It was a short and unenlightening Commission midday briefing Tuesday. That was partly because the college of commissioners will meet in Strasbourg later on, and partly because of spokespeople avoiding answering simple questions.

News from the Commission meeting will be broadcast on EBS at 4:30 p.m., with the headlines expected to be on the Commission’s plan to reform comitology — jargon for how the EU takes technical, often scientific, decisions. POLITICO has a preview of the decision.

For Greece, it’s like 2015 all over again

There’s been little to no progress on the Greek bailout dispute and the Commission wants you to believe that a visit by Pierre Moscovici, the European commissioner for economic and financial affairs, to Greece on Wednesday “is not linked” to the bailout.

Playbook can’t think of any other reason Moscivici would be meeting the Greek prime minister, finance minister and leader of the opposition just days ahead of a Eurogroup meeting on February 20.

Officially, Moscovici is in Greece to be awarded of the “grand cross of the Phoenix” medal by Greek President Prokopios Pavlopoulos and the title of “Doctor honoris causa” from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

Simple questions demand simple answers

Why do European Commission spokespeople insist on not answering questions to which clear answers exist?

It’s a troubling pattern that Playbook will continue to note as long as it persists.

The Commission’s deputy spokesman Alexander Winterstein on Tuesday declined to confirm that Jean-Claude Juncker will meet U.S. Vice President Mike Pence in Brussels. Winterstein would say only “we announce the president’s agenda always a bit closer to the date.”

Why? We already know Pence will be in town. Donald Tusk announced it.

We also know Juncker will meet him. We know that because Juncker himself said so on February 12. Here’s the transcript from an interview on Deutschlandfunk (German public radio).

Deutschlandfunk: “U.S. vice-president [Mike] Pence is coming to Brussels next weekend.”
Juncker: “Yes.”
Deutschlandfunk: “You’re going to meet with him I assume?”
Juncker: “Yes.”