Dendias: KYSEA approved Achilles Shield and ten additional defence procurement programmes
The Government Council for Foreign Affairs and Defense (KYSEA) has approved a new €3.5 billion package of defense procurement contracts as part of the country’s long-term military modernization program, Defense Minister Nikos Dendias said on Thursday. The approvals cover a broad range of air defense, surveillance, unmanned systems and military mobility programs under the government’s Agenda 2030 defense overhaul. Among the projects approved is the “Achilles Shield” integrated air defense system, a layered air defense, ballistic missile defense and counter-drone network that Dendias described as a comprehensive command-and-control system. He said the program will include about €700 million in participation by Greece’s domestic defense industry.
Ruling-party MP challenges Mitsotakis over recycling spending
A lawmaker from Greece’s governing party is pressing Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis for detailed information about the country’s recycling system, an unusual public challenge from within the government’s own parliamentary ranks that puts the handling of public funds under scrutiny. Giorgos Vlachos, a member of the center-right New Democracy party representing East Attica, submitted a parliamentary question to Mitsotakis seeking answers on the cost, procurement and operation of recycling programs. He also requested that government documents be presented to Parliament, arguing that lawmakers need a fuller accounting of how public money connected with recycling has been managed. At the center of his request are procurement contracts for facilities described in Greece as “recycling houses,” or automated collection points where consumers can deposit recyclable materials. Vlachos is seeking information on the cost of purchasing and installing the units, how tenders were conducted, which companies participated and which contractors won the work.
Eleven regions of Greece on ‘Red Code’ alert for intense weather phenomena on Fri, Sat
The Threat Evaluation Committee met on Thursday following the Emergency Deterioration Weather Bulletin (HNMS) issued by the National Meteorological Service (EMY) for Friday. According to the Bulletin, heavy rain and thunderstorms are expected from Friday (24 July) to Saturday (25 July). The phenomena will be accompanied in certain areas by high-velocity winds, intense lightning activity, and possible local hailstorms.
Final section of the E65 motorway opens to traffic
With the opening to traffic of the northern and final section of the Central Greece Motorway (E65), one of the country’s most significant infrastructure projects reaches completion. The inauguration ceremony took place on Thursday, in the presence of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and the political leadership of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport.
https://www.amna.gr/en/article/1010925/Final-section-of-the-E65-motorway-opens-to-traffic
ATHEX: Benchmark loses over 2% in a day
The surge of oil rates and the prospect of further deterioration in traffic through the Strait of Hormuz weighed on Greek stocks on Thursday, as the benchmark nosedived on increased turnover. The decline of stock prices gathered pace in the course of the session, in spite of the rise by oil-related companies. The closing auctions contained many stock drops, showing that the market may have bottomed out in this case.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1310467/athex-benchmark-loses-over-2-in-a-day
KATHIMERINI: Solvency certification by the state for citizens and businesses
TA NEA: Defense “shield” in three years
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: Danger of a global economy “crash”
RIZOSPASTIS: Simple folks will “bleed” to provide another 5 billion for armaments serving war involvement
KONTRA NEWS: Government in vertigo due to the new scandals
DIMOKRATIA: Government was found… 4 times guilty
NAFTEMPORIKI: Vicious circle of price hikes threatens the economy
DRIVING THE DAY
WHO’S IN CHARGE? Top EU officials, diplomats and politicians are setting off on their summer holidays today, after holding their final College and EU ambassadors’ meetings. Left in their wake is an unlucky pool of commissioners, who will take turns running the executive while everyone else hits the beach.
End of term: Innovation chief Ekaterina Zaharieva is first up, according to a planning note seen by Playbook: She will take the reins at the end of this week as the Berlaymont’s solo boss, in case of a crisis. A few hardworking colleagues will still be wrapping up official business abroad, however, including top diplomat Kaja Kallas in Manila and Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius in Washington.
Cycling through: From Aug. 8 to Aug. 14, when Brussels is expected to grind to a halt, Budget Commissioner Piotr Serafin will step in. He’ll be followed by energy czar Dan Jørgensen, who had previously told Playbook he would like to “be in the Berlaymont watching the Tour de France on my laptop” while holding down the fort (it may be a bit late for that). For the final week of August, rule-of-law chief Michael McGrath will be in the hot seat. Let’s hope the air-conditioning is up and running again.
Comings and goings: When the commissioners finally return from their break, Brussels will look a little different: a string of departures and appointments will start taking effect before the rentrée.
