Prosecutor recommends special court trial for ex-deputy minister over Tempe crash
A Supreme Court deputy prosecutor has reportedly recommended that former deputy minister to the prime minister Christos Triantopoulos should be referred to a special court to stand trial for allegedly tampering with the crash site of the 2023 railway disaster in Tempe, northern Greece. Dimitris Mitroulias also recommended that another four officials should stand trial in the same tribunal for their actions in the immediate aftermath of the crash on the night of February 28, 2023, which claimed 57 lives. According to the indictment, interference with the crash site led to the loss of critical evidence for investigating the causes of the collision between a freight train and a passenger train and the fire that followed. The other four officials named in Mitroulias’ recommendation are the former governor of Thessaly, Kostas Agorastos, the then secretary general for civil protection and the heads of the Fire Service and Larissa Traffic Police at the critical time.
Former SYRIZA leader Famellos becomes independent MP
Former SYRIZA leader Sokratis Famellos has become an independent MP, about two weeks after stepping down as head of the left-wing opposition party. He said recent developments at SYRIZA “do not align with the values of the Left. I can’t support the entrenchment, which doesn’t respond to the citizens’ need for the Right to leave and for a progressive government to take its place.” Famellos’ departure comes amid growing uncertainty over SYRIZA’s future and continued fragmentation on Greece’s left, following the 2023 split that led to the formation of the New Left party and the recent launch of former prime minister Alexis Tsipras’ ELAS (Greek Left Alliance).
https://www.ekathimerini.com/politics/1310280/former-syriza-leader-famellos-becomes-independent-mp
EIB supports Greece’s efforts to strengthen resilience of critical infrastructure
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is backing Greece’s initiatives to safeguard and enhance critical services and infrastructure. This support comes in the form of specialised technical assistance, aimed at the planning and preparation of investments intended to bolster the country’s resilience against future challenges and risks. As part of the collaboration, the EIB will support Greek authorities in identifying investment priorities, preparing mature projects and developing a comprehensive investment framework that will contribute to the creation of more resilient, sustainable and reliable infrastructure. A relevant meeting took place yesterday between EIB officials and the Greek Ministry of Environment and Energy and relevant agencies.
Food industry is the king of Greek manufacturing
A new IOBE survey for the Federation of Greek Food Industries has found that food and beverage is the largest sector of Greek manufacturing, with annual revenue of €26.2 billion, while creating 27% of the total added value of Greek manufacturing (€4.7 billion). It is also the largest employer in manufacturing with 162,000 direct employees.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1310120/food-industry-is-the-king-of-greek-manufacturing
ATHEX: In the end it was buyers who won
The Athens bourse spent most of Wednesday in the red, with a mix of stocks responding to the rise in oil rates after the aggravating situation in the Middle East. However, a late surge in line with the rebound in most European markets gave blue chips like Titan Cement, Coca-Cola HBC and OTE the chance to lead a price rebound and take the benchmark back above 2,500 points, even if most stocks remained in negative territory.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1310316/athex-in-the-end-it-was-buyers-who-won
KATHIMERINI: Corruption “windows” in the online system for construction permits
TA NEA: We live more but we are not that healthy
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: The Novartis ghost haunts ruling New Democracy
RIZOSPASTIS: Cynical bargaining and barbarous actions at the expense of people who fled their countries due to war
KONTRA NEWS: Raid at the headquarters of TEHAN
DIMOKRATIA: Former minister Salmas “executed” Minister of Health Adonis Georgiadis
NAFTEMPORIKI: Evaluation scale for individuals and businesses
DRIVING THE DAY
THE PERFECT STORM: Buckle up. The next 48 hours could make for one of the trickiest transatlantic balancing acts in months, with the European Commission preparing to slap Google with a landmark fine just as U.S. President Donald Trump has to decide what to do with expiring tariffs on trade with the EU.
Playing with fire? The Commission is expected — as early as today or tomorrow — to fine the U.S. tech giant for breaching the Digital Markets Act, the EU’s rulebook to stop very big online platforms from abusing their power.
What did Google do? The search giant is accused of illegally favoring its own services over those of competitors via its search engine, with a second penalty over Google Play also in the pipeline. The probe started in March 2024 and a decision was ready in March this year, POLITICO reported at the time. But Brussels held off to give the company one last chance to comply.
