Parliament committee to review wiretapping case amid opposition criticism
The Committee on Institutions and Transparency will meet Friday morning in Parliament to address concerns from opposition parties stemming from a recent Supreme Court ruling on the wiretapping case involving illegal spyware.
PM Mitsotakis: Tzitzikostas has the credentials to successfully undertake the challenging role of EU Commissioner
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met with Central Macedonia Governor Apostolos Tzitzikostas at Maximos Mansion on Thursday afternoon, who has been proposed for the position of Greek Commissioner in the European Commission.
BοG Governor Stournaras estimates that the ECB will implement two more interest rate cuts in 2024
Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras highlighted the possibility that inflation in the eurozone might fall below the 2% target in an interview with Platow.de. He noted that, “new signs of weak economic activity and the high level of uncertainty are very likely to lead to inflation being lower than expected. This means there is a risk that inflation could drop below the 2% target in the medium term.”
Energy Ministry: Final electricity pricing for households in August at under 15 cents/kWh
The emergency support for household electricity consumption in August will be 1.6 cents per KW (or 16 euros per MWh), the Environment & Energy Ministry announced on Thursday.
ATHEX limits early losses, drops 0.25%
The month began with selling pressure on the Athens Stock Exchange, with the general index declining by as much as 1%, before steadying and limiting losses toward the end of the session.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1245355/athex-limits-early-losses-drops-0-25
KATHIMERINI: SOS regarding Israeli targets in Greece
TA NEA: Price increases for 850 drugs
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: How district attorney Achilleas Zisis covered-up the wiretappings scandal
RIZOSPASTIS: Energy froups are the winners of energy price hikes in any case
KONTRA NEWS: Armed Forces in alert
DIMOKRATIA: Ruling New Democracy party is a champion of debt
NAFTEMPORIKI: “Hole” of 1 bln if the GDP goal is not achieved
ESTONIANS KNOW HOW TO SPEND IT: Tallinn is dipping into its share of the EU’s Just Transition Fund — which aims to shift heavy industrial workers into cleaner sectors — to pay for ax-throwing and sauna festivals, public broadcaster ERR reports.
DRIVING THE DAY: HISTORIC PRISONER SWAP
BRUSSELS WELCOMES DEAL: The EU’s top brass hailed a prisoner swap reminiscent of the Cold War era, in which 16 people — including journalists Evan Gershkovich, Alsu Kurmasheva and Vladimir Kara-Murza — were exchanged for eight Russian criminals, including a convicted murderer and a pair of spies who posed as Argentinians and operated out of Slovenia for years.
Joyful scenes: Gershkovich, Kurmasheva and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, also freed as part of the exchange, arrived on American soil in the early hours of this morning, where they were met by their families, U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Watch the footage here. Kara-Murza, a citizen of the U.K. and Russia who holds a green card and whose family lives in the U.S., traveled to Germany first.
Evan is free! My colleague Eva Hartog’s story about her time in Moscow working with Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was convicted of trumped-up espionage charges, has been at the top of my mind these past few days as the possibility of a deal simmered.
First reaction: “It is amazing news and a great relief. I think about Evan and Alsu, their families, their colleagues — whom I had the opportunity to meet on several occasions,” European Commissioner for Values Věra Jourová told Playbook in a statement Thursday night. “Today’s release is the result of their relentless efforts and it is a big diplomatic achievement. I have been advocating for the release and raising the case of journalists publicly, with U.S. and EU partners,” she said.
Russia swaps journalists for convicts. “This shows the stark difference,” said Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.“You belong home with your families and loved ones!” said Council President Charles Michel, directing his message to Gershkovich, Kurmasheva, Kara-Murza and Whelan. “Their freedom should have never been in jeopardy,” said European Parliament President Roberta Metsola.
“Relieved.” That’s how the EEAS put it in a three-line statement, a remarkable piece of political communication only because it noted the “help” from Turkey — the prisoner swap took place in Ankara — but didn’t mention the U.S. or anyone freed by Washington and its allies by name.
POTUS: A more gracious — and possibly more indebted — Bidenthanked countries including Turkey and EU members Germany, Poland and Slovenia, “who stood with us throughout tough, complex negotiations to achieve this outcome.”
“For anyone who questions whether allies matter: They do matter,” Biden said, in words that will stay in the minds of those in Brussels if Donald Trump and his isolationist veep JD Vance are elected in November.
Danke, Olaf: “I particularly owe a great sense of gratitude to the — the chancellor,” Biden told reporters.
Why’s Biden saying that? Because Olaf Scholz had to swallow a bitter pill in accepting the deal, under which Germany released a notorious FSB agent who committed murder in broad daylight in Berlin. Getting Germany on board was one of Biden’s main uphill struggles. (Among the 16 people released by Russia were five Germans, some with dual Russian nationality.)
