Russian oil ban – Hungarian heist – EU ‘ghost writers’ – POLITICO

We unpack EU leaders’ agreement to ban Russian oil imports – with some notable exceptions after Hungary played hardball. And author Tommaso Pavone tells the story of the lawyers who became “ghost writers” to make the EU a legal reality.

POLITICO’s Andrew Gray, Matthew Karnitschnig, Lili Bayer and David M. Herszenhorn assess this week’s EU summit, where leaders reached a late-night deal to ban Russian oil – but only after making more concessions to the Prime Hungarian Minister Viktor Orbán. The crew also discusses what awaits the EU in terms of sanctions after the deadly battle over this package.

You’ll hear what Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, French President Emmanuel Macron and Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas told POLITICO about the summit – and the impact of EU sanctions on Vladimir Putin.

Our special guest is Tommaso Pavone, Assistant Professor of Law and Politics at the University of Arizona and Visiting Scholar at the ARENA Center for European Studies at the University of Oslo. His new book, “The Ghostwriters: Lawyers and the Politics Behind the Judicial Construction of Europe”,tells the fascinating story of ‘euro-lawyers’ across the continent who have sought cases and worked them up the European legal pyramid for decades to make the EU a legal reality.