How we know it’s coming: The Digital Markets Advisory Committee — the group of national experts the Commission must consult before signing off on DMA decisions — meets today, my colleagues Jacob Parry and Francesca Micheletti report. This has raised expectations that the decision will be published shortly after.
Normally … this would be simply another pre-holiday DG COMP special. The Commission’s competition department likes clearing the decks before everyone disappears to the beach and Brussels has been signaling since May that Google would be next.
Except this isn’t an ordinary week. Washington is racing to rebuild its tariffs after earlier legal setbacks, with Trump’s temporary “global” 10 percent tariffs on almost all U.S. imports — unless specifically exempted — expiring tomorrow. The U.S. administration is expected to unveil a replacement before then and the EU is anxiously waiting to see whether Washington sticks to the Turnberry understanding — the political accord between the EU and the U.S. that caps tariffs on almost all EU goods at 15 percent.
Eggshell diplomacy: DG Trade chief Ditte Juul Jørgensen sought to reassure ambassadors yesterday. She said the Commission still expects the U.S. to respect the deal, but if it didn’t, the EU executive would be ready to come up with countermeasures, three EU diplomats familiar with the discussion told POLITICO’s Camille Gijs. One of them added that envoys would be ready to convene an extraordinary EU ambassadors’ meeting next week if the U.S. springs a surprise.
Pressure from both sides: In Washington, Republicans have written to the White House, asking the administration to push back against the DMA. In Brussels, the pressure points the other way: More than 40 European companies wrote to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen over the weekend, urging the Commission to stop waiting and enforce the rules against Google.
Across the Atlantic: A delegation of MEPs from the Socialists and Democrats is spending the week in Washington and meets Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Bryant Trick this afternoon. “It is a particularly relevant moment to be in Washington, given the renewed tariff announcements,” MEP Kathleen Van Brempt told Camille. “Our message will be straightforward: Europe wants Turnberry to work, but that requires both sides to respect the commitments they made.”
Bottom line: For the next 48 hours, Brussels’ mood could be summed up by one sentence: Hope for Turnberry; prepare for turbulence.
BIG AND BREAKING
TRUMP’S WARNING: Iran keeps targeting commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, Donald Trump says, and the U.S. could respond by striking bridges and power plants … while Iran-backed Houthis say they targeted two oil tankers in the Red Sea … and all this as only about a third of Trump voters now think the conflict with Iran is worth the economic cost.
LOOKING AT YOU, GREECE: EU ambassadors take another crack at the Russia sanctions package today after Greece again sank a deal over measures affecting its gas shipping industry.
MACRON’S CHARM OFFENSIVE: French Ecological Transition Minister Monique Barbut has withdrawn her resignation, after President Emmanuel Macron asked her to stay.
SALIS LOSES IN COURT: Italian MEP Ilaria Salis has been ordered by an Italian court to pay compensation over the dismissal of two assistants, according to Italian media. Salis described the ruling as “bordering on the surreal” and announced an appeal.
RUSSIAN FUEL, GERMAN GREEN LIGHT: A nuclear project linked to Russian state-owned company Rosatom has been given the go-ahead by state authorities in northwest Germany, under strict conditions. POLITICO first reported the project.
FUELING NATO: Atlantic allies have sealed a €27 billion deal to drag NATO’s military-fuel transport network out of the Cold War era.
DOWN UNDER DRONES: Germany wants combat drones by 2029, but a fight over whether to buy Australian or wait for European models risks delaying the plan.
RAMPANT AI: OpenAI’s admission that one of its powerful artificial intelligence models escaped a controlled laboratory test has U.S. lawmakers hurrying to advance legislation.
ENGAGING SOFIA ON UKRAINE
RELATIONSHIP RESET? Bulgarian Innovation Commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva is heading home today to take the temperature on Ukraine. She will sound out whether Sofia is on the same page as Brussels on how to counter Russia. She’ll also get a sense of whether the new government is finally ready to push through the reforms needed to unlock the country’s frozen Recovery and Resilience Facility money.
Tough times: The visit comes after a bumpy few weeks. The EU has been trying to decipher Bulgaria’s line since Prime Minister Rumen Radev’s July 14 announcement that the country would leave the Coalition of the Willing — the group of countries coordinating military and financial support for Kyiv.
