthusiastic about Schroeder either. He said it was ridiculous. But there was some more important stuff underneath the kind of the show of it all with Schroeder being floated.

[B]

Yeah, I mean, he said, you know, he may as well propose Steven Seagal, Gerard Depardieu, some other Russia sympathizers for the role. That's how serious having Gerhard Schroeder lead these negotiations is to him. But he did engage with the idea of Europe participating, playing a role. And he said Europe should try to complement the United States. Not replace, but complement, and they should focus on really, really concrete deliverables, things that they really bring about to sort of bring this ceasefire a little bit closer. And the idea that he broke with us was the idea of an airport ceasefire. They say, you know, with our long range weapons, we can now reach Moscow's main airport, St Petersburg's main airport. The summer holidays are starting. There's a risk of major disruption here. Let's float this idea of an airport ceasefire and have the Europeans lead the discussion on it. And he pitched this to the foreign ministers yesterday in Brussels.

[A]

And this is significant because the thing that some people may forget is that Kiev, and in fact, the entirety of Ukraine is currently not accessible by air. So when you've got leaders coming to visit Kyiv, when they're visiting Zelensky, they are coming by train, they're taking many hours long on these carriages running through Poland. So I think this is a really important issue for the Ukrainians from the Perspective of like resuming some normality, being able to fly in and out. So it makes sense. But that wasn't the only kind of action on Ukraine. We also had the Canadian Foreign Minister in town, Anita Anand. Pretty unusual for a Canadian to join the Foreign Affairs Council, but she was in town for a few more things. So last night she announced a few initiatives to help Ukraine. One of them was that Canada was going to sign the International Claims Commission for Ukraine. That's the first non European country to do that. That's the Council of Europe initiative. And she also said that there are going to be more sanctions targeting those who are responsible for abducting Ukrainian children. So it's pretty significant stuff that she was announcing in, in Europe.

[B]

Yeah. And your conversation with her, she also hit on this point of like minded countries, the middle powers kind of coming closer together. She talked about how Canada can align itself more on Ukraine defense, Arctic trade and supply. And she even coined the term the Carney Doctrine. What, what do you make of that?

[A]

It's super interesting. So the kind of root of this was Mark Carney's speech. That's the Canadian Prime Minister's speech at the Davos shindig earlier this year where he laid out this vision of middle powers, as he called them, working together and taking up some of the space that the US has vacated. Let's have a quick listen around what she had to say.

[C]

If you look at the trend, we have been working more and more closely with Europe at rock bottom, it's about like mindedness. The values that we share, including support for Ukraine, where we are one of the largest per capita donors in support for Ukraine, is incontrovertible. And that really reflects the shared value system that we have with so many European initiatives.

[A]

Could Canada apply to join the EU at some point in the future?

[C]

Our work right now is on these individual initiatives that make so much sense for, for our domestic economy and our conception of defense and security. And again, participating in these conversations with like minded countries in the European Union, it is a natural fit. And we are continuing to explore these types of initiatives so that we can continue to undertake the pragmatic and principled diplomacy that Prime Minister Carney set out in the Davos speech.

[A]

I mean, I didn't hear no when I asked her whether Canada might join the eu.

[B]

No. And it's interesting to hear this emphasis on like minded. What are we? We're like minded, but who are we not like minded with? Right. That's the elephant in the room who we're not talking about. And that's Donald Trump's America, if my understanding is right.

[A]

I think your understanding is perfect, Nick, as per usual. Nick, there's an interesting summit that's happening in the Danish Parliament today in Copenhagen. It's focused on children's safety and AI. And there's some pretty heavy hitters that are going Commission president Ursula von der Leyen is going to be there. She's giving a speech. The Danish king is going to be there. Married to our Mary, Australia's Queen of hearts, Hillary Clinton is going to be there. Meta Friedrichson and basically what they're announcing is the introduction of a new youth AI safety institute.

[B]

It's more like who isn't there?

[A]

I know. Well, me. Why aren't I invited? That's what I want to know.

[B]

Yeah. Our colleague Elisa Grizzy has a great story about the idea here, which is to create something like a crash test rating for AI products aimed at children, to test AI products that kids already use to publish ratings, evaluation, create standards for what counts as safe AI for kids, and pressure companies to improve safety. And now the focus is on serious harm things like self harm, suicide, content eating disorders, manipulative AI to give, I guess, parents and adults some kind of guide rails to to deal with this new technology.

