Athens rejects Ankara sovereignty threats
Turkey escalated tensions with Greece over the eastern Aegean islands through remarks on Wednesday by Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler, who referred to the issue of their demilitarization and warned that Ankara would not remain indifferent to initiatives affecting what he described as Turkish sovereign rights and security interests.
Tsipras Alliance stirs left
The launch event for the Greek Left Alliance, ELAS, in Athens on Tuesday night elicited surprise around the party’s name more than its policy agenda, as party leader Alexis Tsipras prepares tours to outline future governing plans. The launch also intensified tensions within SYRIZA. Party officials are awaiting internal meetings before deciding whether to reduce media appearances, continue supporting both SYRIZA and the alliance’s founding declaration, or resign parliamentary seats. Rena Dourou told Skai radio that “there are no more excuses for elected members of parliament trying to stand in two boats.” Gavriil Sakellaridis mocked the new party, saying “the right turn signal will not be delayed.” Meanwhile, members aligned with Alexis Charitsis in New Left were reportedly close to departure.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/politics/1305046/tsipras-alliance-stirs-left
Mitsotakis: National public health prevention program to continue for the next four years
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Wednesday announced an extension of the public health preventative medicine program “Prolamvano”, noting that funding has been secured for the next four years, while speaking during a discussion entitled “The Social Contract for Health: The Patient at the Centre,” held as part of the 6th Health Conference organized by ygeiamou.gr and Proto Thema.
New e-EFKA services unify social insurance data for citizens, provide faster processing of pensions
Two new online systems that were presented on Wednesday in the presence of Labor & Social Insurance Minister Niki Kerameus are expected to improve speed and access to citizens’ social insurance information, and speed up procedures to issue pensions.
ATHEX: Sixth straight session with index growth
Athinon Avenue remained for a sixth consecutive session on the path of growth on Wednesday, with its benchmark climbing to highs not seen since early February, led by banks as well as several other blue chips.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1305049/athex-sixth-straight-session-with-index-growth
KATHIMERINI: Pensions will be issued within one month
TA NEA: Sinking sand
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: Migration and Asylum Ministry: Inhumane detentions at the borders
RIZOSPASTIS: The murderous state of Israel continues the massacres in Lebanon and Gaza
KONTRA NEWS: 16,1%: Alexis is galloping – 8,6%: PASOK is sinking
DIMOKRATIA: The national guard is “key” to the defense of the islands
NAFTEMPORIKI: Profits “missile” by the listed companies
DRIVING THE DAY
PARTY PEOPLE: Ursula von der Leyen’s long-running effort to keep her commissioners above the fray of party politics is coming under strain, with some openly hitting the campaign trail and others holding regular party-aligned breakfast meetings.
Super partes — sort of: The president doesn’t want the Commission to turn into a mini-European Parliament and emphasizes the need for commissioners to act as members of a single executive rather than partisan power brokers.
Indeed, von der Leyen’s second College features lower-profile figures and loyal operators, which has avoided some of the internal political rivalries that plagued previous Commissions. But there have been instances of commissioners getting into the thick of political debate.
Exhibit A: Malta. Youth Commissioner Glenn Micallef has been campaigning ahead of Saturday’s general election in support of Maltese Prime Minister Robert Abela — testing the Commission’s rules on political impartiality.
Brussels endorsement? POLITICO’s Sebastian Starcevic reports that Micallef spoke at a campaign rally over the weekend, praising Abela’s handling of the energy crisis by arguing “other EU countries” were faring worse. “Abela believes in every single one of you,” Micallef told supporters, according to local media. “Now he needs you to give him your faith.”
Reminder: Before joining the Commission, Micallef served as Abela’s chief of staff.
The gray zone: Commissioners are discouraged from engaging in national politics, but it’s not explicitly forbidden. The rules require them to notify the Commission president in advance and ensure their EU duties take priority over party activity. They are also barred from using official Commission resources — including staff or official social media accounts — for campaign activity.
