EPPO indicts 22, including four MPs, over OPEKEPE farm subsidy scandal
Four MPs and several former high-ranking public officials are among 22 defendants indicted by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Athens over the OPEKEPE farm subsidy scandal, the EPPO announced Thursday. Three of the members of the Parliament are accused of instigation to commit abuse of trust, and one of instigation to unlawful management of European Union funds. One is also accused of instigation to false attestation and attempted computer fraud. Allegations against seven other active members of Parliament have been dismissed. Several EPPO investigations are currently underway into what prosecutors describe as a large-scale organized fraud scheme involving EU agricultural subsidies administered through Greece’s Payment and Control Agency for Guidance and Guarantee Community Aids (OPEKEPE).
SYRIZA suffers wave of defections, shrinking parliamentary group
Left-wing opposition party SYRIZA continued to hemorrhage lawmakers on Friday, with legislator Miltos Zambaras announcing he was leaving the party, adding to a wave of defections that has sharply reduced its parliamentary strength. Earlier Friday, former minister Yiannis Ragousis also announced his departure from the party. Their exits followed the defections on Thursday of Popi Tsapanidou, Kostas Barkas and Kalliopi Vetta. Together with Symeon Kedikoglou, who has announced his intention to leave but has yet to formally submit his resignation letter, the departures have reduced SYRIZA’s parliamentary group to 15 lawmakers.
Greece makes early progress with EU migration pact, Brussels says
Greece has made solid early progress in implementing the EU’s new Migration and Asylum Pact, according to the European Commission’s first assessment of the bloc’s new responsibility rules. However, Brussels cautions it is too soon to judge the system’s full effectiveness, as the new framework has only been in force since June 12. The Commission highlighted Greece’s adoption of national legislation on June 9, the issuance of operational guidelines, staff training, and preparations at first reception centers. Greek authorities have designated facilities for the new border procedures, conducted pilot exercises, and established a joint coordination mechanism involving national authorities, the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA), and Frontex, the EU’s border agency.
Tachiaos to ANA: No structural safety issue in Kypseli buildings due to metro works
The damage reported in buildings in Athens’ Κypseli district as a result of metro construction works will be repaired at the expense of the contractor consortium, Deputy Infrastructure Minister Nikos Tachiaos said in an interview with the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (AΝΑ-MPA) released on Thursday. Tachiaos stressed that inspections carried out by engineers from Elliniko Metro and the contractor consortium found no issues regarding the structural integrity of the affected buildings. Meanwhile, foreign experts have arrived in Greece to investigate the issue that emerged during the metro project, after hairline cracks appeared in the walls of buildings located along streets where the tunnel-boring machine is working on Line 4, which will connect Galatsi with Evangelismos.
ATHEX: Fourth day of decline on local bourse
The benchmark of the Greek bourse has been declining all week, and Thursday was no exception, with the majority of stocks heading lower, led by banks and a number of other blue chips such as GEK Terna and Lamda Development. The local market is generally dominated by capital boosts to a number of stocks, which also absorb part of the liquidity available, in midsummer, too. Yet while the gap widens between the major stocks and bourse’s the also-runs, the mid-cap pool will continue to offer considerable opportunities for gains.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1309821/athex-fourth-day-of-decline-on-local-bourse
KATHIMERINI: Price reductions up to 20% in basic goods for 4 months
TA NEA: 22 to stand trial for the OPEKEPE scandal
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: Extreme audacity by the government regarding the OPEKEPE scandal
RIZOSPASTIS: Our lives are not merely “costs”! Take measures now to avert industrial accidents!
KONTRA NEWS: European Prosecutor: Mitsotakis is afraid of new prosecutions
DIMOKRATIA: OPEKEPE scandal: boundless audacity by the government
NAFTEMPORIKI: Listed companies are the main tax-payers among legal entities
DRIVING THE DAY
SEEING RED OVER GREEN RULES: The European Commission is set to announce two flagship proposals today: a move to water down the EU’s flagship anti-climate change policy; and a plan to boost the energy transition. The first of the two — the long-awaited review of the Emissions Trading System (ETS) — spells trouble.
Deep divisions: The revamp is already pitting EU members against one another and splitting Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s top team.
Up in smoke: The Commission’s ETS overhaul is in response to rising energy prices and fears from Europe’s industrial base — along with pressure from national governments. The rules, which impose costs on polluters, are expected to be relaxed so heavy industry will be allowed to emit more planet-warming emissions for longer. Under existing regulation, sectors covered by the ETS must reach zero by 2039, but proposed changes would push out that target.
