Firefighters continue to battle major wildfire on the island of Paros
A major wildfire that broke out on the Greek island of Paros on Tuesday afternoon remained out of control overnight, with firefighters continuing to battle the blaze as reinforced ground and aerial forces were deployed at first light on Wednesday.
Bill on cultural heritage passes in parliament
Greece’s parliament approved late on Tuesday a bill on the management of cultural heritage, the protection of artworks and the restructuring of the Organization for the Management and Development of Cultural Resources. The bill passed with the backing of the governing New Democracy party, while all opposition parties voted against it. Culture Minister Lina Mendoni rejected opposition claims that the legislation paves the way for the privatization of archaeological sites and monuments.
https://www.amna.gr/en/article/1012232/Bill-on-cultural-heritage-passes-in-parliament
Main opposition PASOK has 33 lawmakers after independent MP joins party
An independent left-wing lawmaker representing Thessaloniki on Tuesday said he was joining Socialist PASOK, raising the number of the main opposition party’s MPs to 33 in the 300-seat Parliament. Michalis Hourdakis had been elected in the 2023 parliamentary elections with the populist left-wing Course of Freedom party. He later left it to join former SYRIZA leader Stefanos Kasselakis’ Democrats – Progressive Center party.
Suppliers stick to agreement on slashing prices
Suppliers have so far adhered to their side of the agreement for the reduction of retail prices, showing satisfactory response in the number of products whose price they intend to reduce, though not at the level of discounts anticipated. The vast majority of price reductions are limited to just 5%, the bare minimum agreed to between the market and the government. The “basket” so far includes some exceptions with price reductions on the order of 10%, but in no case do suppliers propose any reduction above this percentage. Both the government and consumers are pinning their hopes on supermarket chains, which, after receiving suggested discount codes from suppliers, can then apply additional discounts.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1310767/suppliers-stick-to-agreement-on-slashing-prices
ATHEX: Benchmark keeps rising on banks
Banks stocks kept the main index at Athinon Avenue in the black on Tuesday, despite the overall picture that saw the majority of stocks suffer losses – though the credit sector continued its ascent – including a number of blue chips such as oil companies. The index climbed to a new decade-high, in line with the calm reaction of most eurozone markets to the sell-off in Tokyo and Seoul. The banks’ results season begins on Wednesday with Piraeus.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1310873/athex-benchmark-keeps-rising-on-banks
KATHIMERINI: The control system for the food supply chain is “blind”
TA NEA: Mitsotakis-Athens Archbishop Ieronymos: Secret dinner on the development of church assets for the housing of students and the homeless
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: The “castle” of culture has fallen
RIZOSPASTIS: High prices and tax-heist while wages remain at the bottom of the pit
KONTRA NEWS: The government is a preparing a “big feast” linked to the exploitation of ancient monuments
DIMOKRATIA: Odyssey movie: Mitsotakis sponsors Nolan’s “hubris” against ancient Greece
NAFTEMPORIKI: MIT Professor Daskalakis: “Athens must become Europe’s Silicon Valley”
DRIVING THE DAY
CHARLEROI, NO MORE? Thousands of national officials, party operatives, campaigners and visiting regional politicians will be forced to find a more expensive way to Brussels in the lead up to the next EU election, as Brussels South Charleroi Airport shuts for 11 weeks.
Not ideal timing: The rebuilding of the airport’s only runway — set to take place between Aug. 15 and Oct. 31, 2028 — will land squarely in the opening months of Latvia’s presidency of the Council of the EU and at the start of the final rentrée before the 2029 EU election.
Mixed feelings: It’s the airport that Brussels love to hate: from the 50-minute schlep to get there to the infamous security lines when you arrive. Even so: Many of those Playbook spoke to were thrown by the prospect of losing the budget escape route Charleroi provides (with parliamentary assistants hailing from southern Italy and Greece the most miffed).
Easy for some: The shutdown is more likely to hit lower-ranking officials, campaigners and political staff, who will find it harder to expense higher airfares or journeys via alternative routes. That’s because Charleroi connects Brussels cheaply with regional cities, candidate countries and parts of the EU that are poorly served by rail and may be overlooked by connections through Brussels’ other airport, Zaventem.
Pricing it in: “It is one of Ryanair’s largest continental bases,” director of JLS Consulting John Strickland told Playbook, predicting significant disruption as airlines reshuffle aircraft and passengers — with Zaventem standing to gain as an alternative route, as could nearby Lille.
The pain threshold: OAG Chief Analyst John Grant told Playbook the thinner network of affordable routes will increase the cost barrier. “For travelers there are always [other] choices, although sometimes with increased cost implications.”
Doing the presidential math: Latvia will not lose its direct Brussels link: airBaltic currently flies from Riga to Zaventem. The country will, however, lose the cheaper option. Ryanair is advertising Riga-Charleroi tickets from €29.99 one way, compared with around €85 on airBaltic to Zaventem — a gap of about €110 on a return trip before extras. That said, Charleroi’s airport shuttle, which starts at €14.99 each way, narrows the difference. And 2028 fares have yet to be set.
Paying the price: Still, for the officials, experts and journalists repeatedly traveling to Brussels and back, or booking return trips to Riga for Latvia’s presidency, the additional cost could quickly add up.
The bigger question: While 11 weeks of disruption is manageable, Belgian trade union SETCa has already warned that some aircraft, crews and routes won’t return after the break — potentially leaving Brussels with a slimmer, pricier gateway to the rest of the continent.
BIG AND BREAKING
THE SAHEL SAGA CONTINUES: The Commission insists it followed the rules when appointing its new envoy to the Sahel, even as its original pick faces criminal charges in Slovenia over the nomination, my colleagues Gabriel Gavin and Sebastian Starcevic report.
