Greece reaches landmark agreement on collective labor contracts
The government, employers, and labor unions have reached an agreement on collective labor contracts, with the Ministry of Labor describing the deal as ushering in a “new era” with benefits for all parties and ending the bailout-era restrictions that had limited collective bargaining.
Gov’t announces €56 mln support package for farmers hit by sheep pox
The government has announced new support measures for livestock farmers affected by recent outbreaks of sheep pox are now coming into force, activating a €56 million aid package financed through the state budget.
EU disburses 2.1 billion euros from RRF to Greece
The European Commission on Wednesday disbursed a payment of 2.1 billion euros from the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) to Greece, following the positive assessment of the 6th payment request for the Facility’s grants, which had been submitted in mid-July.
https://www.amna.gr/en/article/951814/EU-disburses-21-billion-euros-from-RRF-to-Greece
Suspended prison sentences of 10 to18 months for 14 defendants in OPEKEPE fraudulent subsidies trial
A single-member Misdemeanour Court on Wednesday imposed sentences of 10 to 18 months imprisonment, suspended for three years, on 14 defendants facing trial over the illegally claimed subsidies paid out by OPEKEPE, the Greek payment agency for EU agricultural subsidies, in the year 2020.
ATHEX: Positive momentum continues
The sixth consecutive session of gains for the Greek bourse, a sequence unseen in three months, brought the benchmark above the 2,100-point level on Wednesday and up to a seven-week high. Banks led the price growth, with the closing auctions adding significantly to stock gains and the day’s turnover. While bank stocks are considered the safest bet, a number of other blue chips and mid-caps are more volatile and are seen more likely to bring higher returns in the short term.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1287994/athex-positive-momentum-continues
KATHIMERINI: New social contract
TA NEA: Collective labor agreements: How much they affect our pockets…
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: No true restoration of collective labor agreements
RIZOSPASTIS: Government, employers and Workers’ Federation reach shady agreement on collective labor agreements returning to the crime scene
KONTRA NEWS: OPEKEPE scandal: New Democracy executive left the Ferrari and started using a small motorbike
DIMOKRATIA: Agreement on collective labor agreements
NAFTEMPORIKI: New scenery for labor relations
DRIVING THE DAY: TARIFF DIPLOMACY
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH: Ever since the improvised trade truce hammered out at Donald Trump’s Turnberry golf resort in Scotland in July, the European Union has been accused of not standing firm in defense of its vaunted regulatory autonomy. This week, frustration at being seen as pandering to the U.S. finally boiled over — and one of the Commission’s top officials has now made clear that Washington has misread the mood in Brussels.
The last straw: On Monday U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told his counterparts in Brussels that Washington could ease its steel and aluminium tariffs if the EU reconsidered its digital rules. But that has provoked a blistering response from Teresa Ribera, Europe’s antitrust chief, in an interview with POLITICO.
“It is blackmail,” the Commission executive vice president told my colleagues Francesca Micheletti and Jacob Parry on Wednesday. “[This] being their intention does not mean that we accept that kind of blackmail.”
According to the Spanish commissioner, Washington is trying to strong-arm the EU into watering down its tech rulebook — a move she calls a “direct attack” on the Digital Markets Act (DMA), its landmark law designed to regulate large tech platforms. Ribera said the EU’s digital rules are a matter of sovereignty and shouldn’t be part of trade negotiations.
Why her intervention matters: Although she’s not part of President Ursula von der Leyen’s inner circle (and at times recently been cast into the role of the Berlaymont’s top rebel), Ribera is effectively the Commission’s second-highest ranking figure. And she holds the portfolio that used to keep American CEOs up at night — antitrust.
Not exactly going rogue: Ribera’s comments are a more forceful version of what fellow Executive Vice President Henna Virkkunen told POLITICO in response to Lutnick’s arm-twisting earlier this week — that the bloc’s digital legislation “is not up for negotiation.” Taken together, this looks less like the competition chief going off-piste again than an expression of the EU leadership’s frustration at its own perceived weakness.
