Greece assumes UN Security Council presidency amid international crises and UN chief succession race
Greece assumes the presidency of the UN Security Council on October 1, for the second and final time during its two-year term as an elected member of the Council for 2025-2026. The Greek presidency in May 2025 preceded it, while the country’s term on the Council ends on December 31. The presidency will be held by Greece’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Aglaia Balta.
Greece seeks EU backing for asylum suspensions, return hubs
Greece will seek EU backing for suspending asylum procedures during sudden migration surges and for sending migrants whose claims have been rejected to third countries, as European home affairs ministers meet in Luxembourg on Thursday. Migration and Asylum Minister Thanos Plevris will present Athens’ proposal for an emergency mechanism at the EU’s external borders. The government says it is intended in part for cases in which migration flows are deliberately used to exert political pressure. Under the proposal, normal asylum procedures could be suspended under certain conditions. Such measures have raised legal and human rights concerns over access to asylum and compliance with international refugee protections.
New private debt market rules to ‘protect consistent debtors’
A new package of 16 interventions concerning private debt and loan servicers will protect borrowers who consistently meet their repayment obligations and tighten the operating framework for servicers, National Economy and Finance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis said on Wednesday. The measures include a 15% ceiling on upfront payments demanded for bilateral restructuring, well below previous demands ranging between 30% and 50%. They also give borrowers the right to receive a detailed breakdown of their debt, with creditors required to provide the information within 45 days. If the deadline is not met, the interest rate will be frozen. Besides increased transparency for debtors, the new package will also subject creditors to stricter controls, binding sanctions and fines of up to €500,000, Pierrakakis said.
Significant drop for jobless rate
Greece’s unemployment rate fell to 7.4% in August this year, down from 8.8% in August 2025 and 7.9% in July 2026, the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) said on Wednesday.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1316776/significant-drop-for-jobless-rate
ATHEX: Bourse earns almost 30% in nine months
The Greek stock market marked its 150th birthday on Wednesday with another day of significant gains, on increased turnover too, sealing a spectacular first nine months this year for the benchmark with a rise just shy of 30% (+29.12%). This also signaled a new 17-year high for the main index with a fairly uniform picture across the board. The market is bracing for more IPOs and new entries, expanding its reach week after week. The Euronext Athens (ATHEX) general index closed at 2,738.35 points, adding 1.05% to Tuesday’s 2,709.91 points. On a monthly basis, it grew 2.28%. The large-cap FTSE-25 index expanded 1.06% to end at 7,036.45 points.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1316796/athex-bourse-earns-almost-30-in-nine-months
KATHIMERINI: Private schools don’t get a passing grade either
TA NEA: Support measures announced at cabinet meeting: triple shield with… fine print
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: PM stresses that there is no room for social support
RIZOSPASTIS: Greek Communist Party asks for immediate measures at the expense of business groups, the state and the EU to relieve simple folks
KONTRA NEWS: 120 installments to provide breathing air to debtors
DIMOKRATIA: PM Mitsotakis in despair
NAFTEMPORIKI: Listed companies’ profits leap at 7,678 bln
DRIVING THE DAY
EXCLUSIVE — WHO CONTROLS EU SPENDING? Today sees the latest flashpoint in the ongoing tussle between Brussels and national capitals over who holds the purse strings in the EU’s next seven-year budget — with a discussion at the European Commission that will potentially send shivers through national governments.
At the behind-closed-doors meeting, Commission officials Declan Costello and Maria Teresa Fàbregas Fernández will present to government experts “examples of reforms, investments and outputs” and discuss “regional and territorial aspects” of the approximately €2 trillion budget (amounting to half of it), according to an agenda obtained by Gregorio Sorgi.
Red flags ahoy: That wording might look innocuous, but it speaks to precisely the issues capitals are nervous about.
Something else might alarm them: The meeting was convened and coordinated by Ursula von der Leyen’s powerful Secretariat-General. Costello — who runs SG REFORM, a task force within the secgen — is to open the discussion. That’s significant because SG REFORM helped steer the post-Covid recovery fund — precisely the cash-for-reforms experiment that is the blueprint for von der Leyen’s new spending model and which makes governments so uneasy.