Micallef informed von der Leyen of “his intention to play a non-active role in Malta’s election campaign,” a Commission spokesperson told Playbook. The spokesperson said the Commission chief reminded Micallef to fully separate campaign activities from his institutional role, avoid using Commission resources and comply with the Code of Conduct and campaign guidelines.
How did that play out? Beyond his remarks at the rally, Micallef also posted photos on his official Instagram account showing him in front of a sea of Labour Party flags and supporters. His cabinet declined to comment on the record, referring POLITICO to the Commission spokesperson’s service.
Ouch: A spokesperson from Malta’s opposition Nationalist Party, which is part of European Parliament President Roberta Metsola’s political family, called Micallef’s appearance “pathetic,” accusing him of praising “the same person who gifted him a commissioner position.”
Not the first time: Commissioners Raffaele Fitto and Andrius Kubilius also came under fire in February after appearing at a campaign event in Slovenia alongside opposition leader (and now PM) Janez Janša.
Cut to Commission HQ: The five commissioners from the centrist Renew Europe family have started holding regular breakfast meetings to coordinate positions to counter what they see as an internal political imbalance, two Commission officials told Playbook.
The math: The College currently includes 15 commissioners from the European People’s Party, compared with five each from Renew and the Socialists. Von der Leyen’s center-right EPP launched its own dinner meeting format at the start of this mandate to boost the group’s influence on Commission work, Playbook previously reported.
The logic: The Renew meetings rotate between the offices of Stéphane Séjourné, Kaja Kallas, Hadja Lahbib, Marta Kos and Michael McGrath, and focus on identifying common “Renew sensitivities” on files such as the rule of law, foreign policy and major digital legislation, such as the DMA and DSA.
Takeaway: Von der Leyen entered her second mandate determined to depoliticize the College. A year and a half in, that still appears to be an uphill battle.
BIG AND BREAKING
WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING: The U.S. launched new airstrikes on Iran, shooting down four drones and hitting a military target it said posted a threat to American forces … Tehran said it won’t be “pushed back by [Donald] Trump’s rhetoric” and had targeted a U.S. air base in the region … Kuwait said it was intercepting missile attacks … and oil prices jumped. Reuters has the latest.
BULGARIA’S MISSION: Bulgaria’s new Prime Minister Rumen Radev is also in Brussels today, trying to unlock €3 billion in EU funds set to expire at the end of August. Sofia believes its new anti-corruption commission — long demanded by the European Commission — should finally get the money flowing.
COP31 DIPLOMATIC SNUB: Turkey, host of this year’s COP31 climate summit, has excluded Cyprus — despite its rotating EU Council presidency — from several preparatory meetings. Ankara still does not formally recognize Nicosia. Zia Weise has the scoop.
EUROPE GETS ITS FORTRESS: NATO is racing to turn a remote Baltic island into a military stronghold amid fears that Russia could strike “at any time,” Sweden’s Chief of Defense Michael Claesson told POLITICO.
VISA MONOPOLY: A year-long investigation by POLITICO and other international media outlets shines a light on VFS Global, a Dubai-based company that now dominates outsourced visa processing worldwide — including for most European countries.
FAR-RIGHT PARTY UNDER FIRE
EXCLUSIVE — AFD’S EU PARTY COULD BE BANNED: The far-right Europe of Sovereign Nations party — home to the Alternative for Germany, Bulgaria’s Revival and Frenchman Eric Zemmour’s Reconquest — could be outlawed for failing to uphold EU values. If that happens, it will lose its legal status as a party and access to around €2 million a year in EU subsidies.
Bombshell: The watchdog that oversees European political parties, the Authority for European Political Parties and European Political Foundations (APPF), on Friday sent the Parliament, Council and Commission a 300-page letter filled with court rulings, screenshots and social media posts from MEPs and national lawmakers. The document cited anti-immigration, antisemitic, anti-Roma and anti-LGBT rhetoric, including calls for “remigration” and the depiction of homosexuality as pedophilia.