[A]

Yeah. So the whole thing, it's being run by a US nonprofit that's called Common Sense Media, which people may know it from its reviews and age ratings of films and TVs and games and apps and things, but they're moving more into that AI sphere and online safety research. And basically that's part of this idea of like okay, kids, I mean they really are taking to AI like natives. There's been a survey that has been done and that's found that 50% of American teens are regularly using AI companions. So they're kind of replacing friends because nearly a third said that those conversations feel as satisfying as talking to real friends. Yikes. Yikes indeed. And more than 50% are using AI tools for homework help, which doesn't surprise me because I've got some teacher friends who have been spotting it all through their kids homework. So experts are saying basically the standards are lagging behind and that the EU and others need to regulate and do more very, very quickly.

[B]

It's daunting stuff. And this is also why Brussels is paying attention. There's growing fear that we could end up regulating only after the technology is so deeply embedded in the kids or kids lives that they'll find ways around it. But there's an awkward question hanging over all of this.

[A]

I'll go on.

[B]

Some of the companies funding the institute are. Are also building the AI tools it plans to scrutinize.

[A]

Whoops. Might be a little conflict of interest. I don't know. Critics say, as we say in the

[B]

biz, so the funding includes anthropic and the OpenAI Foundation. Now, the organizers say the funders will have no influence over ratings and evaluations and testing and scoring will be fully independent. What I notice here is that this is soft regulation. We're not talking about hard bans or anything like that. So it's not quite self regulation, but this is definitely more amenable to the tech companies involved.

[A]

Yeah, but there could be a group of countries that go further. And this is. Once again, I'm going to use the phrase coalition of the willing. It's popping up everywhere. And basically our colleague Hannah Cochley, she has scooped that Belgium is pushing for something it's calling an AI coalition of the willing. And the thinking is that if there isn't enough support for everyone to get on board with hardcore measures, then a few countries can do it alone. And we don't have the final list of countries that are going to be included. But some people are talking about countries like the Netherlands and Estonia as perhaps being in that group.

[B]

Yeah. And obviously the geopolitical angle here is that Europe is just becomes too dependent on American or Chinese AI. As if it isn't already brave new world, my friends.

[A]

Foreign. As if the global crises we're currently facing here, there and everywhere aren't enough for EU leaders to deal with at European Council summits. Looks like they're going to have some influences with their ring cams in tow.

[B]

That's right. The European Council is launching a pilot project that will see youtubers and tick tockers welcome into the high security world of the European Council.

[A]

And this is going to come into being in July. Right. So from like July, we might be seeing people doing TikTok dances around that Yuko Summit area.

[B]

As long as they don't break the story of what's on the menu for the leaders. I'm unbothered.

[A]

I'm actually quite excited about this. I think we need to get with the kids. We're down with the youth on this podcast. I want to see TikTok dancers. I want to see challenges. Planking. Planking's a thing still, right?

[B]

Nick, let's not do this. It's just gonna be really embarrassing. Now the idea is to show off what the council does to the European public. But the reaction so far is pretty lukewarm from officials. We have one diplomat who says it was a lot like the classic dynamic where the boomer in the room thinks he is pitching a very novel and interesting idea and the others more or less kill it with questions.

[A]

That is so harsh.

[B]

Another suggested doing a video on unboxing the Yuko. Conclusions.

[A]

I would so watch that, Nick. I don't know what these critics are talking about. I'd be down to clown. Look, there have been some criticisms from reporters as well, some of our colleagues who say this isn't great because journalists who are accredited to cover the eu, basically they have standards that they've got to meet and they have to disclose who pays them. Whereas influencers, they might get some sweet, sweet cashola for showing up. So it's a bit iffy. But look, I'm really excited about what this story opens up, which is a question for our WhatsApp listeners. For the youths out there. Tell us, are there some good content creators who have been covering the EU on TikTok or YouTube or Insta or whatever it might be? Snap, doodang, ditzycon, MySpace. Folks, we'd love to hear from you. Let us know who you want to see at the Yuko summits, folks. That's it from us today. Like us. Subscribe. Tell your kids about us. I hear we're really hot with the youth crowd now, so let them know we're right here for them. Foreign.

[B]

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