Why the confusion? Because just a day after Radev’s announcement, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Velislava Petrova traveled to Kyiv for the Ukraine–Southeast Europe Summit and endorsed a joint declaration — something Brussels read as broadly in line with the coalition’s objectives.
It’s on the table: Don’t expect Ukraine to go unmentioned just because it isn’t on the official agenda, an EU official told Playbook. “I expect it will come up … especially since [Zaharieva] used to be a foreign minister.”
Read the guest list: On paper, Zaharieva is making a routine courtesy trip on the new government on behalf of the Commission. Her schedule tells a more complicated story: The commissioner for startups and innovation is meeting PM Radev and President Iliana Yotova — not the cast you’d expect for a discussion about EU research funds.
Don’t forget the money: More than €2.7 billion in grants after the pandemic in Bulgaria’s Recovery Fund — the EU instruments to mitigate pandemic’s impact — remain partially frozen over targets that haven’t been met, notably on rule-of-law and anti-corruption reforms. The Commission also wants to know — two months after the newly elected Radev visited Brussels — whether the new government is ready to get the reform job done and unblock the file.
20-SECOND PLAYBOOK PRIMER
There are such deep divisions over a controversial child abuse scanning bill that it could end up in an EU conciliation procedure — a mechanism used earlier this year to pass a long-stalled law on air passengers’ rights. But what is it? The procedure is the third and final stage of discussions on a new bill — if it fails, the legislation is rejected. To try to break the deadlock, a Conciliation Committee is set up featuring representatives of member countries and Parliament, with the Commission as a mediator. Once it’s established, the committee has six weeks to agree on a joint text, which will then go back to Council and Parliament for approval.
PARLIAMENT MISSPENDING CONTROVERSY
EPP LAMBASTED OVER PATRIOTS REPORT: Four political groups — Renew Europe, S&D, the Greens and The Left — have lashed out at the European People’s Party. They’re unhappy with the center-right group’s vote with the far-right Patriots for Europe on a report into the latter’s misuse of EU funds, and they say the report has been watered down.
To the top: In a letter to European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, the four groups ask the EPP MEP to seek a legal opinion on whether last week’s vote in the Parliament’s budgetary control committee breached the institution’s conflict-of-interest rules.
Recap: Parliament officials found the Patriots broke EU rules on donations and procurement worth€270,000 in 2024 and €546,000 in 2025.
In the committee, the EPP sided with the Patriots, backing what the center and left-wing parties say was a less-damning text that merely acknowledged the irregularities and requested repayment. On the same type of misspending by the now-defunct far-right Identity and Democracy group, the committee in 2025 issued a detailed report urging the administration to take tough action.
The four also ask whether the Parliament had referred the two instances of misspending to the EU public prosecutor and anti-fraud office: “Neither the assessment nor the accompanying correspondence indicates that such reports, or an assessment of the need for one, have been made.” They also ask whether the Parliament has opened an administrative inquiry into the Patriots official who signed off the irregular expenditure.
8 MORE THINGS GETTING US TALKING
BOOSTING THE BERLAYMONT BUNKER: The Commission’s Secretariat-General is growing. From September, it will host a new office coordinating the Security College — the commissioners’ defense and security unit.
KYIV’S BLAME GAME: Allies of Volodymyr Zelenskyy are increasingly pinning responsibility for the political fallout from the firing of Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov on Fedorov himself. More in Morning Defense (for subscribers).
BURNHAM TRADE INSIGHT: Andy Burnham’s intervention in a U.S.-U.K. trade dialogue in 2022 offers one of the most revealing insights yet into the new prime minister’s thinking on trade.
HOLD BEFORE A HIKE? The European Central Bank is expected to leave interest rates unchanged today. More in Morning Financial Services (for subscribers).
MACRON’S DIGITAL LEGACY: France has approved a ban on social media for under-15s, handing the president one of his biggest second-term tech victories.
HUAWEI PRICE TAG: Kicking Huawei and other high-risk vendors out of Europe’s telecoms networks could cost up to four times more than Brussels’ own estimates, the industry says.
CHILD-POVERTY WARNING: Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner Michael O’Flaherty publishes a memorandum today urging Italy to put child poverty at the center of public spending, with one in seven children living in absolute poverty.
PHARMA CARVE-OUT? Brussels expects generic medicines to dodge Trump’s latest tariffs, arguing Washington committed to zero duties in last year’s transatlantic deal.