Mitsotakis in France: Greece not prepared to send troops to Ukraine; ceasefire urgently needed
The need for a ceasefire in Ukraine the soonest possible was underlined by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in statements following the international summit meeting on Ukraine on Thursday. The Greek PM noted that “Ukraine has agreed to a 30-day ceasefire which unfortunately Russia has not agreed to yet,” and said that pressure should be exerted on Russia to end its attacks of Ukraine, especially of critical infrastructure, in order for Ukraine to negotiate a just and viable peace.
ND MPs submit question on Turkish property deals in border areas
Eleven New Democracy MPs have submitted a question in parliament asking what measures the government intends to take against what “aggressive real estate and business purchases in remote areas by Turkish capital appearing as Greek or European businesses.”
Parliamentary Budget Office: Greek economy resilient in 2024, despite global challenges
The Greek economy continues to consolidate a stable environment of economic and political stability, according to the Quarterly Report (March 2025) of the State Budget Office in Parliament, released on Thursday.
Civil servants’ wages to rise along with minimum wage, Hatzidakis says
This is the first year when wages of civil servants will rise along with the raise in the minimum wage, Deputy Prime Minister Kostis Hatzidakis said on Thursday in a post on TikTok.
ATHEX: Negligible decline for benchmark
Most bank stocks suffered losses on the Greek bourse on Thursday, mainly due to the new tariffs Donald Trump has imposed on car imports. However the credit sector’s impact on the benchmark proved fairly small, as it was offset by other blue chips that continued to grow for another day. That has left the main index almost unchanged, with a late rebound at the closing auctions seeing many stocks erase their early declines.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1265335/athex-negligible-decline-for-benchmark
KATHIMERINI: First militrary drones underway
TA NEA: 120 million euros for servicemen
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: Ruling party MPs directly question PM Mitsotakis
RIZOSPASTIS: The Greek involvement in the war in Ukraine deepens aiming at the loot distribution
KONTRA NEWS: Common front by 11 ruling party MPs against PM Mitsotakis
DIMOKRATIA: A steel abomination is hiding Kallimarmaro stadion
NAFTEMPORIKI: The way for Collective Labor Agreements is now open
DRIVING THE DAY: WINE TIME
UNCORKING THE WINE PRESERVATION PLAN: The European Commission will at noon announce its long-awaited wine package, which overhauls three EU regulations in a bid to help resurrect the aging, cash-strapped and weather-beaten industry, Alessandro Ford writes in.
Sobering changes: Brussels aims to overcome a simple economic reality: Young, health-conscious Europeans are drinking less alcohol.
Big picture: After years of falling demand and increasingly unpredictable harvests, the wine sector is in despair. The Commission invited winemaking associations to join a high-level group on wine policy, which yielded a crop of recommendations in December. Since then, the outlook for the industry has darkened after Donald Trump threatened to slap 200 percent tariffs on EU wine.
What’s the core problem? Too many winemakers, too few consumers.
Noble rot: That means all the other complaints — extreme weather; high costs for agrochemicals, glass and labor; excessive EU bureaucracy — are secondary issues. They’re all awful for individual farmers, but paradoxically helpful in reducing the sector’s excess output.
From Sancerre to hand sanitizer? According to the high-level group, the Commission should reduce production by allowing countries to use EU money to finance grapevine destruction (“grubbing up”) and convert excess wine into industrial-use alcohol (“emergency distillation”). Plus, they should allow countries to reduce or even halt new authorizations to plant vineyards.
How to boost demand (in moderation, of course): While DG SANTE has (seemingly permanently) shelved its plan for cancer warnings on alcohol, it would still be controversial for DG AGRI to push alcohol drinking. They’re not doing that. Rather, the sector has asked them to facilitate promotional programs at home and abroad and streamline the process to produce and market low- or no-alcohol wines, which, while niche, are the fastest-growing category. Alessandro has more details for Pros in Morning Agri.
UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF BOOZE BOSSES: The other big threat to demand, of course, is Trump’s tariffs. Naturally, alcohol industry execs are wining and dining European politicians in a bid to rescue their sector from the trade war.
Overserved: It’s working, report Giorgio Leali, Ben Munster and Camille Gijs. Leaders of the EU’s biggest alcohol-producing nations are repeating the talking points of makers of wine, Champagne and whiskey by urging restraint as transatlantic trade tensions escalate.
Cheers: “Flexing muscles is silly,” Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said this week, urging Brussels to instead be “prudent” and echoing a point made by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and other top Italian officials over the past days. Read the full article.
NOW READ THIS: Meloni gave the FT an interview, in which she said she’s ready to act as a “bridge” between Washington and Europe, and urged the EU to go slow when it comes to responding to Trump’s tariff provocations. “Sometimes I have the impression that we simply respond instinctively,” she said. “In these topics you have to say, ‘Keep calm, guys. Let’s think.’”