On the back foot: Ribera’s intervention lands just a week after the Commission quietly backed away from elements of its data-privacy agenda and put its AI legislation on ice. That was framed as a competitiveness push, but was widely read in EU capitals as a gesture toward Washington, which now appears to set the deregulatory tempo in Europe. The big question now is whether the DMA can survive the trade war.
Life in the time of Trump: That all comes against a backdrop of European officials allegedly being bullied by their American counterparts in negotiations over green shipping rules … Washington’s tariff sword remaining poised over Europe despite the trade truce … and the EU being sidelined diplomatically during Trump’s latest push to end the war in Ukraine.
Brussels’ desire for strategic alignment with D.C. remains, but it’s increasingly evident that it’s tired of feeling pushed around.
FACING UP TO RUSSIA
PEDAL TO METAL: After weeks of grumbling from European capitals, the Commission on Wednesday finally shifted gears on the plan to leverage €140 billion in frozen Russian assets for a loan to Ukraine.
U-turn: Until now, Brussels had largely pointed to its “options papers” and implied that its job was done. Speaking to MEPs in Strasbourg, Ursula von der Leyen said the Commission is ready to table a legal proposal, while Economy Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis told Euronews the EU should stop circling around options and move to drafting.
This time we mean it: At Wednesday night’s meeting with EU ambassadors — the second in two days in which countries demanded an actual legal text — the Commission dropped the evasiveness and told national representatives that the draft would be delivered very soon, two diplomats told Playbook.
So when, exactly? An EU diplomat told my colleague Tim Ross the proposal could arrive today or Friday. Another diplomat gave me a similar readout: expect it by the end of the week, with Brussels aiming for political endorsement at the December summit.
It’ll cost you: Euroclear, the main custodian of the frozen assets, has warned that the EU’s plan will spook investors and lead to European governments paying higher debt costs if it goes through, according to a letter seen by the Financial Times.
Has Belgium budged? Short answer: no. Not a millimeter. The Belgian government remains firmly in the “reservations” column.
WHERE THINGS STAND ON SANCTIONS: Playbook asked officials on the sidelines of Wednesday’s Foreign Affairs Council videoconference and the back-to-back Corepers. The verdict on the 20th sanctions package against Russia: don’t expect movement before the holidays.
“It’s not a priority right now,” one government official told me. Another diplomat said they expect the Commission to start floating ideas around January.
Not formally underway: Diplomats say informal discussions are happening in preparatory bodies — especially around potential listings — but that’s standard background work. Nothing has yet reached EU ambassador level, meaning the interinstitutional process hasn’t started.
A blind spot: Closing loopholes — always a core component of any sanctions round — will be central to the 20th package. A new investigation by Ukraine’s European Security Council (ESCU), seen exclusively by POLITICO, has flagged major gaps in export controls on natural rubber that is critical for Russia’s defense industry — tires for fighter jets, missile carriers, bomb-delivery systems.
Nearly 2,000 tons of natural rubber worth $5.1 million was exported from the EU to Russia in 2024. Although synthetic rubber has faced EU restrictions since 2023, which were tightened again in the 19th package, natural rubber remains largely untouched. One of the biggest suppliers is a Latvian company that has shipped more than $2.2 million worth of natural rubber to Russian entities — including the defense ministry.
Weak links: “The 20th package will likely focus on limiting Russian revenues from energy exports — primarily by further curbing the shadow fleet,” ESCU director Olena Yurchenko told Playbook. But persistent vulnerabilities include the slow pace of sanctions-making and Brussels’ caution on secondary sanctions targeting middlemen who help re-export dual-use goods to Russia.
“Direct exports from the EU have been virtually reduced to zero, but the response to intermediaries in third countries is still not decisive enough,” she said.
HITTING BACK AT RUSSIA? In parallel, several European governments are debating previously unthinkable forms of retaliation against Moscow — from joint offensive cyber operations to faster, coordinated attribution of hybrid attacks, to surprise NATO-led military exercises, my colleagues Victor Jack and Laura Kayali report this morning.
