PM Mitsotakis condemns Iran’s attacks on UAE, reiterates Greece’s solidarity and calls for diplomatic solution
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met with the President of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, on Tuesday in Abu Dhabi. During the meeting, the two leaders discussed regional developments and review their strong bilateral relations.
Bartholomew: Peace has never been a ‘self-evident state’
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew made an appeal for peace in a reference to the ongoing wars in the Middle East and Ukraine on Tuesday, during an official visit to Athens where he addressed Greek lawmakers for the first time in 25 years.
Trump expected to visit Greece, ambassador says
President Donald Trump is expected to visit Greece the US ambassador to Athens Kimberly Guilfoyle said Tuesday. The US envoy made the comments during a visit at state ERT broadcaster headquarters. Asked whether Trump’s visit could take place in the summer, she said: “Well, I can’t give you the exact date – a lot of things are happening – but he is going to come to Greece, and so is Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.”
INSETE: Greek tourism resilient
Inbound tourism (excluding cruise tourism) recorded strong overall performance in 2025: 38.0 million arrivals and 22.6 billion euros in receipts, marking increases of +5.6% and +9.8% respectively compared to 2024, and +21.2% and +27.9% compared to 2019, according to data from the Institute of the Greek Tourism Confederation (INSETE).
https://www.amna.gr/en/article/990522/INSETE-Greek-tourism-resilient
ATHEX: Banks lead the charge upward
Unlike Monday, bank stocks at the Greek bourse led the charge higher on Tuesday and recorded a session that was constantly positive for blue chips, while the benchmark closed on the day’s high, growing more than 1%. A number of reports, including that of the Bank of Greece, insist that the local banking sector remains robust, turning more traders into believers. The small decline in oil rates also helped.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1302895/athex-banks-lead-the-charge-upward
KATHIMERINI: New spatial planning for tourism
TA NEA: Hantavirus: First “orange” alert for the virus
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: Human Rights expert, Franceska Albanese: “We are saying no to a Europe that is subservient to the USA”
RIZOSPASTIS: The simple folks refuse to pay the bill for their profits and wars
KONTRA NEWS: Mitsotakis is polarizing the political climate and covers up the scandals
DIMOKRATIA: EU Commission scientists: “Use vaccines for foot and mouth disease now!”
NAFTEMPORIKI: Heavy clouds over the global economy
DRIVING THE DAY
PUSHING FOR AGREEMENT: Negotiators from the European Parliament, Commission and EU capitals will try to hammer out their differences on the bloc’s trade deal with the U.S. tonight — and there’s a glimmer of hope that Donald Trump’s latest threats could drive them toward a breakthrough.
So what: The EU institutions have been split on whether to back the accord struck between Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Trump at the American president’s Turnberry golf resort in Scotland last July. Trump’s behavior since then has deepened the unease, most recently with his announcement Friday that he intends to slap a 25 percent tariff on European cars.
But four diplomats involved in the discussions said the mood is shifting toward pushing the deal through without further delay. “The quickest way to deflate Trump is to get this done,” one said.
Good omens? A 7 p.m. start for the negotiators’ meeting is a hopeful sign in Brussels lore: Late-night talks often mean movement, and sometimes a deal by exhaustion. And European Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič is heading to the talks, fresh from meetings with U.S. officials in Paris. “You bring the big boss in for the final push,” one EU official said.
Keen to get moving: Manfred Weber, president of the center-right European People’s Party, seems to be feeling upbeat. Any delay risks turning it into “a hostage of geopolitical infighting,” said EPP spokesperson Pedro López de Pablo. Weber has signaled willingness to push the agreement through Parliament even without the safeguards that other MEPs want. His implicit argument: The Commission could still suspend the deal if the U.S. breaches it.
But not so fast: The divisions are real — and the talks could still end up in a showdown, according to our trade reporters Camille Gijs and Carlo Martuscelli. Lawmakers on the left think Trump’s latest threats prove he can’t be trusted and insist they won’t rubber-stamp the agreement.
No progress in Paris: Šefčovič and his U.S. counterpart Jamieson Greer failed to find an off-ramp yesterday despite more than an hour of talks, Camille tells us. The EU trade chief called “for a swift return to the agreed Turnberry terms,” according to a Commission spokesperson — a message likely aimed at reassuring lawmakers. But a person briefed on the closed-door meeting, granted anonymity to discuss it freely, said Greer did not take the threatened 25 percent tariff on European cars off the table.
The hardest part: Parliament’s negotiators insist the deal is straightforward — but only if there are safeguards. The core demand: enforceable fallback mechanisms if Washington backtracks. “If they want a deal, they know what they need to accept,” the chair of Parliament’s delegation for U.S. relations, Brando Benifei, told us.
Friction ahead: Commission and Council officials warn that MEPs may be overreaching. “They’ve complicated things with bells and whistles,” one diplomat said. The fight now is over what safeguards actually mean — from suspension clauses to review mechanisms — and how much Washington would tolerate.
Takeaway: A deal is possible — but so is a political clash. Tonight we’ll find out whether Brussels opts for speed, insists on safeguards or sinks into stalemate.
BIG AND BREAKING
WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING: Trump said he is pausing the U.S. effort to guide stranded vessels through the Strait of Hormuz while Washington pursues an agreement to end the war with Iran.
