Greece, France to expand military cooperation, sign mutual defense deal
Greece and France propose to update and expand their military cooperation agreement with a mutual defense clause within the next couple of months, officials said Thursday. “We have agreed to conclude the negotiations very fast, within one or two months, and then sign” the agreement, Defense Minister Nikos Dendias said. “It will include a clause for mutual defense assistance, military cooperation and cooperation in the defense industry.” Dendias spoke after talks with France’s Minister of the Armed Forces Catherine Vautrin, during a visit to Greece’s newly-delivered, French-made Kimon FDI frigate.
Public divided over activist Maria Karystianou as political leader, MRB poll shows
Greek voters are split on activist Maria Karystianou’s aspirations for political leadership, according to an MRB poll conducted for OPEN TV. In voting intention, New Democracy leads with 22.3%, followed by Course of Freedom with 10.1%. PASOK and Greek Solution share third place at 9.7% each. Other parties include KKE at 6%, SYRIZA at 3.5%, Voice of Reason at 2.6%, Niki at 2.2%, MeRA25 at 2%, Movement for Democracy at 1.6% and New Left at 1%. Undecided voters make up 18.5%. When asked if they would vote for a new party led by Karystianou, 58% said no and 32.4% said yes.
Stournaras: Outlook for Greek banks in 2026 remains positive
The outlook for Greek banks in 2026 remains positive, as despite the decline in interest rates their profitability is expected to stay high, according to the Governor of the Bank of Greece, Yannis Stournaras. Speaking to the Board of Directors of the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) on Thursday, he noted that banks must ensure that credit expansion is based on conservative criteria and procedures, in order to maintain the quality of their assets and effectively address the remaining pockets of credit risk.
https://www.amna.gr/en/article/966365/Stournaras-Outlook-for-Greek-banks-in-2026-remains-positive
Greece’s unemployment rate falls to 7.5% in December, ELSTAT says
Greece’s unemployment rate fell to 7.5% in December 2025, compared to the upwardly revised 9.4% rate in December 2024 and the downward revision of 8.1% in November 2025, according to Hellenic Statistical Authority ELSTAT.
https://www.amna.gr/en/article/966367/Greeces-unemployment-rate-falls-to-75-in-December–ELSTAT-says
ATHEX: Profit taking has banks slide 2.37%
Several traders who bought bank shares at Athinon Avenue earlier this week chose to cash on their gains on Thursday, leading the banks index a notable decline and the benchmark to moderate losses, coming off the 16-year high recorded on Wednesday. However, the very high turnover for one more day reveals that the Greek bourse remains in the radar of a growing number of investors, and that can only mean a positive course in the short and medium term.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1293810/athex-profit-taking-has-banks-slide-2-37
KATHIMERINI: Hard stance by Ankara just before the meeting between Mitsotakis-Erdogan
TA NEA: Fatal gaps regarding psychic illness and crime – The basement of Violanta biscuit factory was not declared to the competent authorities
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: Work accidents: the government is lying and provoking
RIZOSPASTIS: Greek Communist Party 22nd Conference work began yesterday
KONTRA NEWS: Who were the ones covering-up the illegal acts of the owner of the “Violanta” biscuit factory
DIMOKRATIA: Zero hour for the Aegean Sea – Erdogan crossed the red line
NAFTEMPORIKI: Asymmetric performances: fragmented economies
DRIVING THE DAY
A NEW ERA OF ACCOUNTABILITY? The dismissal of a top EU transport official caught up in a graft scandal is sending shockwaves through a Brussels institutional bubble where disciplinary probes are typically handled away from the public eye — and sanctions like firings are vanishingly rare.
Ultimate insider: The man at the center of the scandal, Henrik Hololei, had been working in EU institutions for more than two decades, notably as director-general of the Commission’s transport department — one of the highest positions available to civil servants in the EU system.
Rare penalty: The decision revealed by POLITICO on Thursday to end his employment was something “I’ve never seen before,” said a Commission insider granted anonymity to discuss internal matters.
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Hololei himself spoke of disappointment — and a degree of relief. “After nearly 22 years at the Commission, I am obviously disappointed,” he told my colleague Mari Eccles in a phone conversation. “But I’m happy that this long process has finally come to a conclusion.”
Wheels of justice: That “long process” began three years ago, kicking off when POLITICO first revealed that Hololei, then DG for transport, had accepted free flights from Qatar while he was negotiating an aviation deal with the Gulf state.
Tick tock: After those allegations came to light, the Commission responded by removing Hololei from his managerial position. But he remained at the EU’s executive branch at a high level — as special adviser at the international partnerships division — and continued to receive support from colleagues and transport industry executives.
Say it ain’t so: “The feeling is they’re making an example of him,” said a person who works in the aviation field and was granted anonymity to speak freely. “It just feels like he got dragged into something more complicated than he expected.”
The other side: But for those who have been calling for stronger accountability in EU institutions following a series of scandals, the decision to terminate Hololei’s contract was a welcome conclusion.