The new system will sideline regions and give the Commission too much control, some governments fear. “We did and will today again make clear that there is no room for diluting the regional dimension,” said a Polish government official, granted anonymity because the whole discussion is so sensitive.
The Commission’s controversial plan is to bundle agriculture, regional and migration spending into national cash pots known as National and Regional Partnership Plans, or NRPPs.
Even more sensitive is making payments conditional on governments delivering economic reforms, like in the recovery fund. Ten countries, from Poland to Luxembourg, have already pushed back, worried that Brussels could demand politically explosive changes to pensions or the judiciary.
So today’s meeting offers a revealing glimpse, not just into the push and pull between Commission and governments over who gets to open the wallet, but also into how von der Leyen is centralizing that power in the Commission itself.
Because while the secgen leads the whole thing, the Commission departments that have traditionally had the spending power are left as bit-part players. DG AGRI can send four people, with extras dispatched to a listening room, one official said. DGs REGIO, HOME, EMPL and MARE will join too, according to another official. All are involved in the NRPPs but are among the services facing potential mergers in a forthcoming Commission mega-reshuffle.
The direction of travel is becoming clearer,the meeting signals. Budget power is moving toward von der Leyen’s inner circle — meaning whoever succeeds her could inherit considerably more control over how Europe spends its cash.
BIG AND BREAKING
WAR OF ATTRITION: Vladimir Putin is ramping up strikes on Ukraine at the worst possible moment for Kyiv, with winter looming and its war chest running low — but the conflict is also taking a terrible toll on Russia, Veronika Melkozerova and Jan Cienski report.
FROZEN OUT: The Trump administration is excluding several major allies from a NATO meeting in Poland next month, including France, the U.K. and the Baltic countries, POLITICO reports.
LET US SPEND: Italian PM Giorgia Meloni says she’ll ask Ursula von der Leyen to relax the Commission’s fiscal rules so governments can help companies and families deal with energy-driven price rises. She wants the issue discussed at upcoming Ecofin and European Council meetings.
BURNHAM’S RESET: Andy Burnham will try to relaunch the U.K.’s relationship with the EU at a summit in November after both sides set aside a dispute over the bloc’s “Made in Europe” requirements, the Financial Times reports.
Burnham’s suggestion that Britain could rejoin the EU has been welcomed by Emmanuel Macron and Pedro Sánchez — but Brussels is keeping a poker face. “We remain open to engaging on the options it may put forward,” a spokesperson said.
BACK TO BRUSSELS: Romania’s parliament yesterday rejected Siegfried Mureșan’s attempt to form a government, sending the EU budget negotiator back to his day job.
SCHENGEN SHOWDOWN: Former European Commissioners Josep Borrell, Nicolas Schmit and László Andor are backing a Good Lobby complaint accusing Brussels of failing to defend Schengen after Italy extended border checks again, warning that inaction risks weakening citizens’ rights and the European legal order.
MS TEAMS VS. EUROPEAN TECH
NO EU IN MS TEAMS: The European Commission’s Trump-proof alternative to Microsoft Teams has drawn ridicule from EU officials, who told Playbook the tool is “absolute shit.”
Plan B: Over the summer, the bloc’s executive rolled out Element Pro, which a staff memo seen by Playbook billed as a “sovereign back-up to Teams.” While Teams remains the Commission’s main communications tool, Element Pro is “an internal back-up tool that helps ensure our business continuity” in the event of “disruption.” Translation: if Washington decides to turn off American tech.
“In recent months, digital sovereignty has become increasingly important,” the Commission told staff in July. “In practice, this means having greater control over our data and systems so that we can reduce risks and limit disruption to our work, wherever possible.”
It’s not exactly a hit: “I don’t understand the added value here,” an official complained. “It’s absolute shit,” according to another. And one told Playbook that, based on how well the Teams alternative works, the U.S. would “instantly win the war” if it does ever decide to switch off its tech.
