Athens, Cairo back at the table over ancient monastery status
Greece and Egypt have entered a new phase of extended consultations over property rights at Saint Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai and its surrounding lands, following talks in Cairo on Wednesday that revealed gaps between the two nations’ positions.
Vroutsis: Greek Basketball League finals to continue after Panathinaikos, Olympiacos owners commit to lowering tension
Deputy Minister for Sports Yiannis Vroutsis confirmed that the Greek Basketball League finals would continue, after the clashing owners of Panathinaikos and Olympiacos basketball clubs responded to an ultimatum to show up at the ministry at 15:00 on Wednesday.
Androulakis: Conditions ripe for reinstating 13th and 14th salaries
PASOK – Movement for Change leader Nikos Androulakis, during a meeting with Greece’s civil servants confederation ADEDY on Wednesday, described as “hypocritical” the Prime Minister’s initiative to open a discussion on constitutional revision. He argued that the
Four convicted in Mati trial must go straight to jail, court rules
Three top-ranking former fire brigade officers – Sotiris Terzoudis, Vasilis Matheopoulos and Ioannis Fostieris – and former general secretary for civil protection Ioannis Kapakis were on Wednesday sent straight to prison, to start serving sentences imposed on them by a Three-Member Misdemeanour Appeals Court in the Mati wildfire trial.
ATHEX: Index gains more ground on blue chips
Non-bank blue chips carried the Greek stock market higher for the second day in a row on Wednesday, with some of them registering or approaching historic highs, just as banks show some fatigue. The benchmark gained some more ground and the milestone of 2,000 points remains within sight for the medium-term. More than a third of the day’s increased turnover concerned transactions of 5% of shares in GEK Terna between institutional investors.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1271676/athex-index-gains-more-ground-on-blue-chips
KATHIMERINI: Heavy penalties by the court regarding the Mati disaster
TA NEA: Mati tragedy: In memoriam
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: The Government is servicing business bosses
RIZOSPASTIS: NATO shooting range with nuclear war scenarios
KONTRA NEWS: Taxi owners’ representative: “The Alternate Minister of Transport is serving the interests of Uber”
DIMOKRATIA: At last, [culprits of the Mati wildfire disaster] go to jail
NAFTEMPORIKI: The MIDAS data system lead to “gold”
DRIVING THE DAY: MERZ IN WASHINGTON
HIGH STAKES: Trump and Merz have a lot to discuss, to say the very least. Ukraine, tariffs and trade tensions will figure prominently in the high-stakes meeting, according to Merz’s aides. The pair have spoken on the phone several times in recent weeks, and Merz has been deeply involved in European diplomatic efforts to secure a ceasefire in Ukraine while trying to maintain Western support for Kyiv. Last week, he hosted Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Berlin and agreed to help finance long-range weapons production on Ukrainian soil.
More tariffs: Just hours before Merz headed to Washington, new American tariffs on steel and aluminum imports took effect, doubling from 25 to 50 percent. Not an auspicious start for Merz. The U.S. is the European steel industry’s most important sales market and Germany exports approximately a million tons a year of mostly specialized steel products to America. Germany’s aluminum industry called Wednesday for an urgent and constructive dialogue with the Trump administration.
Not just tariffs: Merz’s meeting comes after a series of nasty spats between Berlin and Washington in recent months over MAGA meddling in domestic German politics. Last month, Merz warned the U.S. to “stay out” of his country’s politics after the far-right Alternative for Germany Party(AfD) got strong backing from MAGA stalwarts. Merz, in an interview with the Axel Springer Global Reporters Network, noted that German politicians have “largely stayed out” of American domestic politics, “and that includes me personally.”
Background: Both Vice President JD Vance and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio have criticized German intelligence labeling the AfD a “proven right-wing extremist organization.” Vance told NBC News: “I think that it is very, very dangerous to use the neutral institutions of state — the military, the police forces … the intel services — to try to delegitimize another competing political party.”
Needling the Apprentice? How the press conference in the Oval Office after Trump and Merz have had their sit-down goes is anyone’s guess. Will Trump be benign with the new chancellor, as he was with Britain’s Keir Starmer and France’s Emmanuel Macron, whom Trump has a soft spot for anyway? Gushingly friendly, as he was with Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, a populist ally? Or will he go out of his way to goad and provoke, as he did with Ukraine’s Zelenskyy and South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa? Roll up, grab a bag of popcorn.