The letter highlighted Alternative for Germany’s classification as a right-wing “extremist” organization by German intelligence services and a Cologne administrative court decision finding the party program “contrary to human dignity and freedom of religion.” It also pointed to Revival’s formal cooperation with Vladimir Putin’s United Russia.
Nerd alert: Political parties and political groups aren’t the same thing. We’re talking about the ESN party, not the ESN parliamentary group, so AfD MEPs and other lawmakers from the group aren’t at risk.
Who will push the button? Any of the three EU institutions can give the OK to the authority to continue with the process that could lead to ESN being banned. Yet none of the institutions has a clear idea of how to proceed, according to three officials. That’s because the law requiring European political parties to comply with EU values only entered into force in December 2025.
Neither the ESN party nor AfD responded to POLITICO’s requests for comment. But in a letter sent to APPF in early May, ESN President Stanislav Stoyanov addressed questions about how the party ensures compliance with EU values. “As a European political party, ESN has no mandate to intervene directly in the affairs of its member parties,” he said. “However, we remain committed to upholding the core values of the EU through constant dialogue with the related parties.”
20-SECOND PLAYBOOK PRIMER
There’s a meeting of the E6 in Berlin today — but who are the members of this so-called EU supergroup and what do they want to achieve? It’s the EU’s six largest economies — France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Poland — who joined forces to break the political deadlocks that have hamstrung European efforts to create a U.S.-style financial market for a decade. Critics, such as Ireland and Portugal, fear the six-country club could trigger a two-speed Europe, in which the biggest nations sideline smaller countries.
THE CASE FOR AN ENVOY
MEDIATOR OR SEAT AT THE TABLE? Europe needs an envoy to represent its interests in any Russia-Ukraine peace talks — but the job isn’t that of a mediator, Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide told Nicholas Vinocur.
The call lands just as EU foreign ministers are gathering in Cyprus to discuss the need for a special envoy, with several countries arguing that Brussels has no interest in engaging directly with Russia.
The problem is that Europe is has got its job description wrong, Eide said, adding that instead of looking for a mediator to help broker a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia, the EU should name someone who can represent its interests without ambiguity.
Getting a seat: Confusion over the exact duties of a “special envoy” has muddied the waters, as Europe clearly backs Ukraine and is by no means an impartial player in the conflict, he said. “I think having a European voice at the metaphorical table is right,” Eide said after a huddle with chief EU diplomat Kaja Kallas. “My view is that Europe has some real interests of its own that in some ways coincide with Ukraine’s, but also go beyond them.”
Look outside the box: As for the role of mediator, it should ideally go to an “impartial” player, which could be someone outside the European Union, he said.
7 MORE THINGS GETTING US TALKING
JET FUEL PANIC? MAYBE NOT: After weeks of warnings over shrinking jet fuel reserves, the Commission told national energy officials on Wednesday that holiday demand remains robust and flights are operating normally, Ben Munster reports for our Pro Morning Energy newsletter.
GREEN DEAL — REMEMBER THAT? Europe’s climate and defense chiefs are in agreement: cutting fossil fuel dependence is also a security policy. “The Green Deal is a huge geopolitical instrument,” said Commissioner Andrius Kubilius (also for Pro subscribers).
WEIGHED DOWN BY SCANDAL: It’s becoming increasingly difficult for Spanish allies of Pedro Sánchez to stick with the prime minister as the scale of alleged Socialist party corruption continues to swell.
SCHRÖDINGER’S CHINA: Beijing poses risks to Europe, but “we have to work with them,” Ireland’s EU minister Thomas Byrne told POLITICO ahead of Dublin’s Council presidency (for subscribers).
CLOSING THE CAP TAPS: EU farming funds for Czechia are being frozen until questions about the prime minister’s business interests are clarified, Ketrin Jochecová reports.
TRUST BUT VERIFY: Europe is stepping up Ebola screening for passengers arriving from the Democratic Republic of Congo, as health officials struggle to contain the outbreak.
SANCTIONED AGAIN: The U.S. has put Francesca Albanese back on its sanctions list, Reuters reports.