Rehn's Turkey tactics

Underlying the Commission's proposal last week to suspend negotiations with Turkey (at least partially) was some fancy footwork.
When the Finnish government, in its role as president of the Council of Ministers, concluded that it was not going to get a deal with Turkey on opening the ports, Olli Rehn, Finland's European commissioner, moved into a pre-emptive overdrive, with the help of Catherine Day, the Commission secretary-general, and João Vale de Almeida, head of the private office of Commisson President José Manuel Barroso. The enlargement commissioner wanted to ensure that he was not blown off course by protests from national capitals. The heads of the private offices of the other commissioners received a message at 4pm on Tuesday summoning them to a meeting at 8pm that night. They were shown the text of the Commission proposal to suspend talks on eight chapters only once they got to the meeting and were not allowed to take or keep any copies – so that it could not be faxed to national capitals. Rehn felt sufficiently confident that he had things under control to drop a heavy hint at the EV50 awards gala dinner that night. The following morning the Commission unleashed its decision.