Preparation is key: Like the Brits, the Germans have taken pains to plan for the encounter. That paid off for Starmer. German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul visited Washington last week to talk with Rubio. Wadephul told a meeting of former Arthur F. Burns Fellowship scholars in Berlin, after his trip, that his American counterpart “made me confident that we can reach agreements in mutual interest even on issues where we have differences of opinion.”
Further reading: POLITICO’s James Angelos, Eli Stokols and Nette Nöstlinger report that while Merz must be ready for an ambush, there are signs of a thaw in what have often been icy relations between the Trump administration and Berlin. Merz has been charting a radically new direction on matters dear to Trump’s heart, promising a massive increase in military spending and a crackdown on migration. And German officials were upbeat about the president’s invitation for Merz to stay at Blair House, the official guest house across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House.
WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING — TRAVEL BAN: Overnight, Trump banned people from Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen from entering the United States. He also partially restricted entry for nationals of Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela. Full details here.
ITALIANS VOTE ON CITIZENSHIP RULES
DON’T VOTE! Talking of Meloni, it isn’t often that a democratic leader encourages citizens not to vote. But that’s what the Italian PM and others in her right-wing government are doing as they encourage people to boycott (one way or another) a referendum on Sunday and Monday on whether to slash residency requirements for citizenship.
Background: On June 8 and 9, Italians will get the opportunity to repeal part of the current law on citizenship that sets the required period of uninterrupted residency in Italy at 10 years for a foreign-born adult to be able to apply for citizenship. Campaigners want it cut to five years. If successful, the law would return to one passed in 1865 (which was changed in 1992). Other referendum proposals relate to labor laws aimed at strengthening employment protection and workplace safety. But it is the change in citizenship requirements that’s especially attracted the ire of Meloni and co.
The campaign for a change in the rules collected more than half a million signatures to trigger the referendum, and was spearheaded by the left-leaning party Più Europa (More Europe), the Italian Socialist Party, Oxfam Italia and Action Aid. They all argue the change would make around 2.5 million people eligible for citizenship and be an acknowledgement of the contribution made by foreigners. It would also help compensate for Italy’s declining birth rate, which is one of the lowest in Europe.
Abstain from democracy: Meloni and her government partners are adamantly opposed and want to scuttle the vote by depressing turnout. For the referendum to be valid, turnout must be at least 50 percent plus one — which has only happened in four out of 29 referendums held in Italy since 1995. Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani of Forza Italia and the League’s Matteo Salvini are also urging voters to remain home. Salvini argues the change would amount to “handing over citizenship on a silver platter.” Meloni’s approach is more subtle: She said she will respect democracy by showing up at her polling station, “but I’m not picking up the ballots,” ie not actually voting.
Political pantomime: The PM’s tactic has drawn opponents’ derision. “Meloni makes fun of Italians by saying ‘I’m going to vote but I’m not voting,’” scorned the Democratic Party’s Elly Schlein. Maurizio Landini, general secretary of the labor confederation CGIL, the main sponsor of the labor-related referendum questions, says Meloni will be acting irresponsibly. “Saying that you go to vote and then not withdrawing the ballots is just a way to avoid exposing yourself on fundamental issues for the world of work,” he said in a statement.
THE EU ISN’T READY FOR A TECH DETOX
THE COMMISSION’S BIG DIGITAL DIPLOMACY DAY: If we’ve learned anything from the past few months, it’s that tech and diplomacy are increasingly intertwined. The EU’s executive will publish a strategy today, which should guide its work on this front.
Or, to use the Brussels jargon … it’s “an international digital strategy for Europe.” Our tech colleagues scooped a draft of the document in April. Among the proposed actions is deploying AI factories outside the EU and engaging internationally in areas such as chips and quantum tech. But underpinning it all isa cold, hard reality check for the growing chorus of voices calling for a U.S. Big Tech detox.
The killer line: “Decoupling is unrealistic and cooperation will remain significant across the technological value chain,” the draft reads. Attached to the draft strategy was an annex with a long list of opportunities for collaboration with partners, including the U.S. (as well as India and Japan).
Solo trip: In the past year, the pitch for a more technologically sovereign EU, built on European alternatives to U.S. Big Tech, has garnered so much attention that one could start to believe Europe no longer needs the outside world.