UKRAINE LATEST: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told European allies that Washington wants a peace deal before it agrees to any security guarantees for Kyiv, my Stateside colleagues scooped late Wednesday.
EU’S GREAT GAME IN CENTRAL ASIA
AT THE HEART OF ASIA: What on earth are two EU commissioners doing in Tashkent today? The explanation is more geopolitics than tourism.
Xayrli tong (which means “good morning” in Uzbek): Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos and International Partnerships Commissioner Jozef Síkela are in Uzbekistan, where they’re officially attending the Trans-Caspian Transport Corridor and Connectivity Investors Forum.
Their real job, according to EU officials, is to de-risk, diversify and expand Central Asian routes so Europe is less dependent on Russia — or, as Brussels likes to say, to boost strategic autonomy.
The Middle Corridor play: Both commissioners are pushing for alternatives to the Russian-controlled Northern Route and building out the Middle Corridor, a geopolitical and economic pathway running through Central Asia — an update to the old Silk Road, which Tashkent was part of.
Industry’s begging for it: Transport companies that used to move goods through Russia are telling the EU executive that route is now essentially non-viable. But traffic along the Middle Corridor has already quadrupled since 2022 and, with the right investments, it could triple again by 2030, according to Commission’s internal assessments.
Keep an eye on how Brussels interacts with officials from Azerbaijan and Armenia at this forum, as both countries are indispensable to the Middle Corridor’s viability.
With peace prospects improving, both Baku and Yerevan are exploring tighter links with the EU as an alternative to Moscow. Their participation is seen as crucial for any serious regional cooperation, and would potentially bring the added bonus of nudging EU relations with Turkey in a more constructive direction.
“Maybe Armenia can become the next Moldova,” one EU official quipped.
BRUSSELS GOES BIO
BIG BIOECONOMY REVEAL: The Commission is set to unveil its long-trailed plan to turbocharge the EU’s bioeconomy — which was worth €2.7 trillion in 2023 and, officials believe, still has plenty of untapped potential.
The bio what? By 2040, the Commission envisions “sustainable bio-based materials and products” — think plastics, textiles, fertilizers, building materials — being widely deployed across the EU, according to the latest leaked draft.
The real pivot: Ending fossil fuel dependence — and not just for energy. It also means replacement of fossil feedstocks in industrial supply chains. Plastics and fertilizers — two of the bloc’s most fossil-intensive product groups — are first in line for disruption.
And don’t forget the farmers: There are also plenty of agriculture nuggets to look out for — from bio-based fertilizers and pesticides to Europe’s wool processing capacity — and the EU’s farm budget is expected to contribute to the effort by supporting farmers to take up “bioeconomy innovation.”
Don’t miss the show: Tune in at 11 a.m. for the presser. Playbook has been told it’ll feature Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall wearing a dress made of wood fibers, and a press room showcase of bio-based goodies: a bathtub made from wood splinters, algae-based cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and more. A full circular-economy catwalk.
IN OTHER NEWS
THIRD-COUNTRY LOBBYING: Parliament will today pass a bill requiring EU countries establish national registries of organizations that receive funding from countries outside the bloc to lobby — a measure presented in December 2023 that was meant to shield democracies from malign Russian influence campaigns.
Civil society organizations have warned that it could be weaponized by governments to target NGOS, but Adina Vălean, the lead negotiator on the file, said more transparency will protect those doing legitimate work. The Socialists and Greens, despite initially opposing the bill, are expected to support it.
THE CZECH PICKS ARE IN: What do a race car driver, a climate change denier, and a former rockstar all have in common? They’re all hand-picked to be the newest ministers in prime minister-designate Andrej Babiš’s government. Ketrin Jochecová and Jakob Weizman have everything you need to know on the coalition’s most divisive men.
EU RACES TO COMBAT ONLINE CHILD ABUSE: Talks have finally been unblocked on one of the EU’s most sensitive dossiers — the child sexual abuse material (CSAM) regulation, including the hugely controversial “chat control” provision. Countries have now agreed that Signal and WhatsApp won’t be forced to scan messages, removing one of the biggest obstacles, Sam Clark reports.