Disagreement over Greek marine park plan resurfaces
Remarks made by Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis and his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan have highlighted the ongoing disagreement between the two Aegean rivals over Greece’s plan to create a marine park in the Aegean Sea.
Greece makes strides in good governance index
An annual report that tracks good governance has found that Greece has improved the most internationally since the index was launched in 2021 but still remains a laggard when it comes to financial stewardship.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/politics/1238701/greece-makes-strides-in-good-governance-index
Cheap rates for electricity set to shift
The Ministry of Environment and Energy is considering scenarios shifting the night electricity tariff to midday hours, so as to deal with the twin problem of green energy cuts and zero and negative prices that is developing structurally, as demand does not follow the growing penetration of renewable energy sources.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1238782/cheap-rates-for-electricity-set-to-shift
Inflation stands at 3.1% in April, ELSTAT says
Inflation stood at 3.1% in April compared to 3.2% in March and compared to a 3% in April 2023, the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) said on Tuesday.
https://www.amna.gr/en/article/818496/Inflation-stands-at-31-in-April–ELSTAT-says
ATHEX: Benchmark yields some more ground
The Greek stock market followed a mildly downward course on Tuesday, closing with moderate losses, as its benchmark tried to consolidate itself at the new highs it conquered last week. This, in turn, is a week that is dominated by the corporate results of listed companies, including some blue chips, for the first quarter of the year.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1238754/athex-benchmark-yields-some-more-ground
KATHIMERINI: Postal votes from Chios island to Papua New Guinea
TA NEA: Real estate assets’ objective values are being reduced in certain areas
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: Tempi fatal railway crash: Corruption killed 57 persons
AVGI: Development Minister Skrekas’ measures against inflation are worthless
RIZOSPASTIS: Guideline-bill on Greece’s deeper integration in NATO’s war plans
KONTRA NEWS: Voters turn away due to the government’s soft response to North Macedonia’s provocations
DIMOKRATIA: Municipality of Athens blocks licenses for new constructions until Council of State rules on new regulations
NAFTEMPORIKI: Greeks “ousted” from the housing market
EU SILENT ON GEORGIA
‘SHAMEFUL’ SILENCE: Georgia’s parliament passed the controversial foreign agents law on Tuesday, defying EU warnings that it would undermine the country’s path to joining the Union. And the reaction from the EU was … nothing.
“It’s absolutely shameful that by now the U.S. has put out a strong statement about Georgia complying with EU accession criteria and we can’t manage to put out a single word,” said an EU diplomat.
Paralysis in Brussels: EU countries and leaders reacted individually — Germany’s Annalena Baerbock, for one, posted on X that the law is “counter to Europe’s values” — but Brussels stayed mum. Or maybe it was gagged. Playbook is told the EU’s foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell had prepared a strong statement but it kept being delayed.
The cause? Viktor Orbán — Europe’s own “foreign agent.” After Hungary blocked a joint statement from the EU27, Plan B was for the commissioners in charge of foreign affairs and enlargement, Borrell and Olivér Várhelyi, to issue a warning that Georgia’s new law would push it further away from the EU. But Várhelyi, who is Hungarian, didn’t agree with the wording.
“That’s what we get for putting the fox in charge of the henhouse,” said the EU diplomat.A Commission official said last night they had “nothing to say on Commissioner Várhelyi,” adding: “We’re working to have a statement out ASAP.” As of the early hours of this morning, there was still nothing.
Meanwhile, police violence is escalating in Tbilisi: Brussels had feared the new law would precede a brutal crackdown on dissent — but violence and intimidation against the opposition is already spiking, even before it takes effect, report my colleagues Dato Parulava and Gabriel Gavin from the Georgian capital.
Brits are worried: U.K. Minister for Europe Nusrat Ghani told POLITICO the images coming out of Georgia “are very difficult to watch — it’s unnecessary force.” Ghani added that Georgia risks moving into “another space that we’re trying to help countries look away from, like Russia,” and she had made her views “robustly clear” to Georgia’s ambassador on Tuesday.
So are the Americans: Speaking to the media in Tbilisi on Tuesday, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs James O’Brien said the law “could be a turning point in what has been till now a constructive and productive partnership” between the U.S. and Georgia, though he did not specify what punitive steps the Biden administration might now take. O’Brien dismissed the ruling Georgian Dream party’s fears of a Western conspiracy to remove it from office as “like a Reddit page came to life.”
Georgia’s president says payback will come in October: President Salomé Zourabichvili, who has backed the protestors, stressed the demonstrations have remained peaceful and said there would be no attempt to overthrow the government despite the strength of feeling on the streets. “The way and the place where we can reverse all of this is the elections in October,” Zourabichvili told CNN. “That’s the European way.”
ISRAEL-HAMAS
GAZA DESTRUCTION ‘MORE COLOSSAL’ THAN HAITI QUAKE: Abdallah Al Dardari, assistant secretary general at the U.N. Development Program, said on a visit to POLITICO’s office in Brussels that the “post-apocalyptic” destruction and human suffering in Gaza is unprecedented: 37 million tons of rubble to be cleared, with thousands of bodies buried beneath, compared to 2.4 million tons in the Gaza conflict of 2014. “I am looking at our expertise in the Haiti earthquake” of 2010, Al Dardari said. “This is more colossal.”
UNDP’s role: Al Dardari described his team as doing “God’s work under the bombing” — sorting out waste and water treatment facilities, distributing medicines.
Can’t wait for a cease-fire: Al Dardari said the international community is fast realizing it can’t wait for the war to end before intervening. Initially, the political complexity meant that stakeholders in Washington, Brussels and elsewhere were reluctant to get involved too soon. Now, he said, there’s a strong conviction: “No, it’s not too early, it’s too late.”
