‘We will never allow the things that happened in the last decade to happen again’
In a speech wrapping up ruling New Democracy’s 15th Congress on Sunday, Prime Minister and ND President Kyriakos Mitsotakis stressed that its conclusion gave grounds for greater optimism and was being converted into “new hope for Greece and new hope for Europe.”
Androulakis says a strong PASOK on June 9 will deliver a ‘reliable opposition’ and ‘alternative’ for governance
Opposition PASOK-KINAL leader Nikos Androulakis on Sunday attacked the ruling New Democracy party and main opposition SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance in his address to PASOK-KINAL’s Central Political Committee, which officially launched the party’s campaign for the European elections.
Court: Wiretapped citizens have right to know
In a unanimous decision, the plenary of the Council of State, the country’s highest administrative court, ruled on Friday that the 2021 law, which imposed an absolute ban on informing citizens who would like to know if they are being monitored, is unconstitutional. The decision was issued after an appeal by PASOK President Nikos Androulakis, triggering a new cycle of political controversy.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/news/1235713/court-wiretapped-citizens-have-right-to-know
Greece introducing TechVisa and TalentVisa in a bid to attract highly-skilled graduates and experts from outside the EU
Greece is introducing two new types of work visas for non-EU nationals in a bid to attract talent and upgrade the country as an academic, research and investment hub, in a bill presented to the cabinet the previous week by Migration and Asylum Minister Dimitris Kairidis.
ATHEX: Stock losses contained by closing bell
Athinon Avenue started the week’s final session with a considerable drop in what has been the second straight week of decline for its benchmark, and saw turnover shrink further on Friday. However, it still managed to cover most of the ground lost over the course of the day to close with contained losses thanks to some of its blue chips.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1235721/athex-stock-losses-contained-by-closing-bell
SUNDAY PAPERS
KATHIMERINI: Femicides in Greece: “We do not want to write any report about another victim”
TO VIMA: 107 policemen are still working despite being convicted by courts
REAL NEWS: Greece police to be re-established
PROTO THEMA: One femicide every 45 minutes
AVGI: No more lies about scandals, price hikes and the deep state
MONDAY PAPERS:
TA NEA: Real estate ENFIA tax: How to correct it
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: The government’s shiny bubble
KONTRA NEWS: Non-stop scaremongering and fake dilemmas by Mitsotakis ahead of the EU elections
DIMOKRATIA: Colossal scandal regarding recycling kiosks
NAFTEMPORIKI: The 5 thorns of the digital work card
UKRAINE TRADE RESTRICTIONS
THROWING UKRAINE UNDER THE TRACTOR, PART 2: Negotiators from the Parliament and the Belgian Council presidency meet today for more talks on capping agricultural imports from Ukraine — after Poland and France decided the last compromise didn’t go far enough.
All hawks now: The Council’s view has essentially converged with Parliament’s, with countries agreeing to a harsher cap, my colleagues Bartosz Brzeziński and Camille Gijs report this morning. Reminder: In a plenary vote last month, the Parliament adopted an initiative by the European People’s Party — which likes to present itself as pro-Ukraine — to tighten import restrictions and extend them to more products, including grain.
Copa-Cogeca’s trick: It’s a win for powerful farm lobby Copa-Cogeca, which convinced lawmakers to partially row back on Ukraine’s trade liberalization, introduced following Russia’s full-scale invasion. But while the result is great for the lobby shop and its members, it is bad not just for Ukraine, which relies on income from agricultural exports, but also for EU citizens who will face higher food prices due to less competition and supply.
Parliament divided: The European Parliament is still not unified behind a position. While the two largest groups, the EPP and the Socialists & Democrats, are ready to sign off on the additional restrictions, others including Renew Europe and the Greens want to stick with the original compromise.
What happens today: The talks are scheduled to start at 4 p.m., with a meeting of European ambassadors slated for 7 p.m. to sign off on the outcome of the negotiations.