FIGHTING CORRUPTION: Bulgaria’s caretaker agriculture minister has spent months livestreaming police raids, reopening buried cases and filing referrals to prosecutors and EU investigators — and that’s a test for Rumen Radev’s new government.
THE SHRINKING CHANCELLOR: Friedrich Merz took office a year ago promising authority and renewal. So how did the German leader come to seem so diminished so quickly?
KYIV SHIELD: Ukraine wants to produce a homegrown missile defense system as supplies of the U.S.-made interceptors it relies on to shoot down Russian ballistic missiles grow tighter.
HOUSING CRISIS
PREVENTION PLAN: The Commission will today unveil guidelines for EU countries on tackling homelessness. The plan, which Zoya Sheftalovich has seen in draft, asks governments to create more public housing, regularly assess whether subsidies are adequate and streamline planning rules.
Housing’s moment: The proposal is the warm-up for the Affordable Housing Act, which the Commission will release later this year.
Ringing the alarm: But the Committee of the Regions, which represents local and regional authorities, has a reality check: “Alarm bells are ringing everywhere,” President Kata Tüttő told Zoya. To have a hope of solving the crisis,the EU must “have the mayors on board when designing any strategy,” she said — and they are “not on board now.” Without them, and without more money, the EU risks setting goals that aren’t met.
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Support from unusual places: Playbook spoke to Airbnb, which some governments blame for exacerbating the crisis. A spokesperson said authorities are looking for easy answers and bans on short-term rentals haven’t improved housing affordability in places like Lisbon. They reckon governments and the EU should hand power to local authorities, and that even city-level policies may not address hyper-local issues.
Playing into extremist hands: “The more unequal a society is, the stronger the far right is,” said MEP Marie Toussaint, a member of the Parliament’s Intergroup on Fighting Against Poverty. “There is a feeling that the system lets you down. It makes people angry. And when you’re angry, you tend more to vote in favor of the far right.”
Same story: “What the far right is doing is not much different from what they did in the early 20th century,” added MEP João Oliveira, who wrote the Parliament’s report on developing an EU anti-poverty strategy (also unveiled today and scooped by Zoya). “They are taking the social problems, they are taking inequalities,” and pinning them on “the weaker groups in society.”
20-SECOND PLAYBOOK PRIMER
What’s the rush for Péter Magyar to try to unfreeze billions of euros in EU funds? He isn’t even Hungary’s prime minister yet (that’ll happen later this month), but he’s already been to Brussels to make his case. Well, the country risks losing around €10 billion in post-pandemic recovery funds if it fails to meet an August deadline for completing targets it agreed to get the Covid-era cash. Magyar also wants access to additional EU defense financing and relief from daily fines imposed over the outgoing government’s migration disputes.
TALK TO PLAYBOOK: On the Brussels Playbook Podcast, Zoya asked for your views on how to regulate AI. WhatsApp us on +32 491 050629 and listen from 7 a.m. to hear if we give you a shoutout. (And just so you know, this wasn’t written by AI, we promise.)
EU’S EQUALITY CRITICISM
PERFORMANCE REVIEW: Let’s check in on Hadja Lahbib, the European equality commissioner, who’s in Cyprus today launching her revamped disability rights strategy.
Feeling disappointed: Not everyone is convinced by the former Belgian journalist, writes Mari Eccles. Equality groups have been underwhelmed since Lahbib took office in December 2024. “The Commission has scaled down totally on equality,” says Alejandro Moledo of the European Disability Forum. It’s become a “second class objective.”
Criticism: While Lahbib has come out with plenty of strategies, they haven’t exactly got glowing reviews. Her LGBTQ+ blueprint “clearly falls behind the ambition” of the previous one, according to advocacy group ILGA Europe. Her anti-racism program was a “missed opportunity” that was “recycling old approaches,” according to anti-racism network ENAR. Her gender equality strategy was branded full of “empty promises leaving the most marginalized at the margins,” while Mental Health Europe called it “another missed opportunity.”
One of the problems may be the breadth of Lahbib’s portfolio. As well as equality, she’s responsible for crisis management, which is where she looks “more at ease,” one campaigner who’s worked with her said. Her predecessors didn’t have those competing roles.
That could be an opportunity: European Women’s Lobby Secretary-General Mary Collins said Lahbib is a “feminist” who “actually brings the gender equality agenda” into the crisis management space.
But there’s a “lack of willingness” from Lahbib and her cabinet to push for tangible measures on equality, according to another person working in the equality sector, granted anonymity like others in this section because of the sensitive nature of the criticism.
Response: An EU official told Playbook the commissioner has a “broad” portfolio but that her commitment is “clear and consistent,” adding: “She is personally dedicated to advancing equality.” Lahbib has “consistently engaged with a wide range of stakeholders,” the official said, pointing to an implementation dialogue on Roma inclusion, a youth policy dialogue on disability rights, and a trip to Budapest last year to meet stakeholders and “demonstrate that the EU stands firmly with” the LGBTQ+ community.
3 MORE THINGS GETTING US TALKING
EARLY EFFORT: French hard-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon is trying to use his head start in the race for president to outflank his rivals.
CONSEQUENCES: Quitting the ECHR would group Britain with Russia, the secretary-general of the Council of Europe tells us.
HACKING RISKS: Brussels is losing patience with the American AI giant Anthropic over access to its new Mythos model.