On the coalition of the willing: Meloni shied away from the idea of European peacekeepers in Ukraine — but backed the idea of extending NATO’s Article 5 mutual defense clause to the country, without admitting it to the alliance.
SECURING UKRAINE
FRANCO-BRITISH SCOUTING MISSION: A delegation from France and the U.K. will head to Ukraine “in the coming days,” French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday after hosting yet another summit of Western leaders who may … at some point … depending on the circumstances … be game to help secure an eventual peace deal in Ukraine.
Macron predicted a “fairly precise” shape of what this “reassurance force” would look like will become clear over the next three to four weeks. More from AFP.
“Co-pilots”: That’s how Macron described the leadership role that Paris and London will play in this eventual coalition of the willing.
Throwing down the gauntlet: Macron is trying to set up Trump to feel offended if Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn’t quickly engage in serious peace talks, explain Clea Caulcutt, Laura Kayali and Giorgio Leali. If it becomes clear that Putin isn’t coming to the table, Trump “will feel deceived, betrayed,” Macron told reporters, “and he would have to react.” Leaders also agreed to step up sanctions against Russia. Read the full article from my colleagues on the ground in Paris.
Next meeting — April 11: That’s when the Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG) gathers to discuss additional military aid to Kyiv. The UDCG was formerly chaired by the U.S. but has been co-led by Berlin and London since the Trump administration came to power.
INDECENT PROPOSAL: Putin, meanwhile, merrily suggested placing Ukraine, which he invaded, under temporary U.N. administration so that it can hold an election and sign a peace deal. Russian state media has his trolling comments, which appeared squarely aimed at the Trump administration. Reminder: Under its constitution, Ukraine can’t hold an election while it remains under martial law — but Trump’s administration has been pushing it to do so anyway.
RUTTE-SÁNCHEZ SPAT: Oh, the irony. An ex-leader of the EU “frugals” is saying Spain should be more spendy — at least on defense. Aitor Hernández-Morales reports that Mark Rutte, the former Dutch prime minister now at the helm of NATO, surprised Spanish officials by announcing during a speech in Warsaw on Wednesday that Spain would ramp up military expenditures to meet NATO’s 2 percent spending target this summer.
Sánchez: Uh, what? Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s office clarified that no such commitment had been made — officially, the goal is only set to be met in 2029 — and privately expressed annoyance with Rutte for discussing a matter that can only be decided by national governments.
Third rail: Military spending is an extremely sensitive issue in Madrid: Sánchez currently lacks the parliamentary support he would need to ramp up spending and his left-wing coalition partners are opposed to any moves that might undermine funding for social services.
Rutte’s other message: “The difference between an attack on Warsaw and Madrid is 10 minutes,” the NATO chief also said in Poland, in a clear response to Sánchez’s earlier assertion that Russian troops are not a threat to Spain.
Now hear this: Lithuanian Foreign Minister Dovilė Šakalienė warns a “full-scale invasion” in NATO territory is “less than a decade away.” Listen to the full interview in our Westminster Insider podcast.
TRUMP DOUBLES DOWN ON MINERAL DEAL: Washington asked Kyiv on Sunday to sign an even more sweeping agreement for American access not just to Ukraine’s critical minerals but also to oil and gas — without offering any security guarantees, according to a draft seen by the FT. Bloomberg reports that the new proposal would see the U.S. get first right of refusal over all major future infrastructure and mineral investments in Ukraine, giving it enormous power and potentially undermining Kyiv’s bid for EU membership.
TRUMP BACKS DOWN ON ENDING ABDUCTION TRACKING: At the urging of U.S. lawmakers and Christian evangelicals, Trump’s administration is reversing plans to end an American initiative that tracked mass abductions of Ukrainian children. More from the Washington Post.
TRUMP AND THE POSTWAR ORDER
DOMESTIC REALITY HITS U.N. NOMINEE: The White House withdrew the nomination of Elise Stefanik, a Republican member of Congress from New York, to be his envoy to the United Nations. Bottom line: The Republicans’ margin in the House of Representatives is so small — just 218 to 213 — that they couldn’t afford to risk her seat. My Washington colleagues have more.
SIGNALGATE LATEST: Although the White House has publicly defended Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after he texted sensitive military information in a Signal chat, Trump administration insiders are privately beginning to express doubts about the Pentagon chief’s judgment, my Stateside colleagues report … and a federal judge has ordered the administration to preserve senior officials’ chats on the messaging app.
FEELING THE TRUMP CUTS IN GENEVA: The Trump administration and its “America First”-driven cuts to health programs worldwide have dominated headlines, but the retrenchment on foreign aid is part of a broader trend among rich nations, worried heads of global health groups tell POLITICO’s Claudia Chiappa.
