Anti-aging industry under the spotlight
A case that has cast light on Greece’s lucrative anti-aging industry took a dramatic turn Thursday when two doctors were arrested on charges of fatal exposure in connection with the death of popular singer Giorgos Mazonakis. The death has drawn attention to an unregulated market of “rejuvenation” treatments, including unproven stem cell therapies and plasmapheresis, often performed in unlicensed private offices favored for discretion by recognizable clients. Separate cases involve unauthorized botox imports and black-market testosterone sales.
President Tassoulas receives Amal Alamuddin at the Presidential Mansion
President of the Hellenic Republic Constantine Tassoulas received on Thursday, British-Lebanese lawyer and human rights advocate Amal Alamuddin Clooney highlighting her significant contribution to promoting Greece’s positions on the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures.
PM introduces Greece’s first astronaut at space summit in Paris
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis introduced Adrianos Golemis, who is set to become Greece’s first astronaut, at the International Space Summit in Paris on Wednesday. French President Emmanuel Macron invited Mitsotakis to make the introduction before some 2,000 participants from about 90 countries. The Greek prime minister called it a significant moment for the country, noting that Greece had virtually no presence in the space sector just a few years ago but now has 18 microsatellites in orbit and is developing a domestic satellite manufacturing industry.
Greek bond yields jump, yet remain below France and Italy
Greek government bond yields rose sharply over the past month, but the move tells less of a story about Greece than it does about the increasingly difficult environment confronting sovereign debt markets across Europe. The yield on Greece’s benchmark 10-year government bond climbed to 4.131% on Sept. 10 from 3.795% a month earlier, an increase of roughly 34 basis points.
ATHEX: Index slips despite rise for banks
The Euronext Athens (ATHEX) general index closed at 2,697.58 points, shedding 0.15% from Wednesday’s 2,701.69 points. The large-cap FTSE-25 index expanded 0.01% to end at 6,919.69 points, though mid-caps contracted 0.63%.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1314924/athex-index-slips-despite-rise-for-banks
KATHIMERINI: The dark market of artificial wellness
TA NEA: Inadequate security in trains: Alarming letter
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: Teachers are underpaid, exhausted and… ready to leave
RIZOSPASTIS: Another path is possible alongside a more powerful Greek Communist Party
KONTRA NEWS: The cables got mixed-up in the Paris meetings
DIMOKRATIA: New “hot” evidence regarding the “carcass” building of the new headquarters of DYPA
NAFTEMPORIKI: Heavy bill due to the increase of interest rates
DRIVING THE DAY
THE UNION’S IN A STATE: EU countries will today tell Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to use her State of the Union speech on Wednesday to commit to turning around the bloc’s flagging economy and tackle immigration — as public discontent drives up support for far-right parties across the continent.
Political appetite: Ambassadors from the 27 countries have been invited for a lunch with von der Leyen in the exclusive dining room on the 13th floor of the Berlaymont, off limits to ordinary staffers and catered by a team of top chefs.
On the agenda: While von der Leyen’s best-trailed policy announcements were on social affairs and geopolitical issues, including a social media “delay” for children under 13 and finding financial support for Ukraine, national governments seem to have other things on their minds. The speech comes two years after ex-ECB boss Mario Draghi predicted “slow agony” for the EU if it didn’t take action to support key industries — and, with the president entering the twilight of her time in office, little has been delivered to solve the crisis, according to POLITICO research.
Ambassadors will likely raise economic growth, job creation, the single market, competitiveness, cutting red tape and protecting Europe’s borders, five diplomats from across the bloc and two officials (granted anonymity to speak frankly) told Playbook. The push comes as von der Leyen faces flak from some quarters for her handling of growing concerns about borrowing costs, public spending and debt.
“We see the economy isn’t working for people … this is what is driving the surge of the far right,” said Petros Fassoulas, secretary-general of the European Movement, which brings together pro-EU politicians to campaign on key issues. “We are running out of opportunities to demonstrate to our fellow citizens that politics, democracy, Europe, can deliver answers.”
What do they want? “We can only show that we can deliver, by actually delivering,” said Hildegard Bentele, a German MEP from Friedrich Merz’s CDU. “That means concretely improving the conditions for businesses and citizens, like cutting red tape, lowering costs and improving infrastructure and security.”
Seeing red over green: A handful of countries, including the Czech Republic and Poland, want von der Leyen to further relax green legislation like the Emissions Trading System to ease pressure on heavy industry. Meanwhile, right-wing EPP and ECR lawmakers have revived a bid to scrap carbon rules if prices rise. A rival faction, led by Sweden and the Baltics, says that doing so would undercut companies that have already invested in the clean transition.
New arrivals: A coalition of countries, led by Denmark and Italy, is pushing for stronger powers to crack down on migration to avoid the issue fueling the extreme right, three of the diplomats said. But, with a package of measures already signed off and illegal crossing figures falling, von der Leyen will have to dig deep to find something new to say on the subject.
NOW READ THIS: From heavyweight lobbyists to cash-strapped NGOs, outside groups are jostling to get a line in the State of the Union, Mari Eccles and Sebastian Starcevic report.
BIG AND BREAKING
SWEDISH THRILLER: Sunday’s election in Sweden is going down to the wire, with the opposition center-left bloc leading incumbent Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson’s right-wing alliance by just 2.6 percentage points, according to pollster Novus — within the margin of error.
