Farmer unrest challenges government
The government is facing renewed pressure from farmers despite having resolved the main issue of delayed agricultural subsidy payments, sparking concern inside the Prime Minister’s Office as nationwide protests begin later this month.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1287749/farmer-unrest-challenges-government
European Commission gives positive marks to Greece’s draft budget for 2026
The European Commission gave positive marks to Greece’s 2026 draft budget and medium-term fiscal plan, according to the Autumn package of the European 2026 European Semester cycle launched on Tuesday.
Four Greek regions on Red Code alert ahead of adverse weather conditions
The General Secretariat for Civil Protection has placed the regions of the Ionian Islands, Epirus, Western Greece, and the Peloponnese, as well as the municipalities within these Regions, in a RED CODE state of alert from Wednesday until Friday, following an upgrade by the Hellenic National Meteorological Service (HNMS) of its Hazardous Weather Bulletin and the recommendation of the Risk Assessment Committee.
Greek households’ real incomes still below 2004 levels, Eurostat data show
Two decades after Greece basked in the euphoria of the 2004 Athens Olympics and its surprise Euro 2004 soccer triumph, Greek households today have less real disposable income than they did then, despite the country’s exit from austerity programs in 2018 and a recent period of rising wages and falling unemployment.
ATHEX: Benchmark reaches new six-week high
The main index of the Greek stock market continued its growth on Tuesday to advance to a six-week high, with a number of non-bank blue chips outperforming and carrying the benchmark higher. Metlen remained the protagonist, garnering over 12% of the entire market’s turnover and climbing 5.25%. This was the fifth consecutive northbound session for the bourse, with turnover reverting to normal levels after Monday’s jump.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1287875/athex-benchmark-reaches-new-six-week-high
KATHIMERINI: Violence incidents lead to changes in the celebrations for the anniversary of the Polytechnic School uprising
TA NEA: Greek laser-shield in the Aegean
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: Far-right turn for the Greek society
RIZOSPASTIS: War readiness regarding the dangerous plans of NATO and EU
KONTRA NEWS: Great plot twist in the center-left
DIMOKRATIA: New OPEKEPE payment system for [farm subsidies]
NAFTEMPORIKI: Operation: “clean subsidies” worth 4,2 bln
DRIVING THE DAY: UKRAINE PEACE PLAN
EUROPE’S MESSAGE TO EUROPE: The tortured debate around U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposed Ukraine peace plan returns to EU soil today after days of urgent talks in Switzerland and Africa. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will address the European Parliament on Brussels’ stance on the proposed plan this morning, followed by an informal meeting of European foreign ministers.
What to watch for in Strasbourg: Von der Leyen will use a plenary debate on the Ukraine peace process starting at 9 a.m. to update MEPs on the diplomatic whirlwind of the past week and to make the case that Europe is central to efforts to end the conflict. Expect the president to reiterate her red lines: no redrawing borders by force, no limits on the size of Ukraine’s army and the return of abducted Ukrainian children (a von der Leyen staple).
And, of course, reparations: Playbook hears from people close to von der Leyen that she will again reference the Commission’s proposal to use Moscow’s immobilized assets to finance a €140 billion “reparations loan” for Ukraine. But don’t expect any new announcements.
Things aren’t going well on this front: Many in Brussels expected movement once Belgium — which vetoed the idea at the last summit — finalized its national budget this week. At the same time, the push by the U.S. to use frozen Russian assets was seen as potentially nudging Europeans to act first. Neither development has unlocked the stalemate.
A chicken and egg situation: At a meeting on Tuesday, the Commission insisted it had done its homework by issuing an options paper outlining three possible ways to fund Ukraine’s needs in 2026 and 2027 (and signaling it prefers loans). Member countries, however, said they want a full proposal, not a menu of choices. “It’s becoming a bit circular now,” one diplomat sighed to Playbook.
Round 2: Ambassadors preparing for December’s EUCO will again press the Commission this afternoon to put forward the legislation to finance Ukraine — and stop hiding behind options — another EU diplomat told Playbook.
Cue plan B: One idea gaining traction is a “bridging loan” financed by EU borrowing to keep Ukraine solvent through mid-2026, three officials granted anonymity to discuss sensitive matters told POLITICO’s Tim Ross and Gregorio Sorgi. That would allow more time to set up the full reparations loan using the Russian assets in a way that Belgium can live with, to provide a longer-term solution. Read their full story here.
KALLAS BRINGS TOGETHER EUROPEAN MINISTERS: A hastily convened extraordinary informal video conference of foreign ministers will also touch on the peace plan at 11.30 a.m.