Another casualty of Trump’s retreat from global institutions: The U.S. has stopped sending financial contributions to the World Trade Organization, Reuters reports, based on three sources in Geneva.
REPRIEVE FOR RFE/RL: The Trump administration on Thursday reversed an order terminating funding for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty after the pro-democracy news organization took legal action challenging the decision to close it down. Reuters has more.
MEANWHILE, IN GREENLAND
JUST IN TIME FOR THE VANCE VISIT: Four out of the five political parties elected to Greenland’s parliament formed a unity government late Thursday. It’s just in time for today’s planned visit from U.S. Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Seb Starcevic reports.
THANKS, VOLODYA: Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin says it’s totally reasonable for Trump to talk about annexing Greenland. That said, he didn’t exactly seem to endorse the idea, per the Associated Press report.
INTEGRITY DEPT.
SECOND BETRAYAL — ACCUSERS FURIOUS OVER SLOPPY HARASSMENT PROBES: The EU’s top court recently reversed a harassment case against a former EU lawmaker not on the substance of the complaint, but on a technicality. The Parliament’s failure to properly conduct these investigations will only increase the power gap between assistants and MEPs, two complainants told Max Griera.
What happened? Former Luxembourgish lawmaker Monica Semedo in 2023 was fined by the Parliament over a bullying incident. But earlier this month, the Court of Justice of the EU annulled the decision, saying irregularities affected her rights of defense. Among them: she was given a summary of the accusation rather than the transcript.
Two wrongs: In a statement, Semedo said the CJEU finding shows the Parliament’s system is biased. On that point, her accusers agree.
Setting a precedent: Another sanctioned MEP is set to use the same legal argument to have potential penalties dropped in a court hearing scheduled for April 3, and the CJEU ruled earlier this year that a decision against a third MEP had been mishandled. Max’s must-read piece is here.
HUAWEI-LINKED SEARCHES STRETCH TO STRASBOURG: Law enforcement officials searched two offices used by several European Parliament political assistants in Strasbourg, Elisa Braun and Max Griera report. For all the latest on what the scandal is revealing about the lobbying industry in Brussels, check out the latest edition of EU Influence.
EPPO SUSPENDS PROSECUTOR AMID PROBE: The European Public Prosecutor’s Office has temporarily suspended its Bulgarian prosecutor, Teodora Georgieva, who is the subject of an investigation into potential misconduct. EPPO chief Laura Kövesi told Bulgarian outlet Mediapool that the suspension is to avoid triggering public doubts about the integrity of the EU watchdog’s ongoing investigations.
It’s the first suspension of a prosecutor in EPPO’s four years of office, and comes amid broader concerns about attempts by Bulgarian officials to impede EPPO’s high-profile investigations.
Backstory: EPPO on Wednesday launched an administrative inquiry into potential misconduct by Georgieva. That was just days after Bulgarian media reported alleged links between the magistrate and an alleged criminal.
Georgieva claims she is the target of a pressure campaign related to a high-profile case she is investigating. EPPO started providing Georgieva additional protection in recent weeks after her mother died in a house fire, which is being investigated as a potential arson.
IN OTHER NEWS
NATIONAL RALLY’S LEADERSHIP DILEMMA: French far-right leader Marine Le Pen could be barred from running for public office for five years if she is found guilty on Monday of participating in a scheme to embezzle public funds. That would bar her from a presidential election in 2027 that opinion polls suggest she has a good chance of winning — yet the National Rally doesn’t appear to have done any detailed contingency planning for a future without her, my Paris-based colleagues Victor Goury-Laffont and Sarah Paillou report.
THE MATHEMATICIAN TRYING TO SAVE ROMANIA: The West’s best hope of a reliable, politically moderate, pro-European ally winning the Romanian presidency appears to be the 55-year-old corruption-fighting mayor of Bucharest. Nicușor Dan talks to POLITICO ahead of the May 4 rerun of a presidential contest that has caused a constitutional crisis in the EU’s sixth-most-populous country and become another flashpoint in the Trump administration’s clash with Europe.
LISTEN UP — WHILE YOU’VE BEEN DOOM-SCROLLING … Brussels has been rolling out policies that affect our daily lives: what we eat, what we do with our leftovers, what trendy new dresses we buy, or whether we can get that painkiller the morning after we offered a bit too much support to the European wine industry. POLITICO policy beat reporters Marianne Gros, Rory O’Neill and Bartosz Brzeziński join this week’s episode of the EU Confidential podcast to help us catch up. Listen and subscribe here.
Bonus track: On the Power Play podcast, host Anne McElvoy talks to POLITICO’s Executive Editor in Germany Gordon Repinski and Die Welt’s Jennifer Wilton about whether incoming leader Friedrich Merz can restore Germany’s economic fortunes and repair transatlantic relations.