Murderer goes free: Vadim Krasikov was serving a life sentence for shooting dead former Chechen militant Zelimkhan Khangoshvili in a central Berlin park — the Wall Street Journal has a good profile. Vladimir Putin warmly embraced Krasikov as he bounced off the plane in Russia, where they’d literally rolled out the red carpet for him.
Back to business as usual: “I would be cautious in surmising from this that it’s some sort of breakthrough in the relationship” with Russia, a U.S. official told my POLITICO colleagues Stateside. They also have this great piece that tells the story of how the deal got done.
Putin’s hostage diplomacy: Alexander Baunov, a former Russian diplomat who is now a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, told my colleague Eva that the benefits for the Kremlin are clear. The release of convicted Russians in the West, including Krasikov, signals that “we don’t abandon our own, including murderers,” Baunov said.
Dangerous precedent: The message from Putin is, “our people shouldn’t be afraid to commit crimes in the name of the regime, the motherland will bail them out,” Baunov said. But, he hastened to add, this isn’t an argument against the prisoner swap.
Warning to Westerners in Russia: “The pattern of taking Europeans hostage and trying to exchange them for Russian agents will probably be seen now as more tangible,” said German Green MEP Sergey Lagodinsky. “But the humanitarian and political benefits of this deal overweigh the hypothetical future risks.”
Someone missing: “The fact that [murdered Russian dissident Alexei] Navalny has not been allowed to survive [and take part in] such [an] exchange is a tragedy,” said Lagodinsky. My Berlin Playbook colleagues report that Navalny was supposed to be included in the swap, before he turned up dead in his Arctic prison.
And don’t forget imprisoned American schoolteacher Marc Fogel and Russian activist Aleksei Gorinov, among others, who weren’t part of the deal.
Sums it up: Estonian MEP Riho Terras told Playbook: “It is always worth [it] to exchange good and decent people against scumbags like the killers … they will have hard time in Russia anyway … I do not have a good word for these villains.”
NEXT RUSSIAN SPIES IN EUROPE: EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson published a letter she sent to the Hungarian government warning about its new visa scheme for Russians and Belarusians to work in Hungary, which has already raised fears of spies flooding into the EU.
Empty threat? Johansson gave Hungary an Aug. 19 deadline to reply to her questions about the scheme, “given the potential security threat for the Schengen area of these unilateral measures.” She wrote on social media: “If their easy access scheme is a risk, we will act.”
NEXT COMMISSIONERS
COMMISSION CLAMS UP AS MEN OUTNUMBER WOMEN: The Commission repeatedly refused to comment on the fact that EU countries are increasingly ignoring Ursula von der Leyen’s request that they nominate a man and woman for her to pick from when she forms her next College of Commissioners this summer.
Clear as mud: At a briefing Thursday, Commission spokesperson Veerle Nuyts hammered the line that von der Leyen has stated an aim to have a gender-balanced College, and claimed the president had been “very clear” in requesting two names, one of whom should be a woman.
Sincere non-cooperation: But it’s very unclear what — if anything — von der Leyen can do about the fact that at least six countries (Ireland, Czech Republic, Greece, Austria, Malta, Slovenia) have now signaled they won’t play ball.
MEN JUST KEEP COMING BACK: The gender balance is further eroded by the fact that far more male commissioners are returning than female ones.
STAY OUT OF MY LANE, VDL! At heart, this is a power struggle between the national governments who reserve the right to decide on whom they put forward to be grilled in Parliament, and the president of the Commission, who reserves the exclusive right to dole out their portfolios.
HELPING THE GENDER BALANCE: Croatia’s Dubravka Šuica, who was renominated by the government led by Prime Minister Andrej Plenković for another five years. She’ll probably be hoping for a more substantive portfolio than democracy and demography — and says she’s “looking forward” to her Parliament hearing.
Fun facts about Šuica: She holds a Knighthood of the Vine from the Brotherhood of Croatian Wine Knights … taught English and German in Croatian schools … and in her home city of Dubrovnik, where she was mayor, she was nicknamed “mom.”
NOT HELPING THE GENDER BALANCE: The center-right government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Athens, which nominated former Committee of the Regions President Apostolos Tzitzikostas, who has governed the Central Macedonia region of Greece since 2013, Nektaria Stamouli writes in to report. He was a right-wing choice as Mitsotakis tries to win back voters he lost to the populist right at the EU election.
Not happy to be part of a pair: Amid reports pointing out Mitsotakis was supposed to propose two names to von der Leyen, a peeved Tzitzikostas conveyed to the PM’s office that he wouldn’t accept a nomination if there was more than one candidate, Nektaria writes. (His competition would have been Labor Minister Niki Kerameus.) Mitsotakis acquiesced, telling reporters last week: “The country will have one commissioner and the privilege of the choice solely belongs to the country. Each country sends one candidate. We don’t know the portfolio yet.”