Not-so-hidden subtext: Several diplomats said the timing struck them as an attempt to reinsert the EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas into a debate from which she had been visibly sidelined. As POLITICO revealed on the weekend, it was Bjoern Seibert and Pedro Lourtie, the chiefs of staff to von der Leyen and Council President António Costa respectively, who huddled in Geneva Sunday to discuss Trump’s peace plan with Ukrainian, American, French, German and British officials — not Kallas.
From Martin to Matti: On the subject of Kallas’ apparent isolation … Matti Maasikas has been appointed deputy director general of the European External Action Service (EEAS), two officials told POLITICO’s Jacopo Barigazzi. The post had been expected to go to Martin Selmayr, the formidable former chief of staff to Jean-Claude Juncker, who Kallas herself strongly backed. But resistance from the Commission’s upper floors put a stop to Selmayr’s appointment.
Safe hands: Maasikas — who, like Kallas, is Estonian — was acceptable to the high representative, though not her first choice. He served in Brussels as Estonia’s ambassador to the EU and is a former EU ambassador to Ukraine. Three years ago, he was seen as Eastern Europe’s candidate to replace Jeppe Tranholm-Mikkelsen in the powerful role of secretary-general of the Council of the EU, which went instead to Thérèse Blanche. Maasikas’ appointment is temporary until a new concours is launched — expected to take around six months.
What to expect at FAC: The informal meeting of foreign ministers today is a chance to “speak with one European voice” and lay out the EU’s non-negotiables on the proposed Ukraine peace plan, said one diplomat. Another said the priority will be ensuring that “everyone remains on the same page” and that information is being properly shared. There’s likely to be a focus on stiffening sanctions enforcement.
But don’t get your hopes up for a major breakthrough. “Maybe tomorrow we’ll be back at square one — this whole thing depends on Russia and Trump,” another diplomat said.
WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING: Trump defended his special envoy Steve Witkoff after an extraordinary Bloomberg scoop Tuesday alleged that Witkoff told a senior Kremlin official in October they should work together on a ceasefire plan for Ukraine and suggested how Vladimir Putin should raise it with Trump. “You know, that’s a very standard form of negotiation,” the U.S. president told reporters on Air Force One, as he flew to Florida for Thanksgiving. Reuters has the latest.
MISSING THE MESSAGE
SURPRISE, SURPRISE: “Competitiveness” isn’t winning hearts and minds across Europe. A new study by Spanish consultancy LLYC on the Commission’s communications strategy warns that Brussels’ push to anchor its narrative in competitiveness and simplification — two words beloved in the Berlaymont but barely understood outside it — risks misjudging the public mood.
The caveats: The study, shared with Playbook, acknowledges the EU doesn’t serve one public, but 27-plus micro-constituencies with different media diets, political cultures and levels of interest in Brussels. Any institution trying to speak to all of them at once is, by definition, doing a difficult job. It also credits Ursula von der Leyen with achieving a Commission with a “unified and recognizable voice.”
But cohesion has a cost: Since 2024, the Commission has oriented its narrative around the concept of competitiveness, a technocratic frame that risks narrowing the institution’s ability to reach a public increasingly animated by questions of democracy and values, according to Luisa Garcia, partner and CEO of corporate affairs at LLYC. “The Commission’s effort to engage with citizens risks falling flat if competitiveness is not linked with more tangible, everyday concerns,” she said.
A misalignment problem: Slides shared exclusively with POLITICO show a clear mismatch between the policy messages that the Commission pushes and what the public tends to engage with. For example, LLYC found that the Commission publishes more content on energy than digital policy when internet users are more likely to respond to the latter.
It’s not a popularity contest: “Commission policy priorities may not always meet the public’s interests — still they are in the interest of the public,” Commission spokesperson Paula Pinho told Playbook. “Good to hear that on digital our priority and the public’s interest converge … But the communication challenge is to trigger public interest for all types of priorities.”
FAR RIGHT RISING
JITTERS IN STRASBOURG: The growing influence of far-right parties over the legislative agenda in the European Parliament was on stark display again on Tuesday. The Parliament’s largest group, the European People’s Party, abruptly abandoned an attempt to fast-track safeguards in the Mercosur trade deal meant to protect European farmers because of concerns that the far right could muster enough support to sink it.
Mercosur mess: The EPP had spent the past week pushing to fast-track the vote, pressing ahead even when it failed to secure backing from other groups. But it pulled the request at the last minute rather than risking an embarrassing defeat. A sizeable chunk of EPP delegations opposed the fast-tracking, including Romanian, Irish, Polish and French members, according to three officials familiar with the matter.
