PM Mitsotakis visits Nvidia, Sequoia Capital HQs in California, meets top executives
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis visited the headquarters of Nvidia and Sequoia Capital in California’s Silicon Valley earlier on Monday and held meetings with senior company executives and technology researchers.
Greek government faces deep voter dissatisfaction
Greece’s governing New Democracy is struggling with widespread dissatisfaction over its performance and skepticism about its economic policies, even as it retains the largest share of voter support, according to a new Alco opinion poll for Alpha television. The survey found that 58% of respondents were “not at all” satisfied with the government’s performance in September, up from 55% in June. Another 21% said they were only slightly satisfied, while the share describing themselves as fairly or very satisfied slipped to 20% from 22%.
Far-right MP says he will represent new party linked with Kasidiaris
An independent lawmaker first elected with the far-right Spartans party said Monday that he would represent the new Alliance of Greeks far-right group linked with a recently released ex-lawmaker for the now-defunct, Nazi-inspired Golden Dawn party. Georgios Manoussos said that while formally an independent lawmaker, he “effectively represents” the Alliance of Greeks. His comments caused angry protests from left-wing lawmakers in the house. Earlier Monday, former Golden Dawn lawmaker Ilias Kasidiaris, who was released last week after serving part of a 13-year sentence for leading a criminal organization, announced his support for Alliance of Greeks. In a 3½-minute video posted on YouTube, Kasidiaris said the party had been established in 2025, that its charter had been submitted to the Supreme Court and that it already had an active parliamentary group.
Avlonitis officially joins PASOK parliamentary group in Hellenic Parliament
Corfu MP Alexandros Avlonitis has officially joined the parliamentary group of PASOK-Movement for Change (KINAL), the Hellenic Parliament announced at the start of parliamentary control proceedings on Monday.
ATHEX: Monday not too blue after Friday buzz
The Euronext Athens (ATHEX) general index closed at 2,676.02 points, adding 0.55% to Friday’s 2,661.30 points. The large-cap FTSE-25 index expanded 0.49% to end at 6,867.26 points.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1315892/athex-monday-not-too-blue-after-friday-buzz
KATHIMERINI: Social benefits cannot “beat” the demographic problem
TA NEA: 6 regions in Greece are vanishing: Reduction of births by more than 50%
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: Greece and Bulgaria: Flatmates in poverty
RIZOSPASTIS: The Greek Communist Party (KKE) must be powerful so that the people win!
KONTRA NEWS: The Merz syndrome threatens the Mitsotakis government
DIMOKRATIA: The old political scenery is collapsing throughout Europe
NAFTEMPORIKI: The Greeks upgrade Athens
DRIVING THE DAY
BUDGET SCARE: The European Commission has internally simulated the impact of slashing its development aid budget by as much as 40% in its next long-term budget — raising the specter of job cuts in EU delegations around the world, EU officials and diplomats told Playbook.
The worst case: The simulations, which are hypothetical and don’t amount to operational plans, examined the potential impact of deep cuts to the €80 billion budget of the EU’s Global Europe program over a seven-year period starting in 2028. Many staffers paid from this budget work in EU delegations around the world — so cuts would theoretically shrink the EU’s global footprint.
The simulation — which comes amid growing pressure from frugal countries led by Germany to slash the next long-term budget — established that hundreds of jobs would need to be cut in units such as DG MENA, DG INTPA and DG ENEST, likely via non-replacement. “If you cut the development budget by 40%, then mechanically you need to reduce jobs by 40%,” said one EU official.
The move also coincides with efforts by Paris and Berlin to explore reforms of the foreign policy apparatus — whose delegations are partly funded via Global Europe funds.
Capitals are quietly discussing Global Europe as a potential place to cut given sensitivities around agriculture subsidies, cohesion funds and other areas defended by some countries, per two EU diplomats.
Trial balloon: During a gathering of EU ambassadors last week, a representative from DG BUDG floated various scenarios for what would happen to EU programs if the overall long-term budget is cut without any reduction to agricultural subsidies, cohesion funds or security.
Three diplomats said the move was interpreted as a “scare tactic” or “horror scenario,” intended to jolt deadlocked capitals, rather than as a serious proposal. “You don’t react to such a proposal,” said one EU diplomat. Another said that frugal countries wanted “horizontal” cuts across services.
What the Commission says: “As in all MFF negotiations, all scenarios and their consequences are discussed. Member states have consistently asked the Commission to inform their decisions with scenarios,” said a spokesperson.
The prospect of cuts is prompting jitters among non-governmental groups. “The EU cannot claim global leadership while considering cuts of nearly half its budget for international cooperation,” said Hanna Saarinen, senior EU aid policy adviser at Oxfam.
The wider view: The cuts would come as EU countries are trying to make the bloc’s diplomacy more effective and maximize its influence in multilateral forums. At an informal Foreign Affairs Council in Ireland earlier this month, for example, ministers discussed how to improve EU countries’ chances of securing top-level international jobs — such as the U.N. secretary-general’s post, which opens up at the end of the year.
BIG AND BREAKING
SANCTIONS STALLED: Ambassadors will resume talks on the EU’s Russia sanctions at 8 a.m. after failing to reach an agreement late last night. A compromise is likely to remove billionaires Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman from the list in exchange for extending sanctions on hundreds of others.
