Greece warns Turkey against illegal activities in EEZ established by 2020 deal
In a stern warning to its Aegean rival Turkey, Greece indicated on Friday that it will not tolerate any illegal Turkish activities within the exclusive economic zone established by the 2020 deal between Athens and Cairo.
Athens 2004 Olympics opening ceremony remains unparalleled, Mitsotakis says
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis commented on the Paris 2024 Olympic Games opening ceremony in his weekly social media address on Sunday.
All parties deny illegal acts in phone tapping case
Testimony from dozens of witnesses shows no evidence that either Greece’s National Intelligence Agency (EYP) or the Greek police’s Counterterrorism Division acquired or used the Predator snooping software.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/politics/1244910/all-parties-deny-illegal-acts-in-phone-tapping-case
Public debt in steady decline
The recovery of the Greek economy and the return to primary surpluses after the Covid-19 pandemic have been the two key factors driving the steady and significant reduction of public debt as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP).
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1244979/public-debt-in-steady-decline
ATHEX: Fourth week of growth for bourse
Stock prices staged a comeback on Friday to see the benchmark end the week with gains for the fourth consecutive week – a sequence unseen in over four months. The bank sector this time bucked the trend and finished the day with losses, ahead of the announcement of the four systemic lenders’ first-half results from next Wednesday.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1244941/athex-fourth-week-of-growth-for-bourse
SUNDAY PAPERS
KATHIMERINI: Greek-Turkish incident at Kassos: The 40 hours of alertness
TO VIMA: Wiretappings scandal: 28 persons in search of a culprit
REAL NEWS: Behold the government plan for cheap housing
PROTO THEMA: US elections: What is changing for Greece
MONDAY PAPERS:
TA NEA: No more paperwork regarding real estate assets
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: Adding fuel to the fire of the Middle East
KONTRA NEWS: Division within SYRIZA and threats about oustings
DIMOKRATIA: Circular for working pensioners
NAFTEMPORIKI: 18,3 bln lost from regulated debts owed to social security funds
Forgive and let live: France is taking a lot of heat for its “Last Supper” sketch at the Olympic opening ceremony, which offended some people of faith. Yet one prominent Catholic politician gave it a pass. “Every nation has the right to show itself,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said at his government’s Tusványos festival in Romania on Sunday. “Well, that’s what happened,” he told the friendly crowd, to laughter.
With friends like these … “The French will be our allies in many ways, short-, medium- and long term as well,” Orbán said. “There is much more overlap between the idea of strategic autonomy announced by Macron and the idea of national sovereignty than we think.”
DRIVING THE DAY
MIDDLE EAST ON A KNIFE-EDGE: Negotiations over a cease-fire in Gaza are set to continue after Rome played host to talks between Israel, Qatar, Egypt and the U.S. on Sunday.
The context could not be more tense: The Israeli government launched airstrikes “deep inside” Lebanon in response to Saturday’s rocket attack at a soccer field in the Golan Heights. Israel and the U.S. government blamed the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah for the attack that killed 12 children and youths. Hezbollah denied responsibility.
Clashing image: The serious cease-fire talks, on the one hand, with the fresh threat of a regional war on the other, present an agonizing split-screen of possible scenarios.
More strikes are planned … On Sunday evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet authorized him and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to agree on when and how to retaliate for the attack on the Druze town of Majdal Shams. “Hezbollah will pay a heavy price which it has not paid up to now,” Netanyahu said on X over the weekend.
… and more talks: Mossad Director David Barnea returned from Rome on Sunday evening, the Israeli government said, where he’d been working to clarify terms of Israel’s proposal in talks led by U.S. intelligence chief William Burns. Coverage in Israeli media, including the Times of Israel, suggests the sides are still far apart.
Further inflaming matters: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Sunday appeared to make an open-ended threat to invade Israel. “We must be very strong so that Israel can’t do these ridiculous things to Palestine. Just like we entered [Nagorno-]Karabakh, just like we entered Libya, we might do similar to them,” Erdoğan said at a party gathering, according to Reuters.
European leaders urge restraint: European politicians decried Saturday’s violence in the Golan Heights while calling for restraint and declining to blame Hezbollah. The EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called for an “independent investigation” into the rocket strike on Majdal Shams. “We urge all parties to exercise utmost restraint and avoid further escalation,” Borrell said on X. France is “fully committed to doing everything possible to avoid a new escalation,” President Emmanuel Macron told Netanyahu in a call, according to a readout.
CONCERN OVER EU DIPLO AT IRANIAN INAUGURATION: EU parliamentarians want Borrell to face a grilling on the decision to send Enrique Mora, the European External Action Service’s deputy secretary-general, to the inauguration of Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian.
Bad look? Top MEPs on the Parliament’s foreign affairs panel were uneasy about the decision in light of the regime’s “widespread and systematic human rights violations” and the EU’s ongoing debate about designating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization, the committee’s chair, David McAllister, said in a July 26 letter to Borrell, seen by Playbook’s Eddy Wax.