INTERFERENCE WARNING: Russia poses a threat to upcoming elections across Europe and social media platforms need to step up the fight against Moscow’s bots, Sweden’s disinformation defense chief tells my colleague Tim Ross in Stockholm.
ON THE FRONT LINE: Poland averted a “direct threat” to its border crossing with Ukraine on Wednesday night and is expecting more incidents as a result of Russia’s war, Prime Minister Donald Tusk has warned.
THE FAR RIGHT’S SECRET TO SUCCESS: Parties looking to capitalize on public anger are learning that the more radical they are, the more people seem to vote for them, Marion Solletty reports.
IS AI GOING TO KILL US ALL? Maybe, but Brussels isn’t worried about it just yet, Pieter Haeck writes.
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FAR-RIGHT FIREWALL
CROSSING THE RUBICON: The European People’s Party’s decision to work with the right and far right on a key spending file is inflaming divisions in the European Parliament — and threatening to derail negotiations on the bloc’s next long-term budget, Max Griera and Gregorio Sorgi report.
The flashpoint: Despite vowing to keep the far right out of budget negotiations, EPP MEPs last week used their support to push through an opinion on a file setting the rules for how EU money is spent, tracked and evaluated. The liberals, Socialists and Democrats and Greens wanted to retain green conditions and gender-mainstreaming requirements, while the EPP wanted to water them down.
The opinion is due to go before Parliament’s plenary next week. It won’t become law, but it will feed into the final legislation, which is still under negotiation. Now “we know what’s coming,” Danish Renew MEP Stine Bosse said, warning that the EPP will push to remove the green requirements.
Budget threat: Jean-Marc Germain, the S&D’s lead negotiator on the final text, said he wouldn’t take the opinion into account and would instead work with centrist groups. “This piece of legislation is key for the S&D. If it is weakened, it will lead to the S&D rejecting the entire [EU budget],” he warned.
EPP negotiator Niclas Herbst said he’d seek “broad support,” while urging the S&D to be “more open to cooperation and compromise.” Siegfried Mureșan, the group’s lead MEP on the overall budget, said the EPP remained “committed to a centrist majority” and that the far right would not become a “broader tendency” in budget talks. EPP group Chair Manfred Weber declined to comment.
The vote shows the difficulty of enforcing the firewall across a broad political group — and underlines that whether the EPP keeps the far right at arm’s length can come down to individual MEPs. With the long-term budget spread across dozens of files and committees, center-left lawmakers fear that similar cooperation could emerge elsewhere.
20-SECOND PLAYBOOK PRIMER
The EU ombudsman yesterday launched a probe into Ursula von der Leyen’s pick as special envoy on AI, but what does the ombudsman do? The office investigates complaints made against EU institutions, agencies and bodies, and looks into claims of the likes of unfair conduct, abuse of power and discrimination. Anyone can make a complaint to the ombudsman, or the watchdog can start its own investigations. The European Parliament picks the ombudsman for a five-year term, which can be renewed. The current office-holder is Teresa Anjinho.
CONSULTANCY CONUNDRUM
ETHICAL DILEMMA: What do you do when you land a Brussels public affairs job — and hate the idea of representing a particular client? It’s a problem that’s especially acute for junior staffers, according to five consultants who spoke to Mari Eccles for our sister newsletter, EU Influence. “You kind of have to take what you’re given,” one of them said, because “you just need to get out of the intern trap.”
“I remember I went into the office one day with just the very senior partners,” another young consultant told Mari. “They asked me whether I was interested in working on something new … And then they just said, ‘Well, it’s tobacco. Are you going to work for this or not?’ … You don’t really feel able to say no.”
Others say there is leeway at certain firms, which let staffers set boundaries. “You also don’t want anyone who doesn’t believe in the client,” the first consultant said, while a third public affairs worker advised younger colleagues who might have concerns about a particular client: “You have a lot more leverage than you think.”
No-go zones: The most frequently cited red lines among the consultants POLITICO spoke to were the tobacco, oil, alcohol, defense and gambling industries, plus the far right, Russian interests and Chinese companies. The first consultant said she turned down a fossil fuels client after a decade in the business. How did that go down? “I was fired.”
Are there sectors that don’t have the same reputational risk? “I’ve never met anyone doing financial lobbying that has any qualms about it,” the first consultant said. “I think it’s because there’s so much f*cking money.”
6 MORE THINGS GETTING US TALKING
IN THE BUNKER: Donald Trump is heading to Ireland this weekend on a grand golf trip that’s got officials fretting about the potential for a diplomatic screwup, Shawn Pogatchnik writes.
BRING IN EPPO: Kaja Kallas wants the EU’s prosecutors to be given responsibility for bringing cases against individuals and companies that help Russia get around sanctions.
FARAGE AND FRIENDS: Nigel Farage is looking for candidates to stand in a general election that Reform UK has a shot at winning — but it’s not as easy as you’d think, Sam Blewett writes.
YOU’VE GOT A FRIEND IN ME: Mark Carney pledged that Canada will help Ukraine bolster its air defenses and replenish its drone stocks as he hosted President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Calgary, the Guardian reports.
MEANWHILE, IN PARIS: Economist Gabriel Zucman told POLITICO he has invited U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to a summit on fiscal justice on Nov. 21.
IN SPACE, NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU REGULATE: Europe wants to go further into space. In this week’s Declassified column, Paul Dallison imagines what that might look like.