Mitsotakis denies cover-up accusations in Tempe railway disaster
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis rejected allegations of a cover-up in the Tempe railway disaster during an interview with Alpha TV on Wednesday, stating that if it is proven that the freight train was carrying illegal cargo that contributed to the fire following the collision, railway operator Hellenic Train will be held accountable.
PASOK condemns prosecutor’s dismissal of wiretapping complaints as a cover-up
The main opposition PASOK party has strongly criticized Supreme Court deputy prosecutor Achilles Zisis’ decision to dismiss the criminal complaints filed by its leader, Nikos Androulakis, and journalist Thanasis Koukakis, calling it “one more link in the chain of cover-up” of the wiretapping case. The legal action had been directed at the individual whose prepaid bank card was allegedly used to pay for SMS messages infected with the Predator spyware, which were sent to the complainants.
Skylakakis pays official visit to Riyadh to discuss ‘green’ corridor to Europe
The possibility of constructing a hydrogen corridor between Saudi Arabia and Europe that will pass through Greece was discussed in a meeting on Wednesday between Greece’s Environment and Energy Minister Theodoros Skylakakis and Saudi Arabia’s energy minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman al Saud, held in Riyadh.
Experts meet to discuss seismic activity at Santorini volcano
A meeting of experts and state officials was convened at the Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Ministry on Wednesday to discuss an uptick in seismic-volcanic activity in the area of the Santorini caldera.
ATHEX: Mixed day sees index edge higher
The mixed picture at Athinon Avenue at the end of trade on Wednesday did not stop the benchmark stock index from registering yet another 13.5-year high, albeit marginally, as the desire of some traders to cash in recent gains was offset by buyers who see the upward trend of the local bourse bearing long-term characteristics. That should help interest shift also to stocks other than just the usual suspects – i.e. the banks and construction and energy companies.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1260106/athex-mixed-day-sees-index-edge-higher
KATHIMERINI: Mea Culpa by PM MItsotakis regarding the handling of the Tempi rail crash
TA NEA: Mitsotakis: Full speed astern
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: The apology of a sad PM
RIZOSPASTIS: The people must tear apart the rails of profit which lead to new catastrophes such as the one at Tempi
KONTRA NEWS: Macron backstabs Greece
DIMOKRATIA: PM interview: The confession of a liar
NAFTEMPORIKI: New reductions in employers’ contributions are being mulled
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DRIVING THE DAY
ONE SMALL STEP FOR THE COMMISSION … The next interest group likely to complain about the EU’s growing mass of bureaucracy: space aliens.
Buzz-kill Lightyear: That’s because the EU is heralding a “new era of space governance” that, depending on who you ask, will either bring much-needed law and order to the final frontier or risk creating a new red-tape planet.
In space, no one can hear you regulate: We’re already witnessing the start of a paradoxical Commission mandate, focused largely on ripping up the previous five years’ legislative efforts while pretending this is a seamless continuation of its previous work. Now there’s an intergalactic gulf growing between the Commission’s ambition to bonfire its own laws at home — and to regulate the endless nothingness beyond the sky.
Bigger Bang: At a major conference this week, Space and Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius outlined a “European Space Shield” to monitor military threats and plans to create a single market so that Europe can compete in what he predicted will be a “booming Low Earth orbit economy.” The idea is to encourage collaboration between EU countries to compete with Russia, China and the U.S. in the space tech race. “We need a Big Bang in defence, and also for space,” Kubilius posted on X. I’m pretty sure we already had one of those in space, but OK.
The legislator’s guide to the galaxy: Brussels wants to create an EU Space Label to slap on satellites and rockets, as my colleague Josh Posaner reported last year, to encourage companies to use orbit responsibly. That’s part of a broader initiative coming in 2025 under the European Space Act. The aim is to clean up messy constellations of satellites and space debris, manage traffic, curb light pollution from spacecraft and limit pollution from rockets.
The red (tape) planet: “It is essential for us all that space does not remain an unregulated domain,” EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas said at the same conference Wednesday.
