Greece says no Turkish permission sought for Cyprus power cable
Greece has completed all licensing procedures for seabed surveys and cable-laying work on the planned electricity interconnector with Cyprus, and no authorization has been sought from Turkey, government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said Monday. Speaking at a regular press briefing, Marinakis said the Greek Navy’s Hydrographic Service issued a Navtex on November 6, following a positive recommendation from the relevant authorities. Turkey subsequently issued a counter-Navtex, reiterating its claims over parts of the area concerned, but this has no legal effect, he said. Marinakis also sought to clarify reports about a French diplomatic note to Turkey, saying it was a notification rather than a request for permission or consent and did not recognize any Turkish rights. He said the note contained no geographical coordinates.
Greece inaugurates military space ops command, plans satellite expansion
Defense Minister Nikos Dendias on Monday formally launched the country’s new Space Operations Command, outlining plans for military use of satellites for surveillance, intelligence and communications purposes. Dendias said Greece proposes to develop its own network of satellites and associated systems to end dependence on private service providers from other countries.
Greece plans AI-Powered tax surveillance system to crack down on evasion
Greece is preparing to overhaul its tax-enforcement operations with an artificial-intelligence-powered surveillance and monitoring system designed to detect tax evasion, track suspicious transactions and coordinate inspections across the country in real time. The initiative, unveiled by Greece’s Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE), would create a centralized command center integrating financial records, electronic transactions, customs information and live operational intelligence. The project is currently at the preliminary consultation stage.
DBRS: Prospects that Greece’s credit rating could be upgraded in 2027
The credit rating agency Morningstar DBRS sees prospects for an upgrade of Greece’s credit rating in 2027, driven by an improvement in the country’s public finances, in its report “Sovereign Credit Ratings Outlook 2027” released on Monday. In an analysis of the credit outlook for the countries it rates, DBRS noted that Greece, Cyprus, Portugal and Ireland, which were among the countries hardest hit by the eurozone crisis, have made the most significant fiscal adjustments and are displaying positive trends. This, it says, largely explains the continued steady improvement in their credit ratings. DBRS currently rates Greece at investment grade (BBB) and, in early September, upgraded the outlook on its rating from stable to positive.
ATHEX: Diplomacy offers boost for stocks
The Euronext Athens (ATHEX) general index closed at 2,609.63 points, adding 2.20% to Friday’s 2,553.35 points. The large-cap FTSE-25 index expanded 2.29%, ending at 6,692.49 points.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1320774/athex-diplomacy-offers-boost-for-stocks
KATHIMERINI: Backstage action in three capitals
TA NEA: Construction heights: one floor bonus
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: 24,600 homes auctioned in Central Macedonia
RIZOSPASTIS: Dangerous bargaining dip the people and sovereignty rights in energy competition
KONTRA NEWS: They are blaming Gerapetritis for the fiasco regarding the yieldingness to Turkey
DIMOKRATIA: Government confesses to treason regarding the power cable
NAFTEMPORIKI: Controls, taxes and fines “erased”
DRIVING THE DAY
AUSTRIA EXTENDS A HAND IN THE BUDGET TALKS: Vienna may be ready to accept new EU-wide levies on large corporations and even a European digital tax as part of an overall deal on the bloc’s €2 trillion long-term budget, Finance Minister Markus Marterbauer told me and Bjarke Smith-Meyer.
It’s an important gesture by one of the staunchest members of the so-called frugal club of EU members seeking a smaller budget — and hints that positions may finally be shifting after months of deadlocked talks and often repeated red lines.
“I’m not that happy about red lines because we need a solution in the end and Europe will come to a solution in the end,” Marterbauer said. While Vienna wants to keep its national contribution stable, he added that “we need a strong Europe and we want to finance European public goods.”
Marterbauer’s comments come as European Council President António Costa wraps up a series of meetings with EU capitals to check on their red lines before leaders discuss the Multiannual Financial Framework on Nov. 26-27.
Dividing line: The frugal states, led by Germany, want to reduce the overall size of the budget and direct resources toward defense and investments in new technologies such as AI. The other camp wants a bigger overall package with guaranteed EU subsidies for agriculture and regions.
To bring the two sides closer to a deal, Costa’s chief of staff Pedro Lourtie has suggested reducing the overall size of the budget (including cutting subsidies for regions, known as cohesion funds), while raising more money via new EU-wide levies, including a corporate tax scheme known as CORE.
Marterbauer, from Austria’s Social Democrats, says Vienna generally favors new own resources because “it allows for a strong European budget and lower national contributions.”
It’s open to a new, scaled-back version of CORE limited to larger companies, he said: “I am personally also in favor of this new version of CORE for the big companies because they … produce lots of revenue out of the internal market.”
On a digital tax on large platforms — another proposal on the table — Marterbauer added: “In Austria we have a small digital tax. And, of course, we learned that it’s not that simple for at least a small country to defend these digital taxes versus the U.S. And therefore I’m in favor of a European solution.”
The bottom line: Marterbauer’s party is part of a coalition with the center-right ÖVP, which he acknowledged may differ with his view on some points. But his remarks are a rare signal of openness in EU budget negotiations that have so far been defined by dug-in heels and jutted jaws.
BIG AND BREAKING
A SEAT AT THE TABLE: Donald Trump’s envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff will push Russia to give Europe a direct role in future negotiations about ending the Ukraine war, Tim Ross reports from Abu Dhabi ahead of today’s trilateral talks.
Merz warns on Ukraine financing: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has warned that all EU countries must contribute to closing Ukraine’s funding gap or no other financial matters can be discussed, including the EU’s next seven-year budget, according to a letter seen by Gregorio Sorgi. Merz also wants Ukraine funding to be debated at the upcoming informal leaders’ gathering in Dublin.