The thinking: The ETS revamp is designed to assuage private-sector concerns that business can’t survive in the bloc under existing settings, according to two EU officials, six diplomats and Commission documents seen by POLITICO.
Unhappy family: Whatever the logic, the move is proving controversial inside the Berlaymont. When officials met earlier this week, at least three cabinets formally tabled objections to the plans, two of those working on the file told Gabriel Gavin and Ben Makuch.
Among the recalcitrant commissioners are industry chief Stéphane Séjourné, transport czar Apostolos Tzitzikostas and Raffaele Fitto, a former minister in the government of ETS-skeptic Italian PM Giorgia Meloni.
Institutional warfare: But even if the Commission comes to an agreement internally, it will be an uphill battle to secure a deal with EU capitals and a bitterly divided European Parliament. The fight will define the rest of the year, if there’s any hope of achieving consensus in the first half of 2027.
EPP weighs in: The EU’s center-right European People’s Party, the largest group in Parliament and the political home of almost half of the Commission, has begun a campaign for an “even more moderate” approach to reducing emissions. The party also used its influence to ensure one of its MEPs, Germany’s Peter Liese, would take the lead on the file when it gets to negotiations with lawmakers.
Call to action: “Our European way of life was built on the power of our industries. Today this power is wavering,” Polish Secretary of State Krzysztof Bolesta told Playbook. “Many companies see ETS as one of the problems … We will do whatever we can to deliver a pragmatic revision that ditches dogmatism and gives member states and industries a strong helping hand.”
Pushing back: But Sweden’s Europe Minister Jessica Rosencrantz told POLITICO that “the ETS works. Europe should build on its success, not retreat from it,” and that she would fight to keep the policy as intact as possible. The Spanish government warned that “preserving its ambition” is essential for both the planet and economic competitiveness, in a letter sent to Wopke Hoekstra and Teresa Ribera, two of the EU’s most pro-green commissioners, and seen by POLITICO.
Watch this space: The final details, which have been kept so tightly under wraps that even Commissioners have been asked to read the report in a secure room, are expected to move markets … and will see Brussels forced to decide between two hot priorities: tackling climate change or boosting European industry.
BIG AND BREAKING
EXCLUSIVE — COMMISSION VS. SPAIN AND HUNGARY: Landing at today’s College of Commissioners meeting: the executive’s annual Rule of Law report. Sebastian Starcevic has the scoop on what Brussels will say about two countries already under the spotlight when it comes to anti-corruption measures: Spain and Hungary.
Four tests: The report will grade EU countries on judicial independence, anti-corruption safeguards, media freedom and institutional checks. “It gives us a clear picture of where we are succeeding and where challenges remain,” Justice Commissioner Michael McGrath told Playbook.
SIX DAYS OF STRIKES: U.S. forces hit Iran for a sixth straight day Thursday, further clouding prospects of talks between Washington and Tehran. Overnight, projectiles struck Qeshm Island and near Bandar Abbas, on the Strait of Hormuz, Reuters reports.
ZELENSKYY’S DEFENSE SHAKE-UP: Ukraine’s security chief Yevhenii Khmara is set to become the country’s acting defense minister. But the ousting of 35-year-old reformer Mykhailo Fedorov — popular at home and abroad — has already sparked protests.
COPYING AMERICA: Brussels thinks Europe’s banks are losing ground to Wall Street. The Commission will unveil plans today to cut red tape for lenders, taking a page from the U.S. playbook in the name of competitiveness.
EU ENGINE CHECK: Friedrich Merz and Emmanuel Macron launched two days of Franco-German talks with a promise to strengthen Europe’s defense, industry and tech — and reassure doubters that the EU’s traditional power couple can still deliver.
TURNBERRY CHECK-IN: Nearly a year after von der Leyen and U.S. President Donald Trump sealed their trade truce in Scotland, many of their headline promises — from energy purchases to regulatory cooperation — are looking increasingly difficult to deliver.
TRUMP WARNS OF CHINESE INTERFERENCE: The U.S. president used a speech overnight to announce his administration is declassifying documents that he claims show Chinese interference in U.S. elections. He went on to say the TV networks that didn’t feature live coverage of his address should have their broadcast licenses revoked.
EEAS BURNOUT
STRESSED: Burnout was the most common sick-leave diagnosis at the EU’s diplomatic service between April 2025 and March 2026, accounting for around 28 percent of cases, according to a document obtained by Zoya Sheftalovich.
