Midday brief, in brief

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Today at Commission, (no) Pence readout and salty Brexit

It was a long and rather messy European Commission briefing on Tuesday. Here are the top lines:

Poland: Nothing to see here

The Commission confirmed it received a letter from the Polish government in which Warsaw said the rule of law dispute with Brussels should be over.

“We explained comprehensively what happened in Poland, how the reforms relating to the Constitutional Court have been implemented,” Polish Foreign Affairs Minister Witold Waszczykowski told local radio Tuesday. The Commission had given Warsaw until Tuesday to respond to its concerns about the changes to the court and its impact on the rule of law.

Frans Timmermans the Commission first vice president — who exchanged sharp words with Waszczykowski at the Munich Security Conference — will brief his colleagues on Wednesday.

A decision from the Commission this week is unlikely, however. Chief spokesman Margaritis Schinas said it was “a bit early” for the Commission to make its mind up. That’s at least in part because the letter needs translating from Polish and pored over by the lawyers.

What did Pence say?

Schinas refused to give a full readout of Monday’s meeting between his boss, Jean-Claude Juncker, and U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, merely repeating Juncker’s quote on the need for a great partnership between both sides.

Schinas said it was a “very good first meeting” but wouldn’t say if Pence shares Donald Trump’s views on migration or on the future of Europe. He also declined to comment on Trump’s tweet attacking Sweden’s migration policy in response to mocking of his statement about a non-existent incident on Friday.

Asked by journalists if Juncker and Pence discussed Ted Malloch as a potential next U.S. ambassador to the EU, Schinas redirected reporters to Juncker’s TIME interview last week in which he said Malloch ought to “improve his knowledge and watch his words from time to time.” Malloch — tipped to be the U.S.’s man in Brussels only by himself, it seems — had described Juncker as “a very adequate mayor in Luxembourg.”

Here’s why Juncker’s views on the future U.S. ambassador matter.

Brexit gets salty

The Commission was also grilled on Brexit after Juncker said in the Belgian parliament that the U.K.’s Brexit bill will be “salée” — that means it’s going to be expensive.

This was one of the rare Commission press conference where the phrase “no notification, no negotiation” was used. They won’t be able to use it too many more times as the U.K. will likely notify the EU of its intention to leave the bloc within weeks.

Coming up

It will be a busy college of commissioners meeting tomorrow.

They will discuss the European Semester winter package for offering economic and social policy recommendations to EU countries for the next months. Commissioners will also have a chat on future of Europe’s white paper to prepare the Rome summit on March 25.

As well as Timmermans’ briefing on Poland, Pierre Moscovici will also brief his colleagues on the outcomes of Monday’s Eurogroup on the Greek bailout.