Reality hurts: The strategy is a reminder that global collaboration is still the name of the game. Further reading in this curtain-raiser story.
**It’s happening next week! Join us onsite on June 10 at POLITICO’s event “From ambition to pragmatic reality: Scaling up clean energy in Europe”. Don’t miss out on the last available seats, apply today.**
RUSSIA’S WAR
TRUMP SPEAKS TO PUTIN AGAIN: Trump on Wednesday said he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the recent Ukrainian drone attack that destroyed more than 40 Russian aircraft. “It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields.” Write-up here.
Stepping back: Bloomberg reports the U.S. is refusing to offer air support to the Franco-British coalition of the willing plan. European leaders have repeatedly said an American backstop was crucial to any future peacekeeping arrangements in Ukraine.
Stepping up: Meanwhile, Russia is catching up to Ukraine when it comes to drone production thanks to greater financial resources, production lines far from the front lines — and particularly help from China, POLITICO’s Veronika Melkozerova reports.
CORRECTION — VDL’S SANCTIONS STANCE: We would like to correct Ursula von der Leyen’s position on sanctions as stated in Wednesday’s Playbook. She said the EU and U.S. should team up to hit Russia simultaneously with sanctions that will pressure Putin to turn to peace negotiations. “We have discussed how we can implement European sanctions and American sanctions at the same time if Putin does not sit down at the negotiating table,” she told the Berlin Playbook Podcast.
While the Americans could go as far as imposing a 500 percent tariff on imports from countries that still buy Russian oil and gas, the EU is turning to other tools. “The idea is to coordinate as much as possible,” said von der Leyen’s chief spokesperson Paula Pinho. “It cannot be identical.”
BRIT POPS
JUST LIKE BUSES: Not one, but two British Cabinet ministers will be in Brussels today. Hilary Benn, the secretary of state for Northern Ireland, is scheduled to meet European Commissioner for Trade Maroš Šefčovič to mark the benefits for Northern Ireland in the recently concluded trade agreement between the EU and U.K.
And over at the European Policy Center’s Economic Security Forum, Jonathan Reynolds, the business and trade secretary, will talk up the value of global alliances. He plans to warn his audience that a “harsh” lesson of the early 21st century is that ideals such as free trade, the rule of law and the rights of all people cannot be taken for granted, with “a clear divide opening up between isolationism and internationalism.” Nigel Farage will throw a fit.
U.K. PIVOTS BACK TO NUCLEAR ENERGY: Britain is preparing a major nuclear energy push, with the shift in policy reflecting a growing urgency to secure energy independence, meet climate goals and jump-start economic growth before aging plants go offline. POLITICO’s Nicholas Earl has more.
IN OTHER NEWS
NATO MEETUP: NATO defense ministers are in Brussels today to discuss a proposal to increase the alliance’s spending goal from the current 2 percent of GDP to 5 percent. That’s likely to be approved by national leaders at a high-stakes summit in The Hague later this month, report Laura Kayali and Jacopo Barigazzi.
GOING AFTER NARCO-TRAFFICKERS: Magnus Brunner, the EU’s internal affairs commissioner, will present the European Drugs Report today in Lisbon. He’s expected to say the bloc is “up against new and more difficult challenges,” per remarks previewed by POLITICO, and highlight that this year’s report notes “the widespread use of cocaine.”
“I was shocked by how much cocaine seizures have been increasing,” Brunner will say. The fight has to be taken to organized crime, with “new and more intense efforts to cut off funding and seize the illegal profits that come from the drugs trade.”
EU SCRUTINIZES HUNGARIAN LAW: The European Commission will be closely watching the EU’s top court today, as the advocate general publishes a legal opinion on a case against the Hungarian government over its 2021 Russian-style propaganda law banning the “promotion” of homosexuality and gender transition across all media children can access.
The (non-binding) opinion comes ahead of a final ruling that could see Viktor Orbán’s conservative government required to roll back one of its most controversial laws — on top of a hefty fine, my POLITICO colleague Mathieu Pollet says. The advocate general’s opinion is likely to influence the ruling and comes just weeks after Budapest ramped up an anti-LGBTQ+ crackdown by banning Pride events and authorizing biometric surveillance of attendees.