Joint statement by Greece, Egypt, Cyprus, Bahrain, UAE and EU at UN: Turkish-Libyan MoU ‘null and void’
Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis issued a joint statement on behalf of Greece, Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt, the UAE, and the EU, declaring the 2019 Turkish-Libyan Memorandum of Understanding “null and void” following its recent approval by the Libyan House of Representatives.
PM’s aide steps down after claims over resume, hiring
A close aide to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Monday he was “temporarily” resigning after a newspaper claimed he lacked the formal requirements for his role. Michalis Bekiris, who was the head of Mitsotakis’ office in Parliament, denied wrongdoing and said he would take his accusers to court. The newspaper claimed that it could find no official government gazette decree documenting Bekiris’ appointment and questioned whether he has the university degree cited in his resume. In response to questions from Documento, Bekiris said he worked voluntarily in the prime minister’s political office and received no salary.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/politics/1319377/pms-aide-steps-down-after-claims-over-resume-hiring
One basketball referee jailed, two under house arrest in match-fixing case
Legal proceedings for the final three defendants in the alleged Greek basketball match-fixing case lasted around 10 hours on Monday, ending late in the evening, with chief referee Ilias Koromilas remanded in custody, and referee Vasso Tsarouha and former referee Tasos Piloidis both placed under house arrest with electronic monitoring. They were banned from involvement in basketball.
59 charged over massive Horiatiko bakery chain tax fraud
Greek authorities late Monday brought criminal charges against 59 people accused of involvement in an alleged €100 million tax fraud scheme and other offenses centered on the Horiatiko bakery chain. The suspects, among whom is the owner of the chain, were formally accused of offenses including belonging to a criminal organization, fraud committed against the state worth in excess of €120,000, tax evasion in excess of €150,000, complicity in tax evasion, forgery and money laundering. Several of the suspects have also been charged with sex-trafficking, robbery, fraud and non-payment of social security contributions. Apart from the bakery chain, the alleged ringleader is believed to have owned several nightclubs and restaurants in Athens’ southern suburbs, as well as on the party islands of Mykonos, Rhodes and Zakynthos.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/news/1319414/59-charged-over-massive-horiatiko-bakery-chain-tax-fraud
ATHEX: Notable rise for banks after week of drop
The Euronext Athens (ATHEX) general index closed at 2,569.82 points, adding 1.56% to Friday’s 2,530.46 points. The large-cap FTSE-25 index expanded 1.70% to end at 6,567.60 points.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1319415/athex-notable-rise-for-banks-after-week-of-drop
KATHIMERINI: Bakery chain “Horiatiko” operated POS linked to the Cayman islands
TA NEA: Prices of real estate assets: the cheap ones and the expensive ones
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: Serbia and Brazil elections: How a spark becomes a flame
RIZOSPASTIS: Hands off from simple folks’ homes!
KONTRA NEWS: Black days for 5,000 workers
DIMOKRATIA: Cheap show by Mitsotakis
NAFTEMPORIKI: The untangling of the thread of money laundering
DRIVING THE DAY
NO “ASSOCIATE MEMBERSHIP” DEAL FOR CANADA: EU countries are split over whether to offer Canada “associate member” status in the bloc, days before leaders fly to Montréal for a summit to mark a new era in EU-Canada relations, four EU officials and diplomats told me, Zoya Sheftalovich and Sebastian Starcevic.
Brussels vs. capitals: The disagreement — which persisted after talks among EU ambassadors on Monday — highlights tension between Brussels and EU capitals, which were caught off guard when European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen first floated the idea during her State of the European Union speech in September.
Berlin opposed: While several countries showed “skepticism” yesterday about using the associate membership phrasing in the joint EU-Canada statement, Germany is still leading the push to have the term fully removed from the text, said two EU diplomats, granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive talks. A spokesperson for Berlin in Brussels didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
What to watch: The European Council, in charge of drafting the joint declaration, will circulate a new draft text today and invite countries to propose last-minute tweaks.
The key question: Will Germany dig in and veto the term? That might please Canada, which had proposed “alliance for the future” as a preferred way of describing its relationship with the EU.
But dropping it would amount to a backdown for von der Leyen. A compromise proposed by Italy would define the arrangement in the final text as an associate membership “as proposed by the European Commission,” or similar, allowing capitals to distance themselves from the term without nixing it. Two officials said they expected this longer formulation to be included in the draft text circulated today.
That’s not all: Countries are still ironing out joint language on financial support for Ukraine — a major priority for the EU, which is seeking additional contributions for Kyiv from Canada and the United Kingdom.
Fine print: Regardless of what ends up in the joint statement, the EU isn’t offering Canada a new partnership status right away. This week’s summit is about agreeing on areas, such as critical raw materials and Arctic security, where cooperation can be deepened. The next EU-Canada summit, which will take place in Europe in about a year, will determine what’s possible — and indeed how to describe the new relationship.
The bottom line: With U.S. midterm elections just over a week away, Brussels and Ottawa will be wary of triggering the ire of President Donald Trump while he’s at a campaign podium. Any hint of a formal EU-Canada partnership in the offing — including an EU proposal of associate membership for Canada — could prove just the trigger.
QUEBEC WANTS IN: Meanwhile, the new separatist-led government of Quebec is treating this week’s summit as the start of a wider diplomatic push to get the Canadian province in the room whenever Ottawa and Brussels strike deals that concern its powers.
The defense partnership: The military and industrial relationship between Ottawa and Europe is accelerating, although European officials, diplomats and analysts describe the link as a welcome with conditions, report Laura Kayali, Mike Blanchfield, Jacopo Barigazzi and Mason Boycott-Owen.