“Big mistake by EPP hierarchy to put it on plenary … good solution by EPP whip to withdraw the request,” one EPP official told Max. The safeguards will now be voted in December after passing through the trade committee.
MERCOSUR COALITION VS. METSOLA: A cross-party group of lawmakers has challenged Parliament President Roberta Metsola’s decision to block a vote on requesting a court opinion on the Mercosur trade deal, asking her to let the Parliament’s legal service review whether she was justified in stopping the motion.
Metsola argued that Parliament can’t request such an opinion until EU governments actually sign the agreement, but has faced pushback — not least because Parliament previously sought a legal opinion on the Istanbul Convention before it was signed. “I have listened to everyone, as I always do, and I understand the gravity and importance of this decision,” she said on Monday. “Nothing was refused, and we will come back to it at the right time.”
Ten MEPs from the EPP, Greens, Left, Renew and Socialists and Democrats (S&D), representing 145 lawmakers, wrote to Metsola on Tuesday asking her to authorize the legal service to provide an opinion on whether Parliament can request an opinion from the Court of Justice of the EU by Dec. 5. Unless the legal service reverses course, MEPs won’t be able to vote on requesting an opinion until January — after EU countries sign the trade deal on Dec. 20.
THE CENTRISTS’ COMPLICATED MARRIAGE: Tempers are running high among the EPP’s coalition partners about it tacking to the right to secure majorities, particularly after it aligned with the far right on the red-tape package two weeks ago. But still none seem ready to trigger a break up, Max Griera reports.
Staying together for the mandate: “We will continue to lend a hand to the European People’s Party, and we do it out of responsibility with the European Union,” the chair of the S&D group, Iratxe García, said on Tuesday. Renew leader Valérie Hayer said that although the omnibus vote was a “grave precedent,” keeping the centrist coalition alive is the only way to effectively meet Europe’s challenges. The partners also have an interest in sticking together to protect their own commissioners.
“It’s an abusive marriage,” one S&D MEP said. “They betray us, but we keep going back to them.”
FAR-RIGHT FRONTRUNNER: The Patriots for Europe’s 30-year-old President Jordan Bardella would win the 2027 French presidential election regardless of whom he faces in a runoff, according to a poll by Odoxa released Tuesday. Although Bardella’s party, the National Rally, officially intends to run Marine Le Pen for a fourth time, her legal troubles could bar her from standing — in which case the millennial politician would become the standard-bearer.
ANOTHER RIGHT-WING LOVE-IN? Just weeks after the EPP teamed up with far-right MEPs to exempt more companies from green reporting rules, the group is being presented with a similar political choice — this time on the EU’s anti-deforestation rules.
Talks among the centrist coalition broke down on Tuesday evening, which means the EPP is now betting on passing the Council position through the plenary — something the S&D group has said it won’t support.
Context: In a bid to appease unhappy industry groups and trade partners, the Commission last month proposed bringing the EU anti-deforestation law into effect this year with some simplifying amendments and a six-month grace period for companies that struggle to comply. But EU countries last week agreed on a mandate with far more regulatory cuts, a 2026 review clause and a one-year delay. The Parliament will vote on its stance at around midday today.
NGO SCRUTINY: A new scrutiny working group backed by the right-wing majority is today starting its work to examine whether the Commission paid NGOs to lobby the Parliament, though the Socialists, liberals, Greens and Left have boycotted it. The group will publish a report and their conclusions in about six months.
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IN OTHER NEWS
I PRONOUNCE YOU MARRIED (ANYWHERE IN EUROPE): The EU’s top court ruled Tuesday that when a same-sex couple is legally married in one member country, any other member country where they move or reside must recognize that marriage. The court stressed, however, that this does not oblige countries to introduce same-sex marriage under their own domestic laws.
EUROPEAN SEMESTER: We broke down the winners and losers of the Commission’s biannual assessment of whether governments are sticking to EU spending rules. Finland was flagged for overspending, while others were warned to tighten their belts to avoid the same fate.
DO IT FOR YOUR PET: EU lawmakers clinched a deal Tuesday evening on new rules to improve the welfare of cats and dogs kept by breeders, pet shops and shelters. “Animals must be treated properly and not traded illegally. It’s as simple as that,” Danish minister Jacob Jensen said after the agreement — and honestly, who’s going to disagree?
UNFAIR FLYING: EU rules intended to protect air passengers with disabilities are applied inconsistently, according to the European Disability Forum in a report released today.