EUROPE’S ARMENIA PLAN
EU TO STEP UP IN SOUTH CAUCASUS: The EU on Friday announced it would weigh into a tense conflict in Russia’s self-declared sphere of influence, pledging more than a quarter of a billion euros for Armenia — a tiny democracy trying to cut its historically close ties with Moscow, my colleague Gabriel Gavin reports.
Helping hand: The cash, announced after a trilateral meeting in Brussels between Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, will go toward boosting Yerevan’s “resilience” and helping it transition away from dependency on Moscow.
Putin’s own goal: Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Armenia has effectively frozen its membership of Russia’s military alliance, begun sending humanitarian aid to Kyiv and even hinted it could one day try to join the EU itself.
Tough neighborhood: However, despite efforts by European Council President Charles Michel and even the deployment of an EU border monitoring mission, the simmering standoff between Armenia and neighboring Azerbaijan shows no sign of easing up. Hours after the cash was announced, clashes were reported along the shared border, with Azerbaijan and Russia accusing the West of intruding in the region. Later on Saturday, the EU’s civilian monitoring mission on the border reported that the situation was “stable and calm.”
Conflict on the cards? Documents shared with EU and U.S. diplomats ahead of the talks by the Armenian side purport to show Azerbaijan receiving large numbers of weapons deliveries since the start of the year. They fear that could be the buildup to yet another bloody war between the two countries — not even a year since the last one, which saw Azerbaijan take full control of the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, sparking the mass exodus of its 100,000 Armenian residents.
EUROSKEPTIC-VISION
BOOST FOR FICO IN SLOVAKIA: Peter Pellegrini, an ally of Putin-friendly PM Robert Fico, won Slovakia’s presidential election on Saturday, cementing the prime minister’s anti-Ukraine stance. Pellegrini’s victory is the latest indication of support for right-wing parties ahead of June’s European election. Full story by Tom Nicholson.
MASSIVE ANTI-ORBÁN PROTESTS IN BUDAPEST: Thousands turned out in the Hungarian capital Saturday for a rally organized by Péter Magyar, the former Fidesz insider who has become a vocal opponent of Viktor Orbán’s regime. Magyar, who is best known as the ex-husband of former Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga, has challenged Orbán to a public TV debate ahead of the EU election.
ORBÁN’S PLAN FOR EUROPE: In this week’s POLITICO print cover story, Suzanne Lynch analyzes Orbán’s efforts to shape the EU, as Hungary prepares to assume the six-month presidency of the Council this July.
Game-plan: With Britain out of the picture, people close to Orbán say Hungary is one of the last defenders of “sovereignty” in the EU. But the EU faces a new type of Euroskeptic in the Hungarian leader — one who doesn’t want to leave the bloc but instead change it from within. As Orbán declared last month at a rally: “We want to occupy Brussels.”
Putting a hand out: Budapest has been funnelling a steady stream of money into think tanks and projects meant to promote Orbán’s style of right-wing ideology. But despite finding cash for these pet projects, Budapest has simultaneously complained it badly needs more EU funds. Read Suzanne’s story in full.
PIS MAKES GAINS IN POLISH LOCAL ELECTIONS: Law and Justice (PiS) bounced back from its October defeat in Poland’s national election to take first place in the country’s regional vote, according to an exit poll. But the liberal-left coalition of Prime Minister Donald Tusk will still run the show in most of the 16 regions, reports Wojciech Kość.
**Join us live on April 10 as POLITICO’s Research & Analysis experts deep dive into how the EU’s net-zero ambitions have shaped digital, industry and sustainability policy. Register here.**
MORE RUSSIA-UKRAINE
PEACE SUMMIT DATE: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in remarks broadcast on Saturday that he hoped he and Swiss President Viola Amherd would set a date within days for a world peace summit in Switzerland. The summit, with 80 to 100 countries, but without Russia, is meant to garner support for Zelenskyy’s peace plan.
