Mitsotakis from Sofia: A land corridor from Greece to Ukraine will geopolitically upgrade the region
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has highlighted the strategic importance of the Vertical Corridor infrastructure initiative during talks with his newly elected Bulgarian counterpart, Rumen Radev, saying the project could strengthen energy security and transport links across southeastern Europe.
Mitsotakis taps Kyranakis for key New Democracy party post
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has selected Deputy Transport Minister Konstantinos Kyranakis as the next secretary of New Democracy’s political committee.
OPEKEPE witness alleges smear campaign
A key witness in the European Public Prosecutor’s Office investigation into alleged EU farm subsidy fraud in Greece says she is being targeted by a smear campaign because of her efforts to expose wrongdoing within the country’s agricultural payments agency. The allegations follow media reports claiming that Tycheropoulou had kept files in her office desk relating to individuals allegedly implicated in the subsidy fraud case. Tycheropoulou rejected the claims, alleging that documents were deliberately placed in her desk by former colleagues in an effort to incriminate her.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/politics/1305712/opekepe-witness-alleges-smear-campaign
Journalist petitions Supreme Court to reopen spyware probe
Financial journalist Thanasis Koukakis has asked prosecutors to reopen a high-profile wiretapping investigation, citing recent statements by Intellexa founder Tal Dilian that he says warrant a fresh examination of the case. Through his lawyer, Koukakis on Thursday filed a request with the Supreme Court prosecutor’s office seeking to have the case removed from the archive and the investigative file reexamined. The request follows comments by Dilian, the Israeli founder of the company behind the Predator spyware implicated in the scandal, who said in a recent television interview that the technology was supplied exclusively to governments and law enforcement agencies. He also said Intellexa itself did not conduct surveillance and that responsibility for the lawful use of the technology rested with the authorities operating it.
ATHEX: Stock drop accelerated on Thursday
Sellers proved more aggressive at the Greek stock market on Thursday, following the price decline on Wednesday, as they staged a mini sell-off during the closing auctions to leave the main indexes of the bourse at the day’s low. Banks predictably took most of the beating, owing to the Supreme Court’s decision in favor of debtors benefitting from the 2010 law known as “Katseli Law” for the protection of debtors. They will now be able to claim back some of their payments to lenders.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1305728/athex-stock-drop-accelerated-on-thursday
KATHIMERINI: University graduates are turning their back to public schools
TA NEA: Dealings with the public sector: find the file with a “single click“
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: The political scenery is being rearranged
RIZOSPASTIS: The Greek Communist Party’s youth festival begins tomorrow
KONTRA NEWS: Pre-election changes in government and PM’s office ahead
DIMOKRATIA: US House of Representatives: Erdogan’s Turkey is a dictatorship
NAFTEMPORIKI: “Hot” June with capital increases, new listings and free float
DRIVING THE DAY
DON’T BALK AT THE BALKANS: EU leaders are meeting here in Montenegro’s coastal town of Tivat for what was supposed to be a friendly sit-down with Balkan leaders. But today’s summit has already been marred by allegations of foreign interference.
Disruption fears: The EU candidate country on Wednesday barred 87 Serbs from coming in on a charter flight, saying they posed a “national security” risk. Serbia, despite its own status as an official EU candidate, has close relations with Russia and is accused of backsliding on human rights.
Covert operation: A Montenegrin official told Sebastian Starcevic that authorities had been gathering intelligence on the Serbs with the help of EU countries. The aim was to stage a demonstration to undermine the leaders’ summit, the official said. A second Montenegrin official called it a “distraction” to draw focus from a major milestone in Montenegro’s bid to join the EU.
Security has been tight since then: Roads have been blocked, leaving the press corps stranded — and in Playbook’s case, desperate for petrol — while leaders dined last night.
Montenegro won’t let that spoil its moment. Prime Minister Milojko Spajić told me his country is now the “frontrunner” to become the EU’s 28th member nation by 2028 — and that “countries that share the European Union’s fundamental values … naturally belong within the European family.”
A question of timing: Joining the EU is a process that takes decades — and candidate nations worried by trade wars and pressure from hostile powers like Russia are now calling for that to be sped up. But France, Germany and others worry that bringing applicants in too early could cause problems of its own. (More on that here.)
Mixed bag: Montenegro first applied in 2008, but last monthentered into final accession treaty talks with Brussels. Albania is rapidly moving through negotiating “clusters.” But Serbia faces losing access to EU funds as part of a row with Brussels over the rule of law — a move Sebastian and I first reported earlier this year.
Hatching a plan: On Thursday, France and Germany pitched a joint initiative to bring Western Balkan countries in as EU observers and give them at least some access to the single market to keep them on track and avoid a repeat of Serbia, where progress has gone backwards.
We’re getting going: Enlargement “is and will remain merit-based,” European Council President António Costa told Playbook. “At the same time, recent proposals show that there is a new willingness to simplify and accelerate the process.”
Party pooper? Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić is attending today, even though Belgrade’s intelligence agency claimed he shouldn’t travel to Tivat due to “hostile activities of foreign secret services and a presence of a criminal clan there,” Reuters reports.
Dobro došli: Leaders and their officials will be greeted by temperatures around 26C … a cigarette-friendly airport cafeteria with a mural asking “Why drink and drive when you can smoke and fly?” … and legions of soldiers protecting the event.