Space politics: Some countries that are big on space, especially Germany, objected to earlier drafts of the legislation, claiming the rules would burden upstart rocket-makers with onerous new bureaucracy. Berlin is amongst a constellation of EU countries planning their own national space laws, my colleague Joshua Posaner tells me. Italian PM Giorgia Meloni seems keener to rely on American tech, particularly that purveyed by her mate Elon Musk.
In contrast, back on planet Earth: The European Commission is planning a broad overhaul of how it passes and enforces regulation, to reduce red tape and ease implementation for member countries, my colleagues Marianne Gros and Kathryn Carlson report. They’ve seen a document entitled “For a simpler and faster Europe” that outlines the Commission’s plan to simplify the legislation it proposes, under what is called the omnibus law.
It takes red tape to cut red tape: The document lays out a cumbersome process of consultations, adding new meetings and impact assessments while agreeing on legislation, Marianne and Kathryn write. (Story here for Pros.)
WORK, WORK, WORK, WORK, WORK, WORK: Some fear that the competitiveness agenda could lay waste to the bloc’s Green Deal and its broader social policy agenda. But Roxana Mînzatu, the executive vice president for skills and quality jobs, assured POLITICO’s Aude van den Hove in an interview that workers such as teachers are at the center of the Commission’s thinking, especially in its upcoming Clean Industrial Deal (expected to land late February).
“There’s no competitiveness without workers, there’s no innovation without workers, there’s no decarbonization, without workers and without human capital and without the people,” Mînzatu said.
Over in Parliament, my colleague Max Griera reports, senior officials are asking whether Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will stick to a promise she made to four political groups (the EPP, Socialists and Democrats, Renew Europe and Greens) to strengthen her dialogue with MEPs before presenting the omnibus on Feb. 26.
ESSENTIAL READING: POLITICO staff break down the main points in the Commission’s Competitive Compass, from cutting red tape to ramping up defense.
ECR AND BARDELLA PLAN FOR CUTS: The European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) have answered a call from Patriots for Europe group Chair Jordan Bardella for the EU’s right-wing to unite to kill the Green Deal. “Dialogue between our political groups is crucial, and we are open to further discussions with you and those who share our concerns about the economic and social implications of the Green Deal,” the ECR co-chairs wrote in a letter seen by POLITICO’s Max Griera Andreu.
Please ignore the cordon sanitaire: In a clear message to the EPP, which has so far remained cautious about directly allying with the Patriots, the ECR’s letter states that groups should “build bridges across political lines, and deliver results that benefit European citizens and businesses.” The last legislative term, it adds, was “heavily affected by the direction set by a center-left majority.”
THE TRUMP EFFECT
COSTA WANTS A SEAT AT THE TABLE IN UKRAINE PEACE TALKS: The European Union should be involved in future peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, European Council President António Costa said in an interview with Portuguese national broadcaster RTP last night.
Costa argued that excluding Brussels from talks would fly in the face of U.S. President Donald Trump’s demand for Europeans to shoulder more responsibility for their defense. Costa will host EU leaders for an informal confab on defense next Monday.
Something rotten? Costa told Euronews in a separate interview Wednesday (to be fully broadcast at 8:30 p.m. tonight) that the “territorial integrity of Denmark … is an essential issue for us.” That’s that sorted then.
CHASING THE DON: From Nigel Farage to Giorgia Meloni to Mark Rutte, European politicians are competing for the privilege of being the Trump whisperer. Some have more success than others. In a must-read piece today, my colleagues Nick Vinocur and Jacopo Barigazzi identify the key aspiring allies and rank them by “Trump-compatibility.” Read it here.
VON DER LEYEN ON TRUMP: “I had a phone call with the president-elect right after his election, the teams are in contact,” Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday. “This is the usual way, so that after now the president is in office, sooner or later, there will be a visit and intensification of the contact.”
EAGER TO ENGAGE: Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič told a parliamentary committee Wednesday that Brussels was ready to team up with Washington to strengthen economic security and form a united front against China, Camille Gijs and Jakob Weizman report. It comes after Šefčovič told POLITICO in an interview last week that he was “ready to engage” with the new U.S. administration and would propose a “package of cooperation.”