“It’s almost three years to the day since revelations of Mr. Hololei’s impropriety broke,” said Transparency International’s senior policy officer, Shari Hinds. “Though long overdue, it is encouraging that the European Commission finally appears to be dealing out consequences proportionate to the gravity of these ethics violations.”
Indeed, claims against Hololei were among several scandals to hit Brussels in recent years. There was Qatargate, which involved the arrests of senior European Parliament officials accused of taking bribes (that case remains open), and Russiagate, which centered on allegations that Moscow tried to influence the European Parliament. Most recently, former top EU diplomat Federica Mogherini and senior Commission official Stefano Sannino were held for questioning in an ongoing fraud probe.
New era: While those probes generated headlines, they have yet to deliver clear outcomes — either to exculpate the accused or impose punishment. In that sense, Hololei’s termination is a break with precedent.
Praise: Daniel Freund, a Greens lawmaker in Parliament who is outspoken on the need for reform in EU institutions, praised the outcome. “Good to see there is an actual reaction,” he said. “So far, so good.”
Penalties, not reforms: Even so, calls to reform the institutions’ rules or create an overarching ethics body on par with France’s Haute Autorité, which has the power to investigate public officials across institutions, have run into a wall of opposition.
Anything but that: An ongoing large-scale review of Commission processes has been tasked with examining everything from how decisions are taken to whether entire policy areas could be jettisoned. But officials leading the review have been clear about one thing: There will be no reform of the European Commission’s internal rulebook.
The bottom line: Hololei’s firing shows the EU’s executive branch imposing a rare and serious penalty against one of its most senior officials. But it also sends a message that the institution is perfectly capable of policing itself — no reforms needed, thank you very much.
EUROPE’S IRAN SHIFT
CHRONICLES OF A SEA CHANGE: There was nothing inevitable about the EU’s bold decision to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization. Until just days before, a small but powerful grouping of countries led by France, Italy and Spain had held out on the decision. So — what changed?
How it happened: A report by Zoya Sheftalovich, Clea Caulcutt and yours truly reveals that pressure from Berlin, as well as footage emerging from Iran, prompted the last holdouts to change their stance over a few, crucial days leading up to a gathering of foreign affairs ministers in Brussels on Thursday.
Logic of a holdout: France, along with the U.K. and Germany, is a member of the E3 group of nations that are holding nuclear talks with Iran. For Paris, keeping the IRGC off the EU terror list “maintained the possibility that the E3 could play a role if the negotiations on the nuclear program started again,” said a European diplomat.
Gaining momentum: Yet by midweek, the tide was turning. Countries favoring the listing had managed to peel away Italy and Spain from the holdout group, with Rome the first to change camps. Madrid fell into line shortly after, via a statement to POLITICO from the foreign ministry. France remained the key group’s only outlier.
Among other considerations linked to the nuclear talks, France was concerned about the fate of two nationals, Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris, who remain under house arrest at the French embassy in Tehran following their release from Tehran’s infamous Evin Prison, where political dissidents are detained.
By Wednesday evening, however, the pressure on the French was too great. Lacking support from allies, Paris dropped its opposition, with Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot telling reporters on Thursday morning that the “unwavering courage of the Iranians” could not be “in vain.”
All by myself: “They didn’t want to stand there like the only ones blocking this decision and supporting that regime,” a European Parliament official said.
Moving pictures: Asked by POLITICO why Europe had waited until this week to move on the IRGC when some capitals had been campaigning on the issue for years, EU High Representative Kaja Kallas pointed to the footage that began to surface at the end of a lengthy regime-imposed internet blackout.
“When the atrocities were clear, then it was also clear there has to be a very strong response from the European side,” Kallas said. European Parliament President Roberta Metsola echoed that point: “Everyone is seeing the appalling images emerging from Iran of the continued brutality of the regime,” she told Zoya in written comments. “It was necessary for Europe to act.”
PLAYBOOK INTERVIEW
TALLINN CALLS FOR ACTION: The EU’s decision to list Iran’s brutal IRGC as a terrorist organization was recognition that that American efforts to bring the regime to heel weren’t enough, Estonia’s Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna told Playbook’s Gabriel Gavin on the sidelines of Thursday’s Foreign Affairs Council (FAC).
Backing the U.S.: The IRGC designation will have “a very practical impact” on the international movements of both its members and their assets, Tsahkna said. The decision was underpinned by an awareness that pressure applied on Iran by U.S. President Donald Trump hadn’t been enough to force Tehran to the negotiating table. “Finally, Europe did something as well,” the foreign minister said.
Bad hombres: As Playbook reported Thursday, Estonia also introduced the idea of an EU visa blacklist for demobilized Russian soldiers involved in the invasion of Ukraine — “close [to] 1 million ex-combatants who are mainly criminals, who are very bad persons who [could] definitely come to Europe,” Tsahkna said.
Visa plan: The idea of national capitals pooling their intelligence to bar as many of the former Russian soldiers as possible was well-received at the FAC, Tsahkna said, with recognition the EU has not been “thinking systematically what will happen if the war will be stopped.”