HIPPER REPLACEMENT: Commission spokesperson Anitta Hipper, who has moved to Executive Vice President Henna Virkkunen’s cabinet, will be replaced by Christian Wigand, best known as Jean-Claude Juncker’s social affairs and tech spokesperson.
A NEW THREAT TO EUROPE’S POWER COUPLE: It’s not just France’s far right that wants to upend the EU’s status quo — far-left presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon has also signaled he would end the Franco-German partnership as we know it.
LEAVING D.C. IN HIGH SPIRITS: Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s trip to Washington was a remarkable turnabout from his disastrous visit last year, with more American lawmakers now convinced Kyiv can win the war, my stateside colleagues report.
Capping it off: The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly to advance a sweeping Russia sanctions bill that Senator Lindsey Graham had championed before he died.
WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING: The U.S. military said it thwarted a “surprise” Iranian attack on its forces and struck Tehran-backed militias in Iraq, rupturing the brief pause in the conflict, the BBC reports.
25TH LANGUAGE … LOADING
LANGUAGE MATTERS: The EU is hiring Montenegrin-speaking officials as the country races toward membership — starting the practical work needed to make it the bloc’s 25th official language, Seb Starcevic reports.
Writing the fine print: The Council of the EU’s legal service is looking for assistants to help draft the country’s accession treaty — the rules under which it joins the bloc — and translate legislation. “The first opportunities are opening up for citizens of Montenegro to build their careers in the institutions of the European Union,” the country’s European Affairs Minister Maida Gorčević said.
28 by ‘28: Montenegro has closed over half of the chapters required to meet the EU’s membership requirements and aims to become the bloc’s 28th member by 2028. Once it joins, Montenegrin is set to be included as one of the bloc’s official languages.
ABC, not АБB: Montenegro will use its Latin alphabet, not Cyrillic, for EU documents, according to a diplomat involved in the accession negotiations, granted anonymity to discuss the internal plans. Both alphabets are taught in the country’s schools, although the Latin script is more widely used.
Family members: Montenegrin is understandable to speakers of Croatian, Serbian and Bosnian, with a few minor differences in vocabulary and pronunciation. The similarities among the South Slavic languages “are more than 95 percent,” Igor Lakić, linguistics professor at the University of Montenegro, told Playbook.
The EU employs an army of translators to ensure its legislation is understood in its member countries’ 24 official languages, at a cost of around €1 billion each year. If Montenegrin becomes number 25, the bloc will need to recruit another cadre of translators and interpreters — despite the language’s similarities with Croatian.
Does Montenegrin require its own booth? Lakić believes it does. It’s not just the linguistic differences that matter, but also the “political, economic and other characteristics … that only interpreters from each of these four countries can properly convey to different languages.”
Language politics run hot in the Balkans. Podgorica has enshrined the Montenegrin language in its constitution and has successfully sought to get it internationally recognized, while neighboring Serbia has attacked it as a political invention.
ECR PRESIDENCY RACE
SUCCESSION: European lawmakers Adam Bielan and Tobiasz Bocheński are the leading contenders to replace Mateusz Morawiecki, a former Polish prime minister, as head of the European Conservatives and Reformists Party.
What happened: Morawiecki stepped down from the role following last week’s dramatic split in Poland’s Law and Justice (PiS) party. Three MEPs followed Morawiecki out the PiS door.
Keep it Polish: Under the pan-European party’s internal rotation, the presidency is expected to remain with PiS, Max Griera, Eliza Gkritsi and I report. Bielan, a former deputy marshal of the Polish Senate, is seen as the frontrunner in the race between the two MEPs, according to an ECR official granted anonymity to discuss the internal race. Neither Bielan nor Bocheński responded to request for comment.
Easy does it: ECR Executive Vice President Carlo Fidanza, also an MEP, will take over the ECR presidency until party members elect a permanent successor to Morawiecki — expected in September. “Politically speaking, we are obviously aiming for a smooth transition,” another senior ECR official said.
Protected in Brussels: Morawiecki’s three allied MEPs, meanwhile, are expected to remain in the ECR grouping in the European Parliament, even though they’re likely to form their own Polish delegation after the summer recess, three officials — one from PiS and two from ECR — told Playbook. This means the breakaway MEPs will continue to sit alongside PiS lawmakers.
Why keep them? ECR wants to overtake the Patriots for Europe as Parliament’s third-largest group before next year’s midterm division of top jobs. Losing three MEPs would weaken the grouping’s bargaining hand. “There will be no ostracism,” one official said.
6 MORE THINGS GETTING US TALKING
THE GRAZING BRIGADE: Shepherds and cattle farmers are emerging as an unlikely weapon against blazes in Spain and France, Agnes Rønberg reports in Morning Agri (for subscribers).
HEATWAVE-DRIVEN POLITICS: France’s far right is seizing on the out-of-control wildfires, arguing President Emmanuel Macron is failing to protect people and their homes.
SAFE — BUT NOT YET: Italy wants to tap the EU’s SAFE defense loan mechanism but Matteo Salvini’s far-right League, which is part of the governing coalition, cooled talk of an immediate move, saying parliament should decide (for subscribers).
THE BIG REVIEW: Washington has launched a long-awaited review that will determine the number of American troops and military assets in Europe.
THE MONEY’S (MOSTLY) GONE: The European Commission has now paid out roughly two-thirds of its post-pandemic recovery fund, with the clock ticking toward next year’s deadline, per Morning Financial Services (for subscribers).
PREPARING THE POST-BREXIT RESET: Brussels is ready to offer the U.K. a compromise on the thorny issue of tuition fees that has been holding up the reset talks started by Keir Starmer.