BIG AND BREAKING
FRONTEX TO GET A BIGGER BADGE: The Commission will propose giving the EU border agency new powers to return migrants outside the bloc as part of a sweeping overhaul of Frontex to be unveiled today, two officials told Gerardo Fortuna.
EUROPE’S RACE TO REPLACE STARLINK: The EU is fighting Elon Musk’s Starlink on at least five fronts, ranging from blocking access and boosting rivals, to drafting new rules aimed directly at undermining the tech mogul’s growing dominance over space-related initiatives, Mathieu Pollet reports.
MINISTERS OFFER KYIV COMMITMENT: Top European defense ministers and EU representatives said Ukraine faces challenging months ahead, insisting they must keep supporting Kyiv despite the U.S. bid for talks with Russia.
ISRAELIS VOTE: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has confounded his critics and found himself in a tight race for reelection in today’s vote, three years after the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks on Israel.
A NEW-LOOK COMMISSION?
THE GREAT COMMISSION SHAKE-UP (KIND OF): Long-awaited recommendations for reforming the Commission are now in, drawn up by a group led by former Commission Secretary-General Catherine Day. Playbook has read her 35-page document and spoken to several EU officials … and here are four takeaways.
1. DGs (but not agencies) can breathe easy: There will be no merging of Commission departments — at least, not yet. The report warns that reorganizing DGs would cause “a lot of upheaval, which is not necessary, we think,” a senior official told Gerardo Fortuna. Cue a collective sigh of relief in the Berlaymont, where several DGs feared the chopping block. EU agencies aren’t so lucky, with the group suggesting a moratorium on creating new ones and a review of existing bodies, with mergers and transfers of responsibilities a possibility.
2. All roads lead to the SecGen: The Commission’s Secretariat-General would gain more power to coordinate departments and settle disputes. Given that it’s an administrative hub under the authority of the Commission president, its beefed-up role would amount to quite a power shift. Cristiano Sebastiani, of staff union Renouveau & Démocratie, warned that such centralization would need safeguards against abuses of power.
3. No cuts, but keep your bags packed: No staff reductions or reopening of the EU Staff Regulations are in the recommendations. Instead, the advisers want to redeploy officials as needed and enforce five-year rotations for senior managers. But Sebastiani warned that compulsory moves without guaranteed new posts could leave managers vulnerable.
4. AI, meet omnibus: The advisers want artificial intelligence to be used to spot overlapping rules, compare national legislation and slash paperwork. They also propose reviewing the EU’s entire rule book every five years — with a little help from AI to weed out obsolete legislation and unnecessary reporting requirements.
What now: These are proposals from an external advisory group, not binding decisions by von der Leyen or Budget Commissioner Piotr Serafin. But they are seen by officials as being influential on the final report, due by the end of the year.
20-SECOND PLAYBOOK PRIMER
The U.S. has reportedly encouraged former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to become a candidate for the role of U.N. secretary-general. But who is likely to get the U.N. job? There are seven candidates (Orbán isn’t one of them and neither is FIFA boss Gianni Infantino, another reported Donald Trump pick) to replace António Guterres when his term ends on Dec. 31. The U.N. Security Council holds secret votes on the candidates and the last straw poll ended with Rebeca Grynspan, of Costa Rica, in the lead. Emirati diplomat Lana Nusseibeh has now entered the race.
ONE IN, ONE OUT
EXCLUSIVE — COMMISSION EYES TAX RESHUFFLE: The European Commission is exploring whether to use revenue from a global corporate tax arrangement targeting large multinationals to finance the EU’s next seven-year budget, four EU diplomats with knowledge of the proceedings told Gregorio Sorgi. They were granted anonymity to discuss the confidential plans.
Own resources, à la carte: The idea, which was backed by French President Emmanuel Macron in a leaders’ meeting in October, could facilitate an agreement on new EU-wide taxes, known as own resources. After more than a year of negotiations, EU governments are still arguing over five proposed new taxes that the Commission estimates would generate €65 billion per year.
European Council President António Costa’s advisers and the Commission are discussing whether to drop or tweak some of the proposed levies to make them more palatable to EU governments. A corporate tax, known as CORE, has emerged as the most unpopular option and is particularly toxic in Germany.
CORE victim: One of the solutions under consideration involves replacing CORE with a contribution to the EU budget based on the OECD’s global minimum tax deal.
The agreement, which was implemented across the EU, compels countries to charge a minimum corporate tax rate of 15 percent and to levy a “top up” tax on foreign companies that manage to sidestep the minimum rate. European capitals could funnel part of the revenue from the “top up” tax to the bloc’s budget, the diplomats said.
DASHBOARD
Tobacco and nicotine lobbyists meet with right-leaning MEPs three times more often than they do with left-leaning lawmakers, according to POLITICO’s analysis of data collected by anti-smoking NGOs. Lawmakers declared more than 400 meetings so far during this parliamentary term, compared with just over 100 in the entire previous term.
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3 MORE THINGS GETTING US TALKING
FRANCO-GERMAN DEAL WON’T FIX AUTO CRISIS: A deal between France and Germany on cars has helped break a stalemate in the European Parliament on two major industry measures, but won’t address the acute problems facing automakers, Jordyn Dahl and Giorgio Leali report.
U.K. DEFENSE BOOST: Chancellor John Healey is set to deliver an unexpected increase in defense spending in his first budget on Wednesday, as Britain strains to meet its NATO spending commitment. POLITICO delves into seven key questions.
WASHINGTON LASHES EU AIRBUS LOAN: U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has slammed the EU’s $3.4 billion loan to Airbus, warning the payment to the aerospace company could harm the trade truce between Washington and Brussels, the FT reports.
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