Schinas overlooked: Tzitzikostas’ nomination brings to an end Margaritis Schinas’ time as commissioner. Could he rejoin the ballet of Commission spokespeople?
FURTHER LISTENING: Brussels might seem empty, but high-stakes games are afoot behind the scenes. Leaders are working the phones, trying to convince von der Leyen to give their country the most prestigious posts in the EU executive. In this week’s edition of the EU Confidential podcast, host Sarah Wheaton and Barbara Moens talk top jobs. And in Paris, Clea Caulcutt breaks down how the Olympics are affecting France’s chaotic politics. Listen and subscribe here.
AND TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE … with our latest quiz.
IRAN-EU RELATIONS
TOP EU DIPLOMAT HAILS “NEW CHAPTER” IN IRAN: Enrique Mora’s chirpy tweet after a meeting with an Iranian counterpart in Tehran has done nothing to quell the consternation from MEPs across the political spectrum about the decision to attend the inauguration of new Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
Less is Mora: The Spaniard hailed a “new chapter for Iran” and said it was“good to recover contact” with Tehran’s senior diplomat Abbas Araghchi. The pair co-led talks on the Iran nuclear deal in 2021. Araghchi, meanwhile, tweeted for the first time in English in two years to warn that “the Israeli occupying regime will pay a heavy price” for the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. The EU has urged restraint, but as ever, its foreign policy impact is limited.
How low can you go? “Our relations with Iran are at a very, very low level,” EU spokesperson Peter Stano told reporters, listing the “violation of human rights of people in Iran … Iran’s support for Russia’s illegal aggression against Ukraine … arbitrary detentions of EU citizens.” He added: “These are the messages we are conveying to them.”
BUDAPEST NOTCHES A WIN
WATCHDOG RAPS COMMISSION OVER ORBÁN THINK TANK REQUEST: The Commission’s initial refusal to release documents about the Nature Restoration Law to the MCC Brussels think tank amounted to “maladministration,” the European Ombudsman said in a preliminary opinion.
The request: MCC, a conservative think tank bankrolled by Budapest, filed an access to documents request for info about whom the Commission was talking to ahead of the Nature Restoration Law proposal, including lists of participants and reports from consultation workshops. On February 29 — just two days after the Parliament adopted a negotiated text and as the Council continued to debate the file — the Commission refused to release most of the relevant docs, saying they could give rise to “unnecessary misunderstandings” about legislation that was not yet finalized.
Ombudsman not impressed: MCC filed a complaint. In a July 10 letter to the Commission, uploaded by the Ombudsman Thursday here, the Ombudsman roundly rejected the Commission’s arguments, noting that many of the views in question were already public and subject to ongoing lobbying. Given that and “the clear EU case-law on the transparency of legislative documents,” the Ombudsman’s office issued a preliminary finding of “maladministration,” and asked the Commission to make everything public.
Conclusion: The Commission has since released the documents to MCC, according to a July 29 message from the watchdog to the think tank, viewed by POLITICO. Playbook would be surprised — to the Ombudsman’s point — if they actually learn anything new about NGOs’ positions. But we’re sure they’ll make the point loudly if they do.
OTHER NEWS
ID REBRANDS: The far-right Identity & Democracy Party — a pan-EU umbrella structure thathas national parties like Portugal’s Chega as members — has rebranded as Patriots.eu, following the creation of its Patriots for Europe grouping in the European Parliament.
HOW THE MELONI-VDL RELATIONSHIP CRACKED: Hannah Roberts and Barbara Moens have the blow-by-blow.
MEET EUROPE’S ALLY ON TEAM HARRIS: The man who could steer U.S. security policy under a Kamala Harris presidency speaks four European languages, wrote his thesis on Charles de Gaulle and even translated a book by the notoriously irascible former French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Laura Kayali and Clea Caulcutt have the essential profile of Phil Gordon.
What if it’s the other guy? The office of European Commission Secretary-General Ilze Juhansone has set up a crack team of officials to prepare for Donald Trump’s potential return, the FT reports.
UKRAINE’S TAXING TIMES: Kyiv is running into a fierce blowback from businesses over its draft proposal to hike taxes to pay for the war effort, Veronika Melkozerova reports.
US DISCREDITS MADURO WIN: The U.S. government overnight recognized Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo González as the winner of the presidential election, despite incumbent Nicolás Maduro claiming victory. More here.
FRIDAY FUNNY: Our colleague Paul Dallison has the lowdown on the new Olympic events to be unveiled in Paris in this week’s Declassified humor column.