No one is putting Warsaw in a corner.

Donald Tusk’s former right-hand man Piotr Serafin will pick up the microphone today in a bid to convince EU political parties that he is the man leading the negotiations on its €1.2 trillion central budget.

When Tusk, who is now prime minister of Poland, was president of the European Council, officials who worked with Serafin described him as a powerbroker par excellence and a tireless cruncher of numbers. Having worked in Brussels for over a decade, he knows how the EU works – and that already gives him a big head start.

If approved, Serafin will be central to the 2028-2034 budget negotiations and will be tasked with proposing how the EU plans to spend its money in the coming years. But the task will be particularly difficult this budget cycle, as the European Commission wants to attach conditions to the cash handouts, especially since Poland is one of the biggest beneficiaries.

We’ll be bringing you all the action live from 14:30 CET on November 7. You can watch the session live Here.

Background reading:

P.S. If you want to follow more action from the hearings, our reporters will bring you blow-by-blow updates from all 26 commissioner interviews here.