Time to act: Tsahkna said he had met Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos and was ready to discuss the practicalities of the plan. In fact, it’s now full steam ahead with the drive to act in “coordinated ways” to tackle post-war challenges, the minister said. ” We need to do it now. Europe is not ready for [the consequences of] peace in that regard.”
EPP PLOTS STRATEGY
CROATIAN SOJOURN: EU leaders from the powerful center-right European People’s Party (EPP) — including German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen — kick off a two-day summit in Zagreb today to hammer out their camp’s political strategy for 2026.
Single market — now! The leaders will call on the European Commission to put forward “a binding timetable to finalize ongoing and upcoming legislation” to complete the single market, according to a document on the EPP’s 2026 roadmap obtained by Max Griera. The EPP’s collective focus has been galvanized by an EU leaders’ gathering on competitiveness, due at the start of February.
Top priorities: Regulation of the proposed “28th regime” voluntary framework to facilitate enterprise creation … the energy, savings, and investments and banking unions … the intra-EU mobility of workers … and the European Product Act.
Cut cut cut: The EPP also wants to keep slashing red tape with an emphasis on revising the emissions-trading system, the carbon-border adjustment mechanism, the Nature Restoration Law and the Natura 2000 program (a nature-preservation network).
Geopolitical lines: Leaders argue that“the traditional security system built after World War II does not exist anymore,” especially as EU-U.S. relations have “taken a considerable turn.” Europe therefore needs to pour cash into common pan-European defense projects: a European drone-defense initiative, the Eastern Flank Watch, the European air shield and the European Space Shield.
Thanks for your service: Among the EPP’s proposals is to create an “European Police Day” to “recognize and celebrate” law enforcement in the EU.
SHIELDING DEMOCRACY
WHO’S DOING WHAT: The Commission gave our tech colleague Eliza Gkritsi some details about the division of labor on the Democracy Shield, in the light of the departmental jostling first reported by Playbook Thursday. Readers will recall that the direction of the planned Centre for Democratic Resilience had pitted DG COMM against other parts of the executive.
Besties: Justice Commissioner Michael McGrath said the center’s secretariat would be “anchored in DG COMM, working closely with other Commission services, including DG JUST and DG CNECT, and the EEAS.” A focus of the center “will be on training and capacity building, exchange of information and sharing best practices,” McGrath said in written comments.
LESSONS FROM DOWN UNDER: Zoya Sheftalovich sat down with Tom Rogers, a member of the advisory board for the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, to get his take on election interference. Rogers is the former chief of the Australian Electoral Commission, the independent agency that manages the country’s federal elections (and Australia’s most-trusted public institution).
Elections have had three epochs, Rogers said: the time before secret ballots, the time after and today’s “epoch of social media,” which has “introduced more stresses into election delivery that we’ve never seen before.”
Listen up, losers: “The election has to be run in a way that the loser thinks they’ve had a fair go. A lot of electoral interference is designed to try to undermine that feeling, which leads to losers refusing to concede.” And then there’s the rise of AI, which has seen “electoral misinformation produced at a volume and a velocity more than ever seen before.”
Act fast and flood the zone: Rogers said “the important thing is to act quickly” at the first sign of an influence campaign. “While we’re arguing about policies, our adversaries are destroying things … we should flood the zone with accurate and positive information as a counter. It worked for us in Australia.”
IN OTHER NEWS
A BIT ON THE SIDE: 14 MEPs declared they have a side job but have not revealed how much money it brings in. Transparency International shared with POLITICO’s EU Influence newsletter the names of MEPs who had not listed income from side jobs. According to the MEPs’ code of conduct, lawmakers are supposed to declare any money they make from jobs outside of the European Parliament if it’s over €5,000 a year. Find out who the 14 are in this story by our Mari Eccles.
ALL EYES ON THE FED: Donald Trump will announce his choice for the next chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve today, with Bloomberg, the FT and others reporting that hawkish former governor Kevin Warsh will replace Jerome Powell.
TRUMP’S NO. 1 FAN: In his latest Declassified column, Paul Dallison looks at the songs that Nicki Minaj and the American president might sing together.
NOT THE TIME: The mayor of Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, has condemned a stunt by a German comedian who attempted to raise an American flag in the city amid tensions over Trump’s ambition to obtain the island, my colleague Ferdinand Knapp reports.
NOW HEAR THIS — INSTA-BANS FOR KIDS? On this week’s episode of the EU Confidential podcast, host Sarah Wheaton interviews Jonathan Haidt, whose research for best-seller “The Anxious Generation” helped inspire France’s moves to ban social media for minors. They’re joined in the studio by MEP Veronika Cifrová Ostrihoňová and Eliza Gkritsi to discuss protecting teens’ mental health at the EU level. Plus, I’ll join Camille Gijs to discuss the implications of the EU-India trade and defense pact. Listen and subscribe to EU Confidential here.