POLITICO Brussels Playbook Plus: Analog single market — Put a cork in it — Macron-o-meter

BULGARIA’S MYSTERIOUS WOULD-BE COMMISSIONER: Mariya Gabriel, a second-term MEP from Bulgaria, won the backing of the European People’s Party and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to become Bulgaria’s candidate to replace Kristalina Georgieva as the country’s commissioner.

But what do we know about 37-year-old Gabriel, born Mariya Ivanova Nedelcheva? While she has twice won the “MEP of the Year” awards from Parliament magazine, some Bulgarians know little about her.

One Bulgarian official summed it up by saying, “I don’t remember the names of quite a few commissioners. What’s one more?”

Even people who grew up in the same small town as Gabriel don’t seem to have any memories of her. Gabriel was described to POLITICO (in somewhat sexist terms) by a party colleague as “beautiful but smart and nice too.” Bulgarian Socialist officials didn’t have anything bad to say to Playbook. “When you don’t do anything to attract attention in Bulgaria, that’s a good thing,” said one.

Someone supportive of Gabriel posted a substantial Wikipedia page about her at 6:10 a.m. on Wednesday, the day of her official nomination by the Bulgarian government. It has identical text to Gabriel’s Bulgarian language Wikipedia page.

Gabriel low profile isn’t seen as a problem on the 13th floor of the Berlaymont. The Juncker cabinet is said to be content with the idea of a junior commissioner acting as Digital Commissioner Andrus Ansip’s helper on digital files.

Juncker’s chief of staff Martin Selmayr will now have to decide if he wants to place his close ally, Deputy Chief Spokeswoman Mina Andreeva in Gabriel’s cabinet, possibly even as chief of staff. Andreeva knows the digital files well: DG CONNECT is where she got her Commission start and made her Selmayr connection.

Gabriel is also one half of a Brussels power couple: Her husband, François Gabriel, works for European Parliament President Antonio Tajani.

Many Bulgarians remain scarred by the 2009 Commission nomination hearing of Rumiana Jeleva, who flopped disastrously. The good news for Gabriel: MEPs treat their own with velvet gloves, so she’s almost certain to get a passing grade.

ANALOG SINGLE MARKET: The Commission launched a review of its Digital Single Market efforts Wednesday. Unfortunately, links to the video and document in press material didn’t work when first posted. When they did add links that worked, it sent users to a version of the document with track changes showing comments from the Commission’s secretariat-general and Andrus Ansip’s cabinet.

POLITICO IS EXPANDING: We’ve grown so much we now have our own town in Cyprus.

DID YOU KNOW? European Council President Donald Tusk’s middle name is Franciszek. Send you favorite politician middle names to playbook@politico.eu. To show we play fair, Playbook’s middles names are, in no particular order: Gordon, Pierre and Winter Hope.

PUT A CORK IN IT: Creative folks in the Commission and Parliament are hard at work making a table out of wine corks and another out of metallic bottle caps. Why? There’s an internal EU exhibition called “Our Home, Our Planet” taking place in June. As the organizers note in an internal email seen by Playbook, “no crafting skill is required.” The artwork will be on display in the canteen of SQM (that’s Parliament-speak for its building for committee secretariats near Square de Meeus).

FEUD OF THE WEEK

Nigel Farage vs. Die Zeit. Outspoken former UKIP leader Nigel Farage ended an interview with Steffen Dobbert from German newspaper Die Zeit after the German reporter asked if he had met the founder of Wikileaks, Julian Assange, for “journalistic reasons.” Dobbert suggested the meeting was politically motivated and questioned Farage about his ties with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

“Europe and the world … are expecting France to once again astonish them, for France to be itself and this is what we will do.” Emmanuel Macron speaking to supporters outside the Louvre in Paris after his election victory.

GAFFES AND LAUGHS:

Commission invents another word: The latest word invented by the spokespersons’ service is “Brexitize.” Or “Brexitise” if you prefer. Britain may be leaving, but Commission Brexit press officer Daniel Ferrie was last week still valiantly trying — to no avail, we should add — to get Playbook to use British spellings. Several Commission officials confirmed the expression was coined in a spokespersons’ service morning meeting last week. All refused to out the creative spin doctor responsible.

Size matters: Věra Jourová, the justice and citizenship commissioner, was in fine form at the European University Institute’s State of the Union conference on Friday in Florence. Joking about a huge image of herself projected behind her, which got bigger and bigger as the camera zoomed in and out, she said: “My media adviser warned I’d be twice as big on stage. She will be happy.”

Dental drama: A Belgian dentist has avoided jail for advertising his services online, after the European Court of Justice said a general and absolute ban on advertising dental care services is incompatible with EU law. Playbook wonders how Belgium could enforce such a law given that even a telephone book listing or a sign on the door amounts to advertising.

WHO’S UP:

Sylvie Goulard: The French liberal MEP is considered a serious candidate to join Macron’s new government.

Philip May: The British PM’s husband appeared alongside her on primetime TV and revealed that he puts the bins out. What a star!

WHO’S DOWN:

Florian Philippot: At the center of the National Front’s split over whether to take France out of the euro, his position is now in jeopardy.

James Comey: Fired without warning as FBI director by U.S. President Donald Trump.

MACRON-O-METER: We’re measuring, on a scale of one to Justin Trudeau, how big Emmanuel Macron’s ego is this week based on the love and attention showered on him.