Erdogan threats raise tensions again
Concern is growing in Athens that relations between Greece and Turkey could be entering a new period of heightened tension following remarks by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that directly referenced Kastellorizo and revived rhetoric recalling earlier warnings of a sudden crisis. Speaking to journalists on his return from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit in Kyrgyzstan, Erdogan called on Athens to abandon the “wrong path” of arming the islands that are under a non-militarization status. Asked how Ankara would react if Greece continued the same policy, he replied: “What must we do? What is our duty? To do whatever is necessary … If we raised our voice from our own side, let’s say from Kas (the Turkish town opposite Kastellorizo) toward Greece, they would hear it, wouldn’t they?”
https://www.ekathimerini.com/politics/foreign-policy/1314108/erdogan-threats-raise-tensions-again
Tsipras presents new party’s economic program
Former premier Alexis Tsipras has unveiled his Greek Left Alliance (ELAS) party’s economic program in Thessaloniki, calling for a fundamental change in Greece’s economic model and accusing Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ government of squandering “the greatest development opportunity” since Greece’s entry into the European Union. ELAS proposed a National Reconstruction Plan centered on a €12 billion Convergence Fund to boost investment and reform the tax system with a 1% wealth tax on the top 1% of earners. The initiative promises higher wages—targeting a €1,000 minimum wage by 2027—alongside pay raises for teachers and medical staff, free university grants, and 50,000 new affordable homes. Additionally, the plan aims to lower everyday living costs through reduced food VAT and electricity bills while decentralizing five key government ministries across Greece.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/politics/1314107/tsipras-presents-new-partys-economic-program
PM Mitsotakis on PPC fixed tariff cut: Shield protecting every Greek family
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis posted a video on social media about the reduction in the price of electricity under PPC’s fixed tariff, in which he said: “PPC has announced that its fixed tariff for the next year will fall to 0.115 euros/kWh, with a standing charge of just 3.5 euros. And this is happening against a backdrop of rising international energy prices, which in the past would have automatically meant a higher bill for every Greek household. Yet we are managing to keep prices down. This is not happening by chance. It would not be possible without a financially strong Public Power Corporation, capable of absorbing part of the cost itself rather than passing it on to consumers. “A public utility which, I would remind you, was on the brink of bankruptcy in 2019. Today, it is a shield protecting every Greek family. Because a strong PPC ultimately means something very simple: less pressure from electricity bills.”
Faliro Bay to breathe again after six decades
Officials in Athens signed a €209 million contract Wednesday to build the Aenaon Metropolitan Park at Faliro Bay, a long-delayed project aimed at reconnecting the city with its coastline. The 74.1-hectare park, whose second phase secures European funding, will be 75% Mediterranean greenery, with 4,000 trees and 185,000 shrubs, alongside sports, cultural and recreational facilities. The project, whose first phase of road and flood-control work concluded in 2022, had languished for over six decades, said Attica Governor Nikos Hardalias.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1314138/faliro-bay-to-breathe-again-after-six-decades
ATHEX: Energy and banks stocks buck trend
The Euronext Athens (ATHEX) general index closed at 2,648.58 points, shedding 0.32% from Tuesday’s 2,657.05 points. The large-cap FTSE-25 index contracted 0.25% to end at 6,777.06 points.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1314131/athex-energy-and-banks-stocks-buck-trend
KATHIMERINI: Ankara responds to Achille’s Shield with threats
TA NEA: Social security contributions to be trimmed
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: Tsipras: New model with plan and data
RIZOSPASTIS: On Saturday, all roads lead to the rally at TIF
KONTRA NEWS: Bold proposals by Tsipras for the country’s governance
DIMOKRATIA: 7-year-olds are being taught about homosexual couples
NAFTEMPORIKI: Bond hikes constitute “confession” of global concern
DRIVING THE DAY
INSIDE THE FIGHT TO SAVE THE EU’S DIPLOMATIC ARM: Kaja Kallas, the EU’s chief diplomat, is leading a determined behind-the-scenes push to counter a Franco-German bid to overhaul her diplomatic service, officials and diplomats told Nicholas Vinocur in Ireland.
The fightback — which involves courting EU capitals and deploying her new secretary-general to lead the thinking on alternative reform plans — aims to head off drastic changes that could give Ursula von der Leyen’s European Commission more control over the work currently overseen by Kallas.
