Mitsotakis to meet with Biden in April
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is scheduled to meet with US President Joe Biden in Washington on April 4.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/news/1233983/mitsotakis-to-meet-with-biden-in-april/
European Commission refers Greece to CJEU over failure to finalize water and flood management plans
The European Commission on Wednesday referred Greece to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) for its failure to conclude the revision of its river basin management plans as required by the Water Framework Directive and its flood risk management plans as required by the Floods Directive.
Greek frigate ‘Hydra’ opens fire on two UAVs in the Gulf of Aden
The Hellenic Navy frigate “Hydra” on Wednesday opened fire on two Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in the Gulf of Aden, in accordance with the rules of engagement, causing them to retreat. “Hydra” was providing protection to a merchant vessel during the EUNAVFOR ASPIDES operation in the region.
https://www.amna.gr/en/article/803908/Greek-frigate-Hydra-opens-fire-on-two-UAVs-in-the-Gulf-of-Aden
Lower-priced lenten grocery basket available for Clean Monday
The Lenten Basket of lower-priced goods for the Clean Monday holiday and the period of Orthodox Lent will be available as of Wednesday.
ATHEX: Benchmark a whisker from 1,400 points
The benchmark of the Greek stock market on Wednesday recovered some more of the ground it had lost on Monday, but narrowly missed out on retopping 1,400 points. Turnover remained high for another day as the local bourse edges month after month closer to being readmitted to the group of developed markets.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1233997/athex-benchmark-a-whisker-from-1400-points/
KATHIMERINI: Egyptian headache for Athens and the EU
TA NEA: What happened at the Gulf of Aden
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: Another rape for the 12-year-old
AVGI: Minister of Health Georgiadis: Cruelty, show and cover-up
RIZOSPASTIS: “Hospitals S.A.” with price bulletin and patient-clients
KONTRA NEWS: Gavdos became the new Lampedusa
DIMOKRATIA: Raping logic
NAFTEMPORIKI: Twin bet for the increase of investments
FAKE UKRAINE FUND TOP-UP
EU’S NEW DEFENSE FUND FOR UKRAINE IS A MIRAGE: EU leaders on Wednesday were patting themselves on the back for ostensibly agreeing on a €5 billion fund to finance new arms shipments to Ukraine. But the fund is a masterpiece in repackaging and relabeling.
Don’t trust the PR: A big chunk of the contributions to the “Ukraine Assistance Fund” will not actually be in the form of new cash. In fact, EU countries can discount their bilateral weapons shipments as “contributions” to the fund. Germany has already said that it won’t pay €1.2 billion but will instead count its own arms shipments as its contribution.
Officially, it was a rosy day: “We made it,” the EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell tweeted. “The message is clear: we will support Ukraine with whatever it takes to prevail.”
Concealing defeat: But the reality is, what was originally planned as a new pot of fresh cash that would finance additional weapons for Ukraine has turned into a Potemkin village. It’s “creative accounting,” as one official admitted.
Background: After months of deadlock over how to design the fund, countries agreed to Germany’s proposal to count bilateral aid to Ukraine as an alternative to chipping money into the pot (which made economic sense for Berlin as it is by far the EU’s largest donor of military gear to Kyiv).
Doing the math: Bilateral arms shipments to Ukraine will be counted as equivalent to financial contributions to the fund, at a level of around 50 percent. As diplomats told Playbook, that doesn’t mean a country can only deduct half its payments, as many observers initially thought. Instead, it means that for every €2 in weapons that a country gives Ukraine directly, it can deduct €1 from its contributions to the fund.
Come again? In the case of Germany, which due to its economic heft would be on the hook for a quarter of the fund’s financing, or around €1.2 billion a year, that means that as long as it gives at least €2.4 billion in weapons to Ukraine directly, it won’t have to pay a single cent into the fund. So for this year, for example, Berlin would be sorted — it won’t have to increase its budget for Ukraine.
The same is true for the other EU countries. If they are giving enough bilateral aid, they won’t have to chip into the fund.
Don’t call it a fund: None of the diplomats contacted by Playbook on Wednesday were able to say how much money would actually end up being paid into the “Ukraine Assistance Fund” — but they agreed that it could theoretically be nothing.
Is this all Berlin’s fault? No. Many officials and diplomats agreed that the current system of paying money into the “European Peace Facility” only to have it redistributed to EU countries was less than ideal. In the best of cases, it was a bureaucratic hassle, in the worst, countries used the fund to modernize their own militaries and send their old weapons to Ukraine.
It sounded nice in theory … The fact Hungary has a veto over every tranche that is paid out — and is currently still blocking some €500 billion in reimbursements — also made Germany’s proposal sound more pragmatic.
In short: Rather than giving Hungary a veto over their own defense aid for Ukraine, countries can now simply directly buy weapons for Kyiv and count that as their “contribution.” In other words, the Ukraine Assistance Fund is a pledge, much more than a fund.
WHAT ABOUT THE EU’S OTHER IDEA TO GET MORE AMMO TO UKRAINE: Meanwhile, EU member countries have spoken out against Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s plan to use the profits generated by frozen Russian assets to buy weapons for Ukraine. It comes amid rumors that the frozen assets proposal will be presented close to the EU leaders’ summit next week.
The big question: Whether to use the money — around €3 billion — to rebuild Ukraine, or to purchase ammunition for the war-torn country.
Unnerved at the Coreper: Malta, Luxembourg and Hungary expressed reservations about the latter option during a meeting of the EU’s 27 ambassadors on Wednesday, an EU official told my colleague Barbara Moens. They said von der Leyen’s willingness to use the money to replenish Ukraine’s dwindling weapons pile complicated talks, as there was a general agreement that it should go toward reconstruction.
