Who Keeps Farting at the EU Summit? 'Phantom Farter' Sends Reporters Fleeing While They Wait for Zelenskyy

European Union leaders gathered in Brussels this week to argue over budgets, migration and billions in aid for Ukraine, but for the press corps the most pressing question was a different one: who keeps breaking wind in the briefing room?

Politico Europe turned the mystery into a running item in its live coverage of the summit on 15 and 16 October 2026, after a recurring and strong odour drove journalists from their seats.

The culprit has not been identified. The episode played out as reporters waited for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who had come to press the EU for more support.

'Who Keeps Farting in the Briefing Room?'

'While waiting for Volodymyr Zelenskyy, reporters are trying to solve a mystery: Who keeps farting in the European Council press briefing room?' Politico Europe asked on Bluesky on Friday 16 October, linking to its live blog. It posted the same question, word for word, on X.

The live blog entry, written by Politico correspondent Zoya Sheftalovich and headlined 'Who is the phantom farter?', described reporters repeatedly confronted by what Bluewin rendered as a 'malodorous fart in their midst', Swiss outlet Bluewin reported. The previous night, several journalists, Sheftalovich among them, had left a diplomatic briefing because of what Bluewin described as a 'tear-inducing emission'.

Sheftalovich offered a measure of sympathy. Summit days are long, she noted, and reporters often run on little more than coffee while racing between briefings for fear of missing one. Her plea was practical: whoever was responsible should deal with the problem outside before somebody passed out.

No one has owned up. Bluewin reported that the person responsible remained unknown, and no official response from the Council has been reported.

From Press Room Joke To Viral Talking Point

The story spread quickly. Other outlets and social media accounts picked it up, with a post by News18, quoted by Catchy News World, summing up the online mood: 'The internet had one question: Who is the "phantom farter"?', Catchy News World reported. RT's international account also seized on the story, posting that reporters had been 'forced to deal with fetid farter'.

Some Brussels regulars found it all a little familiar. 'Who thought that this could be one of the hazards of the job,' one X user wrote, with a laughing emoji.

Not everyone was amused. Florian Eder, whom Bluewin identified as editor-in-chief of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, wrote on LinkedIn that readers are usually uninterested in journalists' working conditions. 'Nobody cares about that,' he wrote, according to Bluewin.

Summit press rooms in Brussels are crowded, and journalists often spend long hours in close quarters there while leaders negotiate behind closed doors.

Meanwhile, Inside the Summit Room

The summit's substantive business was contentious enough. Leaders closed ranks behind Zelenskyy and reaffirmed sanctions on Russia, but deferred hard decisions on money, Euronews reported.

Zelenskyy asked for about €70 billion (about £61 billion) in extra financial and military support for next year, a sum the EU had not planned for, and leaders tasked the European Commission with proposing how to address the shortfall. 'I defend the interests of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people exclusively,' he said.

Zelenskyy arrived seeking more military aid, stronger air defences and protection for Ukraine's energy grid, Euronews reported. He began his day with a first formal bilateral meeting with Hungary's new prime minister, Péter Magyar. His deputy chief of staff, Ihor Zhovkva, called for European alternatives to US missile defence and Starlink amid uncertainty over American support.

Kyiv estimates its financing gap for 2027 at $78 billion (about £58 billion), and an EU diplomat told Euronews the bloc may be expected to cover 'tens of billions' of it. The question of Russia's immobilised assets, worth about €210 billion (about £183 billion), also hung over the talks.

US negotiators were reported, according to Euronews, to have pressed Europeans to move the money into a US-controlled vehicle, a proposal German Chancellor Friedrich Merz rejected, with Belgium remaining the main holdout on using the assets.

Leaders failed to agree on the EU's next long-term budget. A proposal from the Irish presidency to cut €141 billion (about £123 billion) from the plan collapsed, and European Council President António Costa will now lead talks ahead of a special summit on 26 November.

Leaders also clashed over migration, with Denmark's Mette Frederiksen criticising Spain's plan to regularise 600,000 migrants. They asked the Commission to draw up trade defence tools, including quotas and tariffs, to protect the chemicals and machinery industries from Chinese competition, with the EU running a trade deficit of about €360 billion (about £313 billion) with China. 'The competition must be fair,' Merz said.

A push by Italy and the Visegrad countries for action on electricity prices produced no new measures.

For the journalists who covered it all, the two-day summit ended with the budget unresolved, no decision yet on the extra funding Ukraine requested for next year and the identity of the phantom farter still a mystery.