Bare minimum: “The EU relation with Iran is at its lowest,” said EU foreign policy spokesperson Nabila Massrali in an email Sunday. Without directly addressing whether Borrell will accept the committee’s invitation, she said: “However, we keep a policy of critical engagement as agreed by the Council. The EU will be there to express its positions directly” on issues including human rights and nuclear escalation.
Reformist hopes: Mora is among hundreds of foreign dignitaries slated to attend Tuesday’s inauguration ceremony in the Iranian parliament. Pezeshkian, a heart surgeon who was formally endorsed by Iran’s Supreme leader on Sunday, was elected on a platform of improved relations with the West after President Ebrahim Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash in May. Mora’s attendance at the inauguration of Raisi, an ultraconservative, in 2021 also sparked controversy.
GENDER TROUBLE
PARLIAMENT BACKSLIDES ON GENDER PARITY: Since 1979, the share of women in the European Parliament has been increasing — but that trend ended in 2024, according to a new analysis. Some 38.5 percent of confirmed MEPs this time are women, down from 40 percent in 2019. And the disparities run deeper than just the top-line numbers, as Hanne Cokelaere’s analysis lays bare.
Substantive differences: When it comes to committee memberships, men dominate panels devoted to money and power, Hanne found. In the committees on constitutional affairs, budgetary control, taxes, and foreign affairs, the proportion of women is below 20 percent. In the constitutional affairs committee — which sets rules about how MEPs conduct themselves, including work-life balance — it dropped to just 13 percent. Women are overrepresented in committees working on the internal market; culture and education; employment and social affairs — and women’s rights.
Partisan differences: While political families on the right generally fueled the growing gender gap, there was one notable exception: Patriots for Europe — the new anti-immigration far-right group led by Marine Le Pen’s National Rally and Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz — is above the Parliament’s average. Read the full analysis, with graphics breaking down the proportions by committee and political group.
NOW READ … THE MEPS WHO ACTUALLY MATTER: POLITICO picks out 11 EU lawmakers to keep your eye on in the new term.
IRELAND DOUBLES DOWN ON MALE COMMISSION NOMINEE: Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris insisted again over the weekend that Ireland will only be proposing one name for its European commissioner — that of Michael McGrath — despite Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s request for a man and a woman from each capital.
A question of fairness: Harris noted that McGrath had already resigned from his role as finance minister to prepare to take on the Brussels gig. It would be unfair, Harris said, according to RTÉ, to tell him that he now has a “50-50” chance of being selected. (Harris’ stated concern made Playbook think of the famous quote from a fictional Irish American character: “Politics ain’t beanbag.”)
Playbook thought bubble: The meteoric rise of Harris, who at 37 became the republic’s youngest taoiseach, was fueled by his successful campaign as health minister to legalize abortion in 2018 and implement access to the procedure for Irish women. So he has some gender equality credentials, for sure. Standing his ground on only sending a male commission nominee is an interesting way to spend that political capital.
ON THE RECORD
“You’ve got to get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again, we’ll have it fixed so good you’re not going to have to vote.”
— Donald Trump, Friday
EU-CHINA RELATIONS
MELONI’S CHINA MISSION: Walking a diplomatic tightrope, Italian Prime Giorgia Meloni will visit China through Wednesday. POLITICO’s Koen Verhelst reports that she’s hoping to court Chinese companies for investments — without making her economy too dependent.
High-level meetings: Meloni will sit down with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang. Chinese government propaganda outlets are keen to describe the trip as a repair job: Rome has annoyed Beijing quite a bit recently.
No belt, no road … One of those irritants: Italy’s exit last year, amid U.S. pressure, from China’s Belt and Road Initiative, Beijing’s influence-for-infrastructure scheme.
Entourage: It’s Meloni’s first time in China as PM and she’s joined by a host of companies, including tiremaker Pirelli, fashion juggernaut Dolce & Gabbana and defense producer Leonardo, Reuters reports.
Propaganda and pressure: Chinese state-controlled outlets are overjoyed that Meloni is coming. What they care to ignore in most pieces around the visit is that the hard-right leader oversaw a G7 meeting in Italy last that issued a call to China to get its industrial overcapacity under control. Meloni is expected to bring up China’s support to Russia — especially allowing circumvention of sanctions on Western tech — during her high-level meetings.
Car trouble: Italy has a large car industry, but one that has struggled more than Germany’s in recent years and is vulnerable to the Chinese EV threat. Italy has also fined a company called DR Automobiles for claiming its cars were made in Italy when they were merely assembled from Chinese parts. More from Koen in Morning Trade, for Pro subscribers.
Meanwhile … the EU is developing a two-step trade plan to tackle Donald Trump: Brussels will offer the Republican candidate a quick deal if he wins a second term as president, and targeted retaliation if he opts for punitive tariffs instead, the FT reports.
BEIJING URGES BOYCOTT OF TAIWAN SUMMIT: Beijing pressured at least six countries to skip a China-focused confab in Taiwan that kicks off today. At least eight politicians were contacted via text, phone calls or through their party’s leadership — including ones from Slovakia, North Macedonia, Bosnia, Bolivia and Colombia — and urged not to attend the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) meeting. Jordyn Dahl has the write-up.