First step before talks with Russia? In a CNN interview Sunday, Finland’s President Alexander Stubb said the peace summit would need to be followed at some point by talks with Russia. “Peace has to be two-sided. It’s not only a one-way track. You need the tracks to meet at some stage. But when the conditions for that are suitable I don’t know,” said Stubb.
Stubb on NATO: Asked during the same interview whether NATO would survive a second Donald Trump presidency, Stubb was optimistic. Trump is a “transactionalist and what he’s trying to do is to push European states to increase their defense expenditure to 2 percent,” he said. “I think it is very useful for the United States to be a … core member of the alliance, especially if and when the United States wants to remain one of the biggest players in the world.”
Now read this: Putin recently threatened to station troops near Russia’s border with Finland in response to the country’s decision to join NATO. But Russia doesn’t have enough soldiers to follow through, writes Elisabeth Braw, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council.
ARMING UKRAINE: Since Russia’s war in Ukraine began, the French government has urged companies to produce more weapons, faster and cheaper. My colleague Laura Kayali visited a Thales factory south of Paris, which is trying to double production of Ground Master air surveillance radars — and found the goal is complicated by reality. Read her dispatch here.
INVESTMENT CALL: Maksym Timchenko, the CEO of Ukraine’s largest private energy firm DTEK, told my colleague Victor Jack his company wants to build an energy network that can better survive Russian attacks — but can’t get the capital to do so.
MEANWHILE, LAVROV IN CHINA: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has arrived in Beijing for a two-day visit, for talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi at which he’s expected to discuss the war in Ukraine.
VDL’S CAMPAIGN TEAM TAKING SHAPE
SEIBERT TAPPED: Ursula von der Leyen’s chief of staff, Bjoern Seibert, has taken a leave of absence to start his new role today as her campaign manager, as she seeks a second term in the Berlaymont.
Anthony Whelan, von der Leyen’s adviser on tech and digital policy, will be acting head of Cabinet during Seibert’s leave.
Seibert’s new role: He’ll lead a campaign team, which also includes new appointee Alexander Winterstein (previously of DG Competition) as chief spokesperson. Seibert will manage a campaign budget of €5.27 million allocated by the European People’s Party. More details by Eddy Wax and Pierre Emmanuel Ngendakumana.
Quashing rumors: Amid persistent rumors among EU diplomats that Seibert may not stay on as von der Leyen’s chief of staff for a second term, the news prompted questions as to whether he planned to return to his old job at all. But the Commission stressed in its announcement that Seibert’s leave is “temporary” and “is scheduled to end on 9 June,” after which “he will resume his current role as of 10 June.”
IN OTHER NEWS
FRONTEX PROBE: Europe’s border agency Frontex awarded a contract to a Polish travel agency despite knowing it was under investigation by the EU’s anti-fraud agency — until its Executive Director Hans Leijtens broke off the deal, Nick Vinocur and Tim Röhn report.
PANDEMIC CASH SPLASH GOES UNSPENT: EU countries have received less than a third of the €723 billion pot to help boost post-Covid economic recovery and are now heaping pressure on the Commission to cut red tape and speed up payments, Gregorio Sorgi reports.
MACRON’S RWANDA FLIP: Emmanuel Macron was over the weekend expected to declare that France “could have stopped the genocide” in Rwanda “with its occidental and African allies, but did not have the will” to do, according to a briefing by the Elysée last week. But eyebrows are being raised after the statement Macron gave on Sunday didn’t include the anticipated line, reported Radio France Internationale.
RAFAH WATCH: Israeli troops are being withdrawn from Khan Younis to prepare for a new offensive into Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Israel’s defense minister announced Sunday.
BRAZIL VS. MUSK: A Brazilian Supreme Court judge included Elon Musk as a target in an ongoing fake news investigation and opened a separate probe into the tech exec for alleged obstruction. The move came after Musk said he would defy court orders and lift restrictions imposed on some X accounts in Brazil. AP has the details.