RUSSIAN GAS ON THE TABLE: European officials are discussing potentially restarting Russian pipeline gas sales to the EU as part of a peace deal to stop the war in Ukraine, the Financial Times reports this morning. But some Eastern European capitals are fuming at the idea, with one unnamed official telling the paper: “It’s madness. How stupid could we be to even think about that as an option?”
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
METSOLA TO INAUGURATE NEW “EUROPA EXPERIENCE”: European Parliament President Roberta Metsola is in Luxembourg today to unveil a new EU visitor center, amid a big rethink about the value for money the facilities are providing.
Cold feet: Max reports that this week civil servants put their heads together to discuss how to make the museum-style locations — which aim to teach people about what the EU does — more popular and profitable. As we reported in December, the Parliament has splashed over €100 million on ambitious plans to build one in every EU capital (and other cities) but is now getting cold feet.
Scoop: Max got hold of a document that lays out the Parliament’s thinking on how to rescue the money-losing white elephants. It suggests stopping the rollout of new Europa Experience centers in secondary cities. In capitals where the center has not been built yet, staff need to ditch lavish venues and go for cheaper options. Another idea is to repurpose the centers as “hubs” that can host events for local officials, MEPs, staff and media.
ANTISEMITIC MEP CRASHES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL: After a moving ceremony to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day in the European Parliament, far-right Polish MEP Grzegorz Braun disrupted a minute’s silence, shouting: “Pray for Gazan Jewish genocide victims.” Metsola ordered him removed from the hemicycle. Jewish groupsblasted him for a “vile display of antisemitism.”
Outside the plenary, I asked Braun why he interrupted a somber memorial service for the 6 million Jewish victims of the Holocaust. He said he had non-Jewish Polish relatives who died at Auschwitz and attempted to reframe it as a death camp for “Poles” created by “Germans, not some abstract Nazis.” When I mentioned that around 1 million Jews were murdered at Auschwitz, he said: “It’s obvious that the history you are aware of is more a piece of propaganda than facts.”
“Don’t teach me history,” he said, before handing me a business card to which he had added a Polish flag “because they wouldn’t print it for me.”
He’s got form: Braun, who was elected as an MEP for the extreme-right Confederation party but now sits as an independent lawmaker — he’s also running for president of Poland — is notorious for antisemitism. It’s not the first time he has interrupted a Holocaust memorial. In 2023, he used a fire extinguisher to vandalize a menorah lit for Hanukkah in the Polish parliament. He’s also been in trouble in the European Parliament before for comments about gender.
IN OTHER NEWS
GERMANY’S MERZ BREAKS FAR-RIGHT FIREWALL: In a significant moment in the German parliament last night, the center-right CDU narrowly won a non-binding vote on restricting migration with the support of the Alternative for Germany (AfD). Chancellor Olaf Scholz accused opposition leader Friedrich Merz, the frontrunner to replace him, of breaking a “basic consensus” on not working with the far right.
Speaking of the AfD … German parliamentarians are set to debate whether to ban the far-right party but even its critics can’t agree on whether the discussion is helpful just weeks before a national election. Emily Schultheis has the story.
Now read this: Columnist John Kampfner ponders whether Merz has fallen into a trap … or is he forcing other mainstream parties to confront what many regard as the new reality — a harder, less welcoming Germany?
VUČIĆ PLAYS DOWN SERBIAN PM’S RESIGNATION: Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić took to Instagram on Wednesday to justify the resignation of Prime Minister Miloš Vučević earlier this week in the wake of massive anti-government demonstrations. “When you resign, it is not a sign of weakness, it is a sign of strength,” Vučić claimed.
COUNCIL PREZ BEATS COMMISSION ON TRANSPARENCY: Council President António Costa has published a list of his team members and their roles online, as Fleischman lobbyist Aaron McLoughlin helpfully pointed out on LinkedIn. The Commission has yet to update its commissioners’ web pages with similar information. “The European Commission talk about transparency, the Council practice it,” McLoughlin quipped online.