In their element: Because the Commission hosts the Element system on its own infrastructure, rather than relying on Microsoft’s cloud, it’s supposed to be more secure. “That is not the case with Teams, where all we have is a guarantee that Microslop will not peek inside,” an official said in internal communications viewed by Playbook.
It’s not just the Commission. Earlier this year, France announced that millions of civil servants will stop using U.S. video conferencing tools, including Microsoft Teams and Zoom, by 2027 and switch to a homegrown alternative called Visio. Austria’s military replaced Microsoft Office with the German LibreOffice last year.
Teams, but not: Element is a U.K. company whose software is already used by some governments in Europe. It works much the same way as Teams, with staff able to hold “audio and video calls with Commission colleagues,” the Commission staff memo reads.
Changing up: Element CEO Matthew Hodgson said “change is always painful, particularly if it’s” a switch from a much-used program “like Teams.” He added that Element was supporting the EU throughout the rollout and wanted to hear all feedback, good or bad.
20-SECOND PLAYBOOK PRIMER
It’s October, and the European Parliament will be making two trips to Strasbourg. Why? It’s because the EU treaties say that the Parliament must hold 12 plenary sessions a year in the French city. Since the Parliament takes August off, it needs to make two trips to Strasbourg during another month, which is October. This year, the Parliament is holding a total of 15 plenary sessions (a plenary is a meeting of the whole Parliament), with the remaining three in Brussels.
CRACKING DOWN ON CRIME
DUTCH PUSH TO TARGET DRUG TRAFFICKERS: The Netherlands will today urge Brussels to swiftly adopt a new sanctions regime enabling countries to target drug traffickers anywhere in the world, Dutch Justice Minister David van Weel told Playbook’s Nick Vinocur.
When to watch: He will be leading the push during a Justice and Home Affairs Council today, piling pressure on the European Commission to make good on a pledge from the 2025 State of the Union speech.
The case study: The issue has become a major priority — and diplomatic headache — for The Hague after a fugitive drug trafficker locally known as “Bolle Jos” (translation: chubby Jos) turned up in Sierra Leone, which is refusing requests to extradite him to the Netherlands for prosecution.
Hiding out: “That calls for new measures, not only against him, but against all those organized crime criminals that we’re not able to detain immediately, but that are really harming our national security,” van Weel told Playbook.
Why the holdup? Previous attempts to set up a sanctions regime for organized crime have met pushback from national law enforcement agencies, who fear sanctions could impede investigations. But there’s more support for the move now, said van Weel. “I’m hoping that we can conclude this regime by the end of the year.”
6 MORE THINGS GETTING US TALKING
RETURN HUBS ARE GO: EU ministers are set to greenlight new deportation rules today, as the summer chaos in Ceuta looms over migration talks in Luxembourg.
SCOOP — CLIMATE FINANCE FALTERS: The EU’s draft position for COP31 contains a veiled swipe at the Trump administration’s pressure campaign against development banks, Zia Weise reports for subscribers in Morning Energy & Climate.
MERZ HOLDS THE LINE ON UKRAINE: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will use a speech at today’s International Westphalian Peace Prize ceremony in Münster to reaffirm Germany’s backing for Ukraine — even as domestic support wanes and the far left and far right argue that aid comes at the cost of social spending, Hans von der Burchard reports in Berlin Playbook.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte — who’ll accept the peace prize on behalf of NATO — rebuked Moscow yesterday for threatening nuclear escalation over military activity near its border, saying: “NATO is so much stronger than Russia is, so there’s no way they can ever beat us.”
CUE LA RESISTANCE: Emmanuel Macron and Mark Carney have turned trolling Donald Trump into an international double act — but is taking on the U.S. president really a smart strategy? Jamie Dettmer unpacks the risks.
BORING IS GOOD: The EU’s budget chief Piotr Serafin will tout growing Asian and Middle Eastern demand for EU bonds today — pitching boring, predictable Europe as an increasingly attractive investment in a volatile world. More in Morning Financial Services for subscribers.