MERZ’S DILEMMA: Chancellor Friedrich Merz insists his unpopular reforms are necessary to revive Germany’s economy — but he’s running out of time to convince voters.
DON’T PANIC: Finnish President Alexander Stubb says Europe should prepare for more hybrid Russian attacks but mustn’t “overreact” to Moscow’s provocations, Hans von der Burchard reports from UNGA in New York.
OPENING THE ECF: About a dozen countries are circulating an unofficial document that calls for the defense section of the European Competitiveness Fund to be open to third countries, according to my colleagues on Morning Defense (for subscribers).
RIGHT TURN AHEAD
EXCLUSIVE — PLAY NICE WITH LE PEN: EU institutions and the center-right European People’s Party must be ready to work with Marine Le Pen if she wins the French presidency — just as they did after Giorgia Meloni came to power in Italy, Nicola Procaccini, co-chair of the European Conservatives and Reformists group in the European Parliament, told Max Griera.
The more the merrier: For the right-wing ECR, a Le Pen victory would mean another like-minded ally among the leaders of Europe’s biggest countries, helping it push a more euroskeptic agenda.
For example: The National Rally’s proposal to halve its EU budget contribution doesn’t bother Procaccini, Meloni’s man in the Parliament. On the contrary, he welcomes it, saying his group “doesn’t believe in a super-giant budget” anyway. (Read Max’s full write-up of the interview here.)
The “Meloni way” of dealing with the European Commission — “pragmatic, frank, open, honest and coherent” — would be the best path for Le Pen, Procaccini said. While “the French right historically is less pro-West than us, less pro-Europe also than us,” he is “optimistic” that Le Pen wouldn’t be destructive in Brussels.
For the EPP, which is increasingly voting alongside groups to its right in Parliament, a Le Pen victory would speed up a reckoning over how to deal with parties it had long kept at arm’s length.
Procaccini said the EPP needs to have “courage” and more openly embrace majorities with right-wing and far-right parties. The EPP insists it doesn’t negotiate with the far right but merely puts forward its position, which the far right may or may not agree with.
ECR lawmakers already sometimes negotiate with the far-right Patriots for Europe and then with the EPP, acting as informal mediators because the EPP doesn’t want to deal directly with the Patriots. “But there’s not a playbook,” Procaccini said. “It happens sometimes, often, but it’s not a scheme.”
“I hope there’s no need [for] this role, but if there’s a need to be a sort of bridge, we are able to be the bridge” if the National Rally governs France, he said.
20-SECOND PLAYBOOK PRIMER
Brussels has unveiled an environmental rating scheme for data centers that power artificial intelligence — but how will that work? The rules will oblige big data centers to display a label grading them on their energy efficiency, water usage and clean power uptake on a scale of A to G, a bit like you get on the EU’s appliances ranking. The labels will be generated automatically each year from figures companies are already required to report under the bloc’s energy efficiency rules.
BUDGET SHOWDOWN
WILL MINISTERS SHOW THEIR MFF CARDS? European affairs ministers this morning will have a last chance to suggest changes to the EU’s next seven-year budget before a new negotiating document is unveiled in early October.
The Irish presidency of the Council of the EU, which is steering the budget talks and preparing the document, has urged ministers to put their cards on the table during the General Affairs Council. “Member states must now begin to identify where they may be able to compromise,” Ireland wrote in the preparatory note seen by Playbook. But with the debate being livestreamed, ministers are unlikely to be candid.
Ireland asked Europe ministers to pick their three most important spending programs, signal whether they’re open to increasing contributions to the EU budget and suggest changes that would make EU-wide taxes (or own resources) more palatable. “With any particular proposal that is nowhere near unanimity or can’t be changed … you have to question whether to put it forward,” said Ireland’s Europe Minister Thomas Byrne.
Montenegro progress update: The EU won’t close chapters 18 and 19 of Montenegro’s accession negotiations at today’s GAC, Byrne said yesterday, with some member countries still working through procedural issues before that can happen. Byrne said the EU may instead hold an intergovernmental conference between now and next month’s GAC to get those chapters signed off.
6 MORE THINGS GETTING US TALKING
THE MEPS TO WATCH: POLITICO has compiled a list of 17 lawmakers who are making things happen in the European Parliament.
AVERTING AN AI DISASTER: Lawmakers are pushing to expand the EU’s AI regulations to include “product liability” requirements to make American tech companies confront the risks posed by their most advanced models, Pieter Haeck and Sam Clark report.
Also: Several European countries were among 22 nations that adopted a declaration Monday saying AI “must remain under human direction, oversight and control” and calling for a global supervisory regime.
RUSSIAN RECRUITS: Western platforms are carrying ads that funnel young men into Russia’s war machine, Antoaneta Roussi reports.
EXCLUSIVE — NEW ETHICS WATCHDOGS: These experts have been nominated to the new EU ethics body tasked with setting common standards among institutions, according to a document seen by POLITICO: Former Czech Commissioner Věra Jourová; Maltese politician Leo Brincat; former Finnish Commissioner Erkki Liikanen; former European Parliament Vice President Dagmar Roth-Behrendt; and former MEP Élisabeth Morin-Chartier. They need to be approved by the Commission, Parliament and Council.
DRUG WAR: U.S. trade officials are probing German drug prices today, following President Donald Trump claims that they’re being subsidized by higher costs in America — and the consequences could extend beyond pharmaceuticals.