Diplo-shuffle: Ambassadors on Thursday held a farewell dinner for Cyprus’ Permanent Representative Christina Rafti, who will hand over to her deputy Giorgios Ioannides. It marks the end of a presidency that delivered on major achievements like the first round of seven-year budget negotiations and the 20th Russia sanctions package. The evening was also a chance to say goodbye to Latvia’s top envoy, Lelde Līce-Līcīte, who is succeeded by her deputy Reinis Brusbārdis after five years of leading intense diplomacy on sanctions, hybrid threats and support for Ukraine.
Moving on: Some of the bubble’s best-known diplomatic spokespeople are also transitioning to proverbial greener pastures. The Netherlands’ Melle van Dijk is joining Prime Minister Rob Jetten’s office to work on “reducing strategic dependencies,” as Rutger Fransen arrives from The Hague to take his old job. Estonia’s Triin Oppi heads back to Tallinn to lead EU communications. Belgium’s Alexandre Brecx is handing over to Stanley Matthys, who is currently posted in Kinshasa.
Foreign affairs: U.K. Ambassador to the EU Lindsay Croisdale-Appleby departs after six years in the post. The former British ambassador to China, Caroline Wilson, will take his place. “I am grateful for the warmth and openness of so many Brussels counterparts as we worked together to strengthen the U.K.-EU relationship,” Croisdale-Appleby told Playbook.
More moves: On the other side of the Channel, Finnish diplomat Jukka Salovaara takes up his post as the EU’s top envoy in London. Commission Foreign Affairs spokesperson Anitta Hipper moves to a policy role. And the EU foreign service’s top official Belén Martínez Carbonell sets sail for Mexico as the race for her replacement gets underway.
Relax while you can, because the rentrée to-do list is already loaded: the EU’s €2 trillion budget; the question of how to admit new members to the bloc; and the State of the European Union in mid-September. Brussels’ new cast of diplomats, officials and spokespeople have their work cut out for them.
BIG AND BREAKING
CABINET CHANGES: Friedrich Merz’s cabinet reshuffle appears to be underway, with media reports suggesting Health Minister Nina Warken will become the chancellor’s new chief of staff — the first woman to take on the role in postwar Germany. CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann is set to fill the void as health minister.
TIME TO BRING AfD IN FROM THE COLD? The suggestion that Merz’s centrist conservatives should break a long-held taboo and cooperate with the far-right Alternative for Germany has sparked a major political debate.
ON THE MONEY: The European Central Bank has unveiled its finalists for the redesign of the Euro banknotes, featuring birds, flowers and the portraits of figures like Marie Skłodowska Curie. A public survey has been launched inviting citizens to vote for their favorites, ahead of a decision expected at the end of the year.
ECOLOGICAL TURMOIL: The near-resignation of French Minister for Ecological Transition Monique Barbut points to the deepening fractures inside Emmanuel Macron’s already embattled coalition.
HANDS ARE TIED: There may be a reason for the electoral appeal of Marine Le Pen and France’s far right: many voters see no alternative. That’s the conclusion of a new focus-group study.
TRUMP HOLDS FIRE — FOR NOW
BRACING FOR THE TRUTH BOMB: When this newsletter went to pixel, Donald Trump still hadn’t expressed an opinion about Brussels’ €890 million penalty against Google. But the U.S. president’s top trade official warned the fine could jeopardize the fragile transatlantic trade truce, Zoya Sheftalovich reports.
Bricks in the wall: U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the fine created “massive uncertainty” around the Turnberry agreement, as Washington moved late on Thursday to rebuild a tariff wall after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down his earlier duties. Trump’s temporary 10 percent global levy was renewed late on Thursday for 17 trading partners, while 43 other countries, including Japan, China, South Korea and Australia, will face a 12.5 percent tariff rate.
Fire and fury: Greer accused Brussels of taking an “increasingly aggressive approach targeting U.S. technology firms” and said the bloc was committing “intellectual-property theft.” U.S. Ambassador to the EU Andrew Puzder said the EU was “using regulation as a blunt instrument against American innovation.” Greer, Puzder and Helberg all mentioned POLITICO’s reporting last week that a €4.6 billion sanction issued to Google in 2018 would be put toward the EU’s 2026 budget — amounting to more than 2 percent of the total pot.
Not anti-U.S.; just pro-EU: The European Commission earlier on Wednesday insisted that it was not singling out American tech. “Our digital legislation is not up for negotiation,” spokesperson Thomas Regnier said, arguing that the rules were “objective” and “non-discriminatory.”