BIG AND BREAKING
GIVE BACK OUR VP POST: The Socialists and Democrats are demanding that Pina Picierno resign from her position as Parliament vice president after the Italian MEP defected to Renew Europe.
HOW DO YOU WOO TRUMP? French President Emmanuel Macron wants to charm the American president — but is still deciding whether to do it on the putting green or around the banquet table.
SCOOP — MISSILE U-TURN: The Pentagon is expected to cancel a plan to send Tomahawk missiles to Germany, partly because officials are concerned Moscow will retaliate.
TECHNOCRATS TAKE CHARGE: Romanian President Nicușor Dan has nominated Renew Europe MEP Eugen Tomac to lead a technocratic government after the centrist coalition collapsed — but some fear the move will fuel populist grievances.
BREXIT MEANT BREXIT: A decade after the U.K. voted to leave the EU, those who ran the winning campaign have had plenty of time to reflect on the fallout.
SHAKE-UP AT EEAS
TURNOVER AT THE TOP: The EU’s diplomatic service is looking to replace three of its most senior officials within a short time frame, according to a job vacancy notice seen by POLITICO.
Wanted: The notice, posted Thursday, calls for applications by midday June 18 for the roles of secretary-general of the External Action Service, deputy secretary-general for peace, security and defense, and deputy secretary-general for geoeconomics and institutional issues.
Vital roles: The three positions are among the most critical in the EEAS, responsible not just for managing the service’s 5,000-plus workforce but also managing relationships with EU capitals — vital to coming up with shared positions — as well as with the European Commission and the European Council.
Dominoes: The secretary-general job was held most recently by Belén Martínez Carbonell, a Spanish diplomat who’s headed to Mexico to lead the EU delegation there after less than two years on the job, as first reported by POLITICO. The other two positions are held, respectively, by Frenchman Charles Fries and Estonian Matti Maasikas, who has been attending gatherings of EU ambassadors while Carbonell focused on administrative duties.
No comment: Playbook reached out to both Fries and Maasikas for comment and did not hear back by publishing time. A European Commission official didn’t respond immediately to a request for comment. Carbonell’s departure to Mexico was confirmed in an announcement of new diplomatic postings earlier this week.
Anyone home? The possible departures of these key roles hint at a major shake-up in the office of the secretary-general, whose previous occupant, Italian diplomat Stefano Sannino, was detained by Belgian police last year as part of an EPPO-led fraud probe. Olof Skoog, deputy secretary-general for political affairs, remains in place.
Apply now! An EU official pointed out that the deadline for applicants is unusually short.
20-SECOND PLAYBOOK PRIMER
The European Parliament is switching away from Google as the default search engine on its in-house computers, but seeing as (almost) everyone uses Google, why did it do it? The move follows months of pressure from lawmakers to reduce the EU institutions’ dependence on American tech and pick European alternatives. Starting yesterday, the Parliament is using Qwant, which is French. There are also privacy concerns, and Qwant markets itself as a privacy-first alternative to Google
TALK TO PLAYBOOK: WhatsApp us on +32 491 050629 and listen from 7 a.m. to hear if we give you a shoutout.
EP PHONE HOME
ALIEN LIFE IN THE EU PARLIAMENT? An event on nanoplastics that was held in the European Parliament sounds uncontroversial, right? Not if the group co-hosting the event is linked to a fringe movement that is accused of being pro-Russia and believes aliens walk among us.
The wizard of the Kremlin: According to the minutes of an internal Parliament administrative meeting, seen by Mari Eccles, three MEPs complained about a February event by the AllatRa Global Research Center and co-hosted by Patriots MEP Ondřej Knotek. The center is linked to the AllatRa religious movement, which started in Ukraine. AllatRa believes that all Slavic peoples “will unite in the future, mostly thanks to a wizardly savior, a man whose description resembles Vladimir Putin,” according to Novaya Gazeta Europe. Its founding texts say that alien beings have long influenced human life.
Nothing to see here: The three lawmakers who complained — the EPP’s Danuše Nerudová and Jan Farský and Renew’s Martin Hojsík — said that AllatRa has been “repeatedly identified as an organization with pro-Russian narratives and links to disinformation ecosystems associated with Russia.” But the group of MEPs that deals with administrative matters — the quaestors — said there was no problem with the event.
That’s not us: AllatRa said that it “categorically rejects” allegations that it is pro-Russian “or linked to Russian disinformation ecosystems,” and added that it “condemns the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine.”
5 MORE THINGS GETTING US TALKING
THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING: Sam Blewett has the definitive profile of Andy Burnham — the “cold-hearted lizard of a politician” who could be Britain’s next prime minister.
BOOST FOR KYIV: The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation Thursday to provide aid to Ukraine and impose new sanctions on Russia — another rebuke to Donald Trump after the House this week approved a mostly symbolic resolution to limit his powers in the Iran war.
OUR MAN NOT IN HAVANA: European companies are being forced to exit Cuba as hard-hitting U.S. sanctions begin to bite.
NO SMOKE WITHOUT FIRE: Lawmakers have lost a bid to curb the activities of tobacco lobbyists in Brussels.
FRIDAY FUNNY: In this week’s Declassified column, Paul Dallison asks if it’s ever acceptable to have more than one job.