The details: The EEAS recorded 1,751 medical certificates between April 2025 and March 2026, according to information released through an access-to-documents request. Of those, 263 were examined by the Commission’s Medical Control Unit, which checks whether an employee’s sick leave is medically justified. The cases are selected either randomly or at the administration’s request, meaning the data covers only a sample of all medical certificates. Burnout accounted for just under 28 percent of the controlled cases.
Reminder: Around 8 percent of staff at the EEAS took stress- or burnout-related leave in 2025, a senior EEAS official recently told POLITICO. The Commission at the time said that figure was “completely unfounded,” adding that “no such statistic exists, neither for EEAS nor European Commission, as absences for medical reasons are protected by medical confidentiality.”
More precisely: Presented with the data POLITICO obtained, the Commission maintained its original answer was “factually accurate” as a “direct, narrow response” to the claim that 8 percent of staff were on burnout-related leave — while acknowledging some figures do exist. “Please allow us to be more precise,” the EU executive said. “What the Commission does have is statistical estimates for the proportion of medical referrals related to burnout.”
In other words: While it may not have had figures for the share of all EEAS staff on burnout leave, its categorical claim that “no such statistic exists” omitted relevant data it did hold.
Expert view: Bert Schreurs, a VUB professor of human resources management, told Sebastian: “I don’t think this is very high, to be honest … Relative to what we see in Belgium, it’s lower.” But Cristiano Sebastiani, president of EU staff union Renouveau & Démocratie, said the figures may actually understate the problem because employees are often reluctant to attribute their symptoms to burnout.
20-SECOND PLAYBOOK PRIMER
The EU General Court last week dismissed Apple’s challenge against how it was designated under the bloc’s Big Tech rules. But what is the General Court? It’s the lower of the two courts that make up the Court of Justice of the European Union, which is based in Luxembourg (the superior court is the Court of Justice). The General Court has 54 judges, two from each member country, and deals primarily with cases brought by individuals, companies and organizations challenging decisions made by the EU’s institutions and its other bodies.
CATALAN PARLIAMENT-BOUND
MISSING PIECE OF THE PUZZLE: The European Parliament has 720 seats. But since the June 2024 election, only 719 of them have been occupied. The missing MEP is Antoni Comín i Oliveres, of Catalonia’s pro-independence Together for Catalonia (Junts) party. He has been unable to take up his seat because returning to Spain (required to kick-start his mandate) could lead to his arrest.
That was then: Yesterday’s ruling by the EU’s top court found that an amnesty offered to Comín and former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, after their prosecution over the region’s illegal 2017 independence referendum, doesn’t breach EU law. This clears the way for Comín to take up his seat — although Spain’s highest courts could still delay the amnesty’s implementation.
Reminder: After the referendum, Puigdemont and Comín faced charges and fled to Brussels. To secure the backing of pro-independence parties, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez later introduced an amnesty for those involved. Spanish courts delayed its implementation by referring questions to the Court of Justice of the EU in Luxembourg.
Renew could grow: Comín’s Together for Catalonia is now in talks to join the centrist European Democratic Party, according to two people familiar with the discussions. This would see the party sit within the liberal Renew Europe group. Together for Catalonia declined to comment.
8 MORE THINGS GETTING US TALKING
RUSSIA’S HAND? Polish prosecutors have indicted an 18-year-old Ukrainian accused of carrying out Russian-directed sabotage aimed at inflaming an already sensitive dispute about World War II between Warsaw and Kyiv.
MELONI GETS HER WAY: Italy’s lower house approved Giorgia Meloni’s contentious electoral reform, despite signs of cracks in her coalition after the government lost a key vote earlier this week.
NO THANKS, ELON: Why France’s National Rally could do without an endorsement from the world’s first trillionaire.
FARMING FUND SCANDAL IN GREECE: The European Public Prosecutor’s Office has brought its first criminal case against Greek lawmakers over the country’s widening EU farm funds scandal.
BRETON GETS A REPRIEVE: A U.S. judge has paused the Trump administration’s visa restrictions targeting disinformation researchers and digital regulators, including former European Commissioner Thierry Breton.
BORDER, FINALLY: Nearly 400 years after France and the Netherlands agreed to split Saint Martin, France’s parliament has finally put the Caribbean island’s border into law.
WORLD CUP BANNER ROW: A senior U.K. minister wants FIFA to investigate the “entirely inappropriate” banner displayed by some Argentina players after beating England to reach the World Cup final.
FINAL WHISTLE? NOT YET: The EU’s top court backed FIFA on its football agent rules — but Germany’s judges still have the last word. More in Morning Fair Play (for Pro subscribers).