What to expect: The high representative is set to preside over a town hall today during which she’ll introduce the EEAS’s new secretary-general, Kajsa Ollongren, who has been touring capitals to sound them out on the diplomatic service, three EU officials and one diplomat told Playbook and Jacopo Barigazzi. They were granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive maneuvering.
Look closer: The officials said they expected Ollongren to unveil plans for a “council of elders,” or task force, that would lead reflections on EEAS reform separately from the Franco-German push. Belén Martínez Carbonell, Ollongren’s predecessor as sec gen, has delayed her start as head of the EU’s delegation to Mexico to advise Ollongren in this process, while senior EEAS official Charles Fries will also weigh in, the officials and diplomat said.
Flanking maneuver: Two EU diplomats said those plans would signal Kallas is keen to take control of the reform debate after EU foreign ministers gave the Franco-German proposals a muted reception during talks in Wicklow, Ireland, on Wednesday.
Step back: Talk of overhauling the EU’s 15-year-old diplomatic service has gripped Brussels amid a flurry of leaked position papers and criticism that the EEAS is no longer fit for purpose in a world of raw power politics.
In Wicklow, Kallas agreed with the Franco-German aim of making EU foreign policy faster-moving and better able to protect the bloc’s interests. But she said the blockages stem from rules requiring unanimous voting on foreign and security policy and the failure to properly apply EU treaties — not from the institutional setup.
“There was not support for concentrating everything in the Commission without having this [HRVP] role practically implemented,” she told reporters after a debate with EU foreign ministers. Treaties and legal texts, she said, already in theory give her oversight of the Commission’s external-facing policy units — exactly what the Franco-German paper proposes.
Kallas also suggested that such changes would not work if they reduced her autonomy and made her answer to “someone else” — in this case, the Commission president. “If I have somebody above me who is actually deciding, then it doesn’t work that way,” she said.
The bottom line: In the tug of war over the fate of the EEAS, it’s Kallas’s turn to pull.
BIG AND BREAKING
THE AfD’S BIG MOMENT: An Alternative for Germany lawmaker is pushing Germans to forget the Nazi past — and he could soon wield more power than any other far-right leader in the country’s postwar history, James Angelos writes.
How the east was lost: An outright AfD victory in Saxony-Anhalt on Sunday would raise hard questions about how Angela Merkel, Friedrich Merz and other chancellors failed to stop parts of eastern Germany veering toward the far right, Anne McElvoy writes.
MOSCOW CAN’T SCARE US: Ursula von der Leyen and Mark Rutte vowed that suspected Russian attacks on Europe won’t weaken support for Ukraine … as a Russian drone struck a university building just 300 meters from the EU delegation in Kyiv.
Meanwhile: Moscow will close Russian branches of Germany’s Goethe-Institut in response to Berlin blaming it for the drone incident at Leipzig Airport, Reuters reported overnight.
RIBERA’S BIG BILL: Commission Executive Vice President Teresa Ribera wants Europe to start thinking bigger — and maybe spend bigger — to climate-proof itself.
CHATGPT’S LOOPHOLE: Brussels is treating ChatGPT as a search engine — leaving much of what people actually do with it outside the rules.
THE ROAD TO SOTEU
TIME’S RUNNING OUT TO IMPRESS VON DER LEYEN: The Commission website has a slightly ominous clock counting down to Ursula von der Leyen’s State of the Union address. Playbook has a more useful countdown: the remaining opportunities to get something into her speech.
A tale of three meetings: There are three big moments left before von der Leyen takes to the podium on Sept. 16, according to seven officials and diplomats. First, all commissioners head to Tervuren, just outside Brussels, tomorrow for their traditional rentrée seminar. Playbook got a peek at the agenda, which includes climate, AI and migration.
Pitch, please: Cabinets have already sent in two-to-three-page SOTEU wish lists, while chiefs of staff had a lobbying opportunity during an away day last Friday. One EU official said Tervuren is less about throwing new ideas at von der Leyen than giving an extra push to existing ones.
Written in pen: Migration and wildfires practically pitch themselves. But China is climbing the agenda, two officials said. One section of the speech will remain “in square brackets” until almost the last moment, an official said — reserved for whatever geopolitical crisis demands von der Leyen’s attention.
And then? “Straight to the 16th,” a second official said. Meaning that after Tervuren, the lobbying window for commissioners and their cabinets is about to slam shut.