Kyiv claps back at Mélenchon: Ukraine’s government slammed Jean-Luc Mélenchon yesterday after the far-left French presidential hopeful said a vote could settle territorial disputes, Laura Kayali and Victor Goury-Laffont report.
FANNING THE SEPARATIST FLAMES: Catalan independence could be thrust back to the center of Spanish politics if the conservative People’s Party and far-right Vox take power on Nov. 29, nearly a decade after the issue plunged the country into a constitutional crisis.
EUROPE NEEDS NVIDIA: European leaders are keeping their heads down as Jensen Huang becomes entangled in an alleged Chinese spy scandal — partly because the continent has no real alternative to his company, the world’s dominant AI chipmaker, Pieter Haeck writes. Plus: Trump says the FBI is investigating Huang’s affair with a Chinese businesswoman suspected of passing information to Beijing.
THE COMMISSION’S NEW TRADE UNIT
EXCLUSIVE — TURBOCHARGING THE TRADE TEAM: The European Commission is setting up a unit dedicated to ensuring coherence across departments on international trade, according to two people briefed on the matter, Max Griera, Camille Gijs and Carlo Martuscelli report.
It’s about time: The move comes as industrial policy becomes increasingly intertwined with trade, energy and public procurement against a backdrop of tense relations with the U.S., cheap Chinese imports and wars in the Middle East and Ukraine.
“In view of the interaction between trade and economic security policy with many other Commission policies, DG Trade is putting in place a team to strengthen cooperation with other DGs,” Commission deputy chief spokesperson Olof Gill confirmed to POLITICO.
The unit will be part of the Commission’s broader reform drive, reflecting Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s desire to streamline functions and centralize power. It’ll work closely with the Secretariat-General to strengthen coordination and shape policy across departments on trade, sanctions, energy, critical raw materials, development and other key foreign economic policies.
It’ll be placed under von der Leyen’s trusted ally Ditte Juul Jørgensen, who’s newly in charge of the Commission’s trade department. It will start work in the coming months, one of the people briefed on the plans said.
The move is also aimed at aligning trade policy with the EU’s assertive industrial agenda, particularly the Industrial Accelerator Act, which could shut foreign companies out of European public procurement contracts, said a second person. A third person said that coordination on the EU’s “Made in Europe” push was top of mind when creating the unit, after the IAA angered the bloc’s trading partners — chiefly Japan, South Korea and the U.K.
Friends in need: There was a fight in the Commission over the IAA earlier this year as Maroš Šefčovič’s trade department pushed back against some of the stricter provisions being shepherded by industry chief Stéphane Séjourné. With EU countries and lawmakers now proposing tweaks to the text, there are still concerns in von der Leyen’s camp that free-trade partners could end up being shut out of the Made in Europe club.
20-SECOND PLAYBOOK PRIMER
It was announced last week that a proposal on EU-wide rules for data retention has been delayed until at least next year after an assessment by the Regulatory Scrutiny Board — but what is that? It’s the European Commission’s internal quality control body, which scrutinizes impact assessments and evaluates existing legislation. The board has nine members: a Commission director-general; four high-level Commission officials; and four experts recruited from outside the Commission.
PARLIAMENT’S ‘KILLER’ VOTE
BIG BIZ CRIES BETRAYAL: Business lobbies have lambasted a “killer amendment” by the European Parliament that threatens to overhaul a €400 billion EU fund meant to boost industrial competitiveness.
In a vote today on the European Competitiveness Fund,lawmakers on the Industry Committee will back the EU giving loans to companies and use grants only as a “last resort,” according to the text they will approve.
The amendment, introduced by Swedish conservative MEP Jörgen Warborn, is meant to steer funding toward projects with a high chance of commercial success and cut taxpayers’ contribution to the EU budget. “This helps prevent the ECF from being exhausted prematurely … [as] we need to anticipate the possibility of further cuts,” one EU lawmaker told Playbook.
But business associations are worried that these changes would undermine ECF funding for innovative and high-risk projects. “The investments European industry needs most to compete with the United States and China are precisely those that involve higher risks and long or uncertain returns,” Italian business lobby Confindustria wrote in a statement to Playbook.
That was echoed by the umbrella group BusinessEurope. Its chief economist Lúcio Vinhas de Souza told Playbook that “targeted public funding can help de-risk investments and accelerate the deployment of key infrastructures.” European Commission officials are also worried that the changes will undermine the ECF’s goal of boosting EU industries in strategic sectors where it is lagging.
4 MORE THINGS GETTING US TALKING
THE EU’S LAST GREAT CLIMATE HURRAH? The prospect of a string of far-right election victories next year could derail efforts to boost the bloc’s standing in international climate talks, Zia Weise writes on this week’s COP31 meeting in Turkey.
BEIJING SCOLDS MEP: Czech lawmaker Ondřej Krutílek received a letter from China’s mission to the EU on Monday following a visit to Taiwan, urging him to “refrain from any official exchange in whatever form with the Taiwan authorities, stop sending any wrong signal to the ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces, and take practical actions to respect and support China’s core interests, so as to safeguard the healthy and stable development of China-EU relations.” Playbook’s Max Griera obtained a copy.
PARIS POINTS THE FINGER: French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said Iran was behind the “unprecedented” cyberattacks on refrigerators in several major supermarket chains last month, Victor Goury-Laffont reports.
BLACK SEA BACKUP: Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced yesterday that the EU will help finance some Black Sea security costs after the recent attacks on commercial shipping, Martina Sapio reports.
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