Start now, start small: “If there’s a cease-fire tomorrow, inshallah, we are not ready,” he said. “I don’t have 5,000 portable houses ready in [the Egyptian city of] Arish to send into Gaza. What we are saying now is: ‘Please, you need to take a risk.’ Reconstruction of Gaza is a $50 billion project. We are not proposing a $50 billion project; we are proposing a $2 billion early recovery, which would be like a temporary but dignified solution for half a million people.”
Manageable sums: Al Dardari said that $2 billion of initial projects would be a “win-win” that could underpin a durable peace process in the region. He pointed out that an international donors’ conference in Kuwait raised more than $2 billion for Gaza in the past few days.
RUSSIA SANCTIONS
SCOOP — TURKEY HELPS FILL PUTIN’S WAR CHEST: Turkey has become a “pit stop” for shifting Russia’s sanctioned fuels to the EU, according to a report out today by POLITICO’s Victor Jack. The trick? Just relabel them as Turkish.
Refresher: Moscow has increasingly used creative ways to circumvent EU sanctions aimed at crushing the fuel revenues that make up almost half the Kremlin’s budget — including by relying on ships, services and insurers outside Western control and sanctions.
Merry middleman: To make this work, it relies on willing partners. Three Turkish ports alone may have raised up to €3 billion for Russia over the past year by exploiting a loophole in EU sanctions, according to data from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air and Center for the Study of Democracy think tanks, and independent reporting by POLITICO.
Turkish delight: After the EU banned Russian fuel imports last February, Turkey doubled its fuel purchases from Moscow while also increasing its fuel exports to the bloc twofold. Not all those sales to the EU were Russian —Turkish firms may have replaced some of their domestic consumption with Russian fuels — but the research suggests certain Turkish ports that have been exporting to the EU couldn’t easily have supplied their own fuels and have likely relabeled Russian fuel.
How the workaround works: The rules are that Russian fuels “blended” with those from elsewhere can enter the bloc if they arrive transformed into a new product. Crucially, the test relies on a document showing where the cargo comes from, and nothing in Brussels’ law stops Turkey from simply relabeling the shipment.
Mind the gap: With EU countries currently considering Brussels’ 14th sanctions package, one EU diplomat said it may be time to discuss tightening the rules and punishing Turkish firms helping Russia. Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna told Victor the EU must now “tighten [its] clamps.”
ROAD TO EU ELECTION
COMMISSION BRACES FOR DISINFO STORM: A wave of cheaply produced disinformation campaigns pushing Kremlin and Chinese narratives and amplified by social media is headed for the EU, Commission VP Věra Jourová warns in a note to her fellow commissioners, seen by Playbook.
The warning: “Disinformation is on the rise, cheaper to produce with artificial intelligence and more widely distributed through social media,” Jourová said. “Online messages become artificially more visible.”
EU vote targeted: The note, marked “sensitive,” warns that disinformation is expected to accelerate in the 20 days before the June election. The Commission has identified specific “narratives” that are being pushed in dedicated campaigns to undermine public trust in legacy media and election processes, the note says. Bad actors are also seeking to undermine the EU’s support for Ukraine.
‘Deepfake’ scenarios: The doc warns commissioners to be prepared for disinfo attacks that use deepfake video or audio clips to discredit candidates, knowing they won’t have enough time to debunk any false claims.
Other ‘hybrid attack scenarios’ identified in the doc: Hacking and leaking of real documents, dissemination of false ones and campaigns to incite violence against candidates.
The antidote? “There is no silver bullet here,” the note says. The best solution to disinformation is nurturing resilient populations, which involves “digital and media literacy, supporting dedicated Civil Society Organisations, and supporting strong independent media.”
River of tears: Speaking at a conference organized by the European Digital Media Observatory on Tuesday, Jourová stressed that “data shows that people who read fact-checked disinformation have a tendency not to send it further.” However, data from TikTok suggests that only 29 percent of users on that platform stopped sharing a post when they saw an “unverified content” label. “I always listen to Eric Clapton’s ‘River of Tears.’ We see rivers of dirt, and hatred and lies,” Jourová said at the conference.
IN OTHER NEWS
DANISH TOPLESS SUNBATHERS CRASH VDL’S PHOTO OP: Ahead of Ursula von der Leyen’s appearance Tuesday at the Copenhagen Democracy Summit, the organizers asked photographers to keep out of the frame the (many) topless sunbathers in the background as the Commission chief walked into the building, our colleague Mark Scott writes in to report.
EU TOP JOBS CHATTER: As speculation intensifies about who’s in the running for top jobs after next month’s EU election, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen appeared to rule herself out of the race to succeed Charles Michel as European Council president. “No, I’m the Danish prime minister,” she told a swarm of journalists on arrival to the Copenhagen summit on Tuesday. More from Copenhagen in today’s Global Playbook.
WHAT’S NEXT IN EU’S TRADE SPAT WITH CHINA? Car chips, reports Pieter Haeck. The EU is widening its focus from high-tech to low-tech microchips as it fears a fresh challenge from Chinese subsidized firms to supply the electric vehicle boom.
GERMANY MULLS CONSCRIPTION (AGAIN): Germany scrapped the draft in 2011, but Russia’s war in Ukraine is forcing a rethink, reports POLITICO’s Joshua Posaner.
UK AND JAPAN VS. THE AUTOCRATS: Its autocratic nuclear enemies, the possible return of Donald Trump to the White House and Brexit have driven Japan and Britain together, reports POLITICO’s Emilio Casalicchio.