Unless you know Bjoern: There’s always the bilateral route. As one Commission official bluntly put it: “The president is Bjoern,” referring to Bjoern Seibert, von der Leyen’s all-powerful chief of staff. If a pet project hasn’t made the cut after tomorrow, cabinets need to go to the Berlaymont’s 13th floor and seek him out.
Parliament’s turn: Then come the European Parliament group leaders, who will sit down with von der Leyen at the Conference of Presidents on Sept. 9 — a traditional pre-SOTEU stop, Parliament officials told Max Griera.
Pitches for lunch: Last come the capitals. Von der Leyen will hold the traditional pre-SOTEU lunch with EU ambassadors on Sept. 11, one EU official and two diplomats confirmed.
Spoiler alert … there’ll be no spoilers. The speech will remain tightly under wraps during this meeting as well, though von der Leyen may offer a few hints on themes that have already done the rounds — such as competitiveness, one diplomat said.
The commissioners will get the text the evening before the speech — and cabinet members won’t get it in advance. Even then, it may not be finished. Last time, politically explosive bits such as Israeli sanctions were still being added at the 11th hour, a third official said.
20-SECOND PLAYBOOK PRIMER
Germany blamed Russia for the recent drone incursion in Leipzig and said it will propose new EU sanctions … but how do EU sanctions get approved? First comes a proposal from either the Commission, the EEAS or member countries, which is then discussed by relevant bodies in the Council (that could be working parties and/or the Political and Security Committee), before the legal act needed to make the sanctions work is signed off by ambassadors. Every EU country needs to approve sanctions.
TAXING TIMES IN DUBLIN
RED LINES EMERGE: EU countries are starting to show their hands in negotiations over the bloc’s next long-term budget, Ireland’s Europe Affairs Minister Thomas Byrne told Zoya Sheftalovich, reporting alongside Gregorio Sorgi.
Out with it: “We are now beginning to hear from member states as to where their actual red lines are,” Byrne said after a week of tête-à-têtes with national counterparts.
Getting stuck in: Ministers are descending on Dublin today to thrash out changes to the European Commission’s near-€2 trillion proposal, including how to divide money among agriculture, regional development, competitiveness and defense. They need a deal by December to give lawmakers time to approve the package before it takes effect in 2028.
Size matters: Some governments want to shrink the proposal, while others say Europe’s new priorities require more money. “Volume is one of the issues that all of the member states have, whether it’s higher or lower,” Byrne said.
A taxing question: Diplomats have pointed to new EU-wide taxes as one way of squaring the circle, and the Irish presidency is expected to propose a new package of potential levies in October. The taxes frequently came up in talks with ministers, Byrne said.
Your choice: European Council President António Costa warned yesterday that failure to agree on new taxes would mean either higher national contributions or less ambition from Brussels.
Next move: Byrne said he hopes to propose a revised budget breakdown in late September or early October, and that he is confident governments can strike a deal before year-end.
DASHBOARD
Who rules the EU? Germany! That’s according to a poll conducted by Public First for POLITICO across six countries, Hanne Cokelaere writes. Just 22 percent of French respondents and around one-third of respondents in Spain and Germany said the EU institutions ensure that member countries have an equal voice. When asked which, if any, country holds the most sway, relative majorities in those three countries gave the same answer: Germany.
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6 MORE THINGS GETTING US TALKING
CEUTA GETS WORSE: Pedro Sánchez faces a hostile session on the migration crisis in the Spanish parliament today, with lawmakers seizing on a report alleging Moroccan involvement in the sudden arrival of some 72,000 migrants in late July.
SKIP THE SPACE SUMMIT: The White House told American companies that attending Emmanuel Macron’s space summit in Paris next week could look like they’re tacitly supporting EU positions, my stateside colleagues scooped.
BARDELLA GOES GLOBAL: France’s National Rally is deploying Jordan Bardella abroad to reassure markets that Marine Le Pen’s party can be trusted with the economy.
TUSK BLAMES MOSCOW: Polish PM Donald Tusk said the fire at a Polish drone factory supplying weapons to Ukraine on Monday was “deliberate arson” and that Russia was likely behind it, Daria Zakharova reports.
NO IMMUNITY, THANKS: Slovenia’s Robert Golob voted with every other lawmaker in the country’s parliament yesterday to strip himself of immunity, clearing the way for a criminal case over alleged police meddling.
ACCELERATING SUPPORT: Industries are rallying behind the Industrial Accelerator Act as a surge in Chinese imports threatens to devastate European businesses.