KREMLIN TALKING POINTS IN THE EP
CALLS TO INVESTIGATE PRO-RUSSIAN DUTCH MEP: MEPs are calling for an investigation into MEPs and officials spreading Russian propaganda in the European Parliament, Eddy Wax writes in to report. It comes after a tirade Wednesday by Dutch MEP Marcel de Graaff, in which he described the well-documented abduction by the Kremlin of thousands of Ukrainian children as “pure propaganda” and claimed Russia was merely taking them in as refugees to escape Ukrainian shelling — as if Moscow itself wasn’t the cause of said shelling.
Dog-whistle bingo: De Graaff inverted roles by accusing Kyiv of child smuggling — and to check the entire dog-whistle far-right bingo, somehow linked the whole thing to trans people and “the West.”
Action required: Lithuanian EPP lawmaker Rasa Juknevičienė, Belgian liberal Hilde Vautmans and Dutch liberal Catharina Rinzema are now gathering signatures from their colleagues for a letter — seen by Playbook — calling on Parliament President Roberta Metsola to broaden an ongoing parliamentary investigation into Latvian MEP Tatjana Ždanoka’s alleged Russian links to include the likes of de Graaff.
Deplatforming: “The European Parliament cannot continue serving as a platform for the Kremlin’s propaganda,” the letter states. It describes the Dutch MEP’s comments as “completely false and manipulative,” adding: “We request that the investigation be broadened to encompass a comprehensive analysis of the dissemination of Russian propaganda within the European Parliament.”
Sounds Kremlin-y: Juknevičienė told Playbook: “What we heard [on Wednesday] was exactly the same wording, the same narrative, [that the] Kremlin is telling about trafficking children and deportations.” Russian President Vladimir Putin is facing an international arrest warrant over the forced transfer of Ukrainian kids to Russia.
Response: De Graaff, who was elected as a member of Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party before defecting to Forum for Democracy, replied to the mass email attaching his full speech and denouncing a “totalitarian call for censure.” Ždanoka, who denies the allegations she worked for Russia’s FSB, also replied-all stating that there is no investigation ongoing into her, calling it a “blatant lie.”
MORE ON RUSSIA’S WAR
NAVALNY’S FINAL PLAN: Just 15 days before he was declared dead in an Arctic penal colony, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny laid out a strategy to challenge Vladimir Putin. On Feb. 1, a message was posted on Navalny’s X account ahead of the so-called presidential election taking place this weekend: “I like the idea of anti-Putin voters going to the polling stations together at 12 noon,” Navalny wrote. “At noon against Putin.” Eva Hartog has the must-read story.
UKRAINE MOBILIZES PRISONERS: Ukraine’s desperate hunt for troops has prompted some MPs to take a page from the Russian playbook and on Wednesday propose a bill that would allow prisoners to serve in the military. Veronika Melkozerova has the details.
Now read this: In the months before Russia invaded Ukraine, many European leaders buried their heads in the sand, refusing to acknowledge the impending threat of war. Now, with the conflict into its third year, they don’t dare speak about peace. Read the story, from my colleagues in Brussels, Kyiv, London and Paris.
MEANWHILE, IN YEREVAN: Armenia is making a major pivot away from the Kremlin and toward the West, even hinting it may want to try and join the EU. But the long road to Brussels is paved with Russia-shaped obstacles, writes Gabriel Gavin in this essential analysis.
READY, SET, HIRE: Ursula von der Leyen hasn’t named a campaign director yet to lead her bid for a second term at the head of the EU executive — which might be a mistake, given hostilities have already begun, writes Playbook’s own Nick Vinocur.
WILDERS GIVES UP: Geert Wilders has renounced his claim to become the next prime minister of the Netherlands, Eva Hartog reports.
SNAP ELECTIONS IN CATALONIA: The President of the Government of Catalonia Pere Aragonès on Wednesday called an early election for May 12. Aragonès said he was forced to call the vote after failing to agree the budget in parliament, which included tax incentives for a Vegas-style casino city in Tarragona, and which some members of his coalition opposed.
Puigdemont factor: But the president’s move was likely also motivated by a desire to keep at bay his rival Carles Puigdemont, who is still in exile in Belgium but planned to return and campaign in Catalonia. This, in turn, has complicated things for Spain’s PM Pedro Sánchez, who needs the backing of Puigdemont’s party in the Spanish parliament to pass laws and the budget.
Fallout: On Wednesday, as a first consequence, Sánchez announced he would no longer try to get a budget for 2024 approved in the Spanish parliament (which was in limbo as he needed the votes of the Catalan separatists). Instead, Spain will roll over the budget from 2023.
NOW HEAR THIS: Meet Francis Suarez, the mayor from Florida who wants to be Donald Trump’s vice president, on this week’s Power Play podcast.
IN OTHER NEWS
EBU ALARMED BY SLOVAKIA’S MEDIA LAW: The European Broadcasting Union said on Wednesday that the Slovak government’s new proposal concerning Radio and Television Slovakia (RTVS), a member of the EBU, “threatens media independence” and urged the government to reconsider. “This appears to be a thinly veiled attempt to turn the Slovak public service broadcaster into state-controlled media,” EBU chief Noel Curran said.
Reminder: As Playbook’s Ketrin Jochecová reported on Wednesday, Slovakia’s government announced a draft bill on Tuesday scrapping RTVS and replacing it with a new body called Slovak Television and Radio (STaR), to be led by political appointees. The move sparked strong criticism from the opposition, which sees it as an attempt to gain control over the institution.
AND SPEAKING OF SLOVAKIA: The country’s Prime Minister Robert Fico hailed the removal of a pro-Putin biker gang boss, a Slovak national, from an EU sanctions list on Wednesday. Tom Nicholson has the details.