Good morning. It's Thursday, June 4, and this is the Brussels Playbook podcast.

The vibe in Brussels today is fond, as officials realize Italian Prime Minister Georgia Maloney

might not be that bad, actually. Fond. Fond. Also on the pod, at a meeting in Luxembourg today, 11 countries are going to issue a call for Russian tourists to be barred from holiday in Europe. And what on earth is a spritz mistow? The mystery cocktail that has the EU capital scratching its head. Stick around for some answers and maybe a recipe. I'm Zoro Shafter Lovitam. With me today is Ian Wushart, our senior EU politics editor. Ian, you've ever, have you ever had a spritz misto before? Uh, no. What is it? Uh, I think it's Aprol and Campari. Ruin the podcast. We're supposed to say that at the end. Damn. Well, now there's no reason to listen. I think it's Aparel and Campari, if I'm not wrong. our Italian What's wrong with a nice cup of tea? Nothing. It's perfection.

Tell me how now there's no reason to listen. I think it's Aparel and Campari, if I'm not wrong. Our Italian...

What's wrong with a nice cup of tea?

Nothing. It's perfection. Tell me how to make it again, all of the steps.

All right, Ian, let's talk Italy first. We haven't done that much on the pod around Rome, so it's time.

Now, there's a reason why we're talking about Italy.

It's because Georgia Maloney is facing election in 2027.

That's the other big election.

It's not just France that's going to the polls.

And she's in kind of a bit of trouble.

She is.

The economy in Italy is not doing so great, is it?

And it's been really badly impacted by the war in

Iran, basically because Italy, I think more than any other country in Europe, imports so much

fossil fuels. And that's obviously been hit by the blockades in the straight of Hormuz and the

Italian economy has really gone downhill. Yeah, and that's not the only thing that's been hitting Italy. It's also been Trump tariffs. And you would think that Georgia Maloney, who is one of Trump's big admirers in the EU, one of his closest buds, you would think that that might stop Italy. Are they close friends now, though? Well, friends of convenience. I mean, I guess Donald Trump doesn't have a lot of friends. He doesn't go to his son's wedding.

No. Why we're talking about this today is because of the announcement, the economic announcements that the commission made yesterday.

Yeah, that's right. So this is in the spring semester package. And basically, what happened was that the EU rulebook limits budget deficits to 3% of economic output. But there's going to be a

concession that the Commission has announced, assuming it gets up, which is going to exempt some

green investments from those rules for public spending. So just for our listeners, in case they

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