Rules are rules: Brussels must keep explaining to Washington that the Google case followed EU law and a lengthy process, said Kathleen Van Brempt, a Belgian MEP from the Socialists & Democrats group who sits on the European Parliament’s International Trade Committee. “You can agree or disagree, you say whatever you want, but this is our legislation,” she told our colleague Camille Gijs last night, fresh from a meeting with U.S. officials in Washington.
Google hits back: “This isn’t fair competition; it’s product degradation driven by a small group of self-serving complainants,” said Kent Walker, president of global affairs at Google and Alphabet.
Bigger fight: The EU is also awaiting the outcome of a U.S. forced-labor investigation that could support fresh tariffs, with further probes into excess capacity, pharmaceutical pricing and digital policies in the pipeline. Trump may be quiet for now, but the Google fine has landed squarely in the next transatlantic trade battle.
20-SECOND PLAYBOOK PRIMER
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was among those given a gun as a gift by Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at the end of the NATO summit in Ankara. Her firearm is going to a museum. But what normally happens to gifts presented to members of the Commission? There’s an underground room in the bowels of the Berlaymont, the Commission’s HQ, known to insiders as the “Ali Baba cave.” Ethics guidelines forbid commissioners from accepting many of the gifts they are offered, but they often have to make a show of publicly accepting them to avoid a diplomatic slight. Assistants later squirrel the gifts away in the “cave.”
TALK TO PLAYBOOK: WhatsApp us on +32 491 050629 and listen from 7 a.m. to hear if we give you a shoutout.
BORDER WATCH
SAVE OUR SUMMER SPOTS: The military threat posed by Russia is keeping tourists away from some of the EU’s most beautiful border regions, seven of the bloc’s frontier states are warning. In a letter sent to the European Commission Thursday and seen by Playbook, ministers from Latvia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia warn more needs to be done to protect their economies.
Warning: “Geopolitical developments and security concerns have had a significant impact on tourism in the eastern border regions of our countries. Tourism flows have declined considerably in most of these regions,” the letter says.
Is Northern Europe the new Southern Europe? In better news for border countries, while the Mediterranean region swelters in successive heat waves, travelers are increasingly being drawn to the balmy lakes and expansive woodlands of the Baltic-Nordic region. A report from the European Travel Commission this month found heat waves are a growing concern, alongside security.
Baltic surprises: Anecdotally, Playbook has heard Sopot and Klaipeda mentioned as holiday destinations this year as often as Seville or Kos …
3 MORE THINGS GETTING US TALKING
HOT AIR: The EU’s proposed watering down of its flagship carbon emissions policy faces its first test today. Environment ministers meet in Dublin with the dividing lines drawn for a debate that will define the rest of the year.
EYE ON THE INTERNET: EU countries on Thursday reinstated a law allowing tech companies to scan private communications for child abuse material. But the controversial issue faces scrutiny from lawmakers and capitals at its next trilogue in September.
ECB READY TO RAISE RATES: European Central Bank officials are prepared to raise borrowing costs in September unless there’s a clear improvement in the eurozone inflation outlook, Bloomberg reports quoting “people familiar with the situation.”
BUDGET HEAVYWEIGHTS PUSH BACK
CLASH OVER CASH-FOR-REFORMS MODEL: A group of 10 countries including France, Spain and Italy came out against the Commission’s plan to link payments to reforms in its new seven-year budget, four EU diplomats told Gregorio Sorgi.
Who’s against: The EU executive had proposed linking regular payouts to the fulfillment of reforms from 2028. The bloc of 10 countries — which also includes net recipients such as Hungary, Malta and Poland — opposed this approach during a meeting of EU ambassadors on Wednesday. The Netherlands defended the new blueprint. Critics say that the model could cause regions to lose money when governments fail to carry out the required reforms.
The modernizers … and the rest: Other fiscally conservative EU members, such as Sweden and Denmark, have long argued that conditionality could help poorer EU countries become economically more efficient. But two EU diplomats from the anti-cash-for-reforms camp, granted anonymity like others to discuss the sensitive talks, said the frugals’ real motivation is to slow down payments to less affluent regions.
Council grumblings: As budget negotiations enter crunch time, resistance to the Commission’s blueprint is brewing. “There seems to be a wake-up call,” said one of the diplomats. A second said: “We don’t want recommendations to become impositions.”
What’s certain: Some EU leaders will try diluting the cash-for-reforms model in upcoming summits after the summer break. Luxembourg, which voted against the new budget blueprint last month over opposition to reform conditionality, has made this a red line in the negotiations.