PM Mitsotakis in Brussels: The need to upgrade EU’s defense capabilities is unquestionable
The need to upgrade the European Union’s defense capabilities is unquestionable, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said during the European Council discussion on European defense strategy and industry, sources said on Thursday.
Some 87 SYRIZA deputies and Central Committee members call for emergency convening of party organs
A total of 87 SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance deputies and members of the Central Committee called for the immediate convening of party organs, in a letter to party leader Stefanos Kasselakis on Thursday. In their letter, the main opposition members noted that SYRIZA has lost strength and that “the great majority of society does not see an alternative progressive proposal.”
Androulakis calls for more EU transparency, solidarity and an ‘investment repatriation’ fund
Opposition PASOK-KINAL leader Nikos Androulakis on Thursday participated in a Party of European Socialists (PES) pre-summit meeting. In a statement, he noted that “in the last five years, the European Union had undergone major ordeals: the pandemic, the energy crisis, inflation, the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East,” while adding that “these must make us wiser and we must choose people with competence for European institutions, such as the former prime minister of Portugal, Antonio Costa.”
Athens Mayor Doukas to unveil his plan for country on Sunday
Athens Mayor Haris Doukas stated in an interview with ANT1 TV channel on Thursday that he will announce his plan for the country at PASOK’s central committee, on Sunday .
ATHEX: Stock index seems to have bottomed out
For a third day in a row the main index of the Greek stock market recorded losses on Thursday, but the defense line at the 1,400-point level held and it appears prices at Athinon Avenue are about to rebound on Friday as things stand. The local market appears oversold in the short term and a rebound now seems to be due, assisted by several corporate developments as well.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1242572/athex-stock-index-seems-to-have-bottomed-out
KATHIMERINI: Yet another civil war within SYRIZA ante portas
TA NEA: Terrorist attack against the President of the Supreme Court: What is going on, anyhow?
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: Thieving increases in ferry ticket prices
RIZOSPASTIS: New mammoth package for the war plans of the USA-NATO-EU
KONTRA NEWS: After the MPs, former PM Samaras will also deal a blow to the PM
DIMOKRATIA: New Democracy leader Mitsotakis did not get the message…
NAFTEMPORIKI: The paradoxes regarding those with debts to the tax-office
WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING: There’s no other way to say it: Joe Biden bombed in his debate with his Republican challenger for the U.S. presidency Donald Trump. The Democrats are freaking out, our Stateside colleagues report — so much so, they’re discussing replacing him. Full analysis by POLITICO’s Global Editor-in-Chief John Harris below.
IT’S FRIDAY. Last night around 11 p.m. EU leaders agreed to nominate Ursula von der Leyen for a second term as European Commission president, confirmed former Portuguese PM António Costa will be the European Council president until at least June 2027, and appointed Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas the high representative for foreign affairs.
YOU THOUGHT IT WAS THAT EASY? Costa is in. But for von der Leyen and Kallas, it ain’t over.
DRIVING THE DAY
VDL CLOSES IN ON 10-YEAR REIGN: Ursulavon der Leyen leaped closer to clinching a second five-year term at the helm of the EU’s most powerful institution last night. But a few rogue MEPs could destroy it all. More on that below.
Straight down the middle: With war and political instability from Ukraine to France, the EU’s national leaders went for the safe option, choosing three experienced politicians from the three centrist political families to head the main EU institutions. They reached the deal quickly, scuppering the need for a second day of summitry.
Meloni snaps: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni voted against both Kallas as foreign affairs chief and Costa as Council president. She abstained from the vote on von der Leyen, despite attempts to woo her earlier in the day from the likes of Poland’s Donald Tusk and Germany’s Olaf Scholz.
“Wrong in method and substance,” Meloni said of the final deal. Bristling at being excluded, something fundamental in Meloni’s relationship with Brussels seems to have snapped — and we could be feeling the political consequences for years to come.
361 or bust: Von der Leyen now needs just over half the members of the European Parliament to formally elect her. If Meloni’s 24 Brothers of Italy MEPs follow their leader and abstain, it will certainly make things trickier. Scholz said last night he was “quite confident” von der Leyen could get elected without Meloni’s votes. Playbook wonders if he assumes she’ll open up to the Greens, who are part of Scholz’s own governing coalition in Germany.
Ursula’s options: Von der Leyen faces a stark choice as she begins to hawk her policy plan, aka the “political guidelines,” around the Parliament: look right to Meloni’s ECR and face the Socialists’ wrath, or look left to the Greens and lose votes from her own EPP. “For those who are critical or have questions, my duty is to get in contact with them,” von der Leyen said at a press conference after midnight.
3-week countdown: “I will work with the whole Parliament,” von der Leyen said, adding she will reach out to MEPs outside the three-party centrist coalition, which would only give her a relatively slim majority. Here’s my primer on what happens next, up to and beyond the crucial July 18 vote on von der Leyen in Strasbourg.
WILL BRUSSELS PUNISH ROME? Meloni played down that prospect as she left the summit: “Italy will clearly be given what it deserves not on the basis of the sympathy for the positions expressed by the government but for the role of Italy, for the weight of Italy, for the fact that it is a founding country, for the fact that it is the third European economy,” she said. But that’s not the prevailing view.
She punished herself: “No one said it, but this has created damage. This is not good,” one person in the room during the summit told my colleague Barbara Moens. An EU diplomat said Meloni diminished herself because “she did not apply the simplest political skill: vote counting. This can have a serious impact on the relationship Brussels-Rome.”
COSTA COASTS: Costa, meanwhile, is home and dry — he doesn’t require further confirmation by anyone in Brussels. He’ll be the first Council president who is a socialist, from the south and of color.
Back home in Portugal, Costa remains the subject of an ongoing investigation linked to an influence-peddling probe. He has not been charged with anything, but will he be formally cleared before he assumes the Council presidency December 1?
Lisbon, we have a (tech) problem: Costa was supposed to join the final EUCO press conference virtually to celebrate his endorsement as the next Council president, but the connection initially failed to work, only for Costa to pop up unnoticed on a screen behind journalists, providing one of the images of the night. Belgian PM Alexander De Croo struggled to keep a straight face.
KALLAS STATUS: The incoming foreign affairs chief needs to convince MEPs in a parliamentary hearing that she’s up to the task and fluent in geopolitics stretching beyond Russia’s war. MEPs will vote on her candidacy as part of the full College of Commissioners package this fall.
DE CROO JABS ORBÁN: Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo fired a snarky parting shot at Viktor Orbán as he handed over the Council presidency baton to the Hungarians. “The presidency does not mean that you’re the boss of Europe,” De Croo said. “Being the one to make the compromise is an interesting position to be in at least once in your life, so I can definitely recommend it to Mr. Orbán.”
RUTTE WILL MISS EUCO: The outgoing Dutch PM, who has attended over a hundred European Council meetings, said he will miss the summits and his fellow leaders, describing them as a “self-help group,” Seb Starcevic writes in to say.
Orbán won’t miss him: Hungary’s PM was somewhat less sentimental when asked whether he would miss Rutte at future European Councils, telling a reporter with a smirk that it “would be an exaggeration.” The two have longstanding beef, with Orbán even claiming in 2020 that Rutte “hates me.”
WHAT ELSE HAPPENED? Before discussing the EU’s top jobs, the leaders haggled over other gnarly topics. Paris and Berlin pissed everyone off by presenting a wide range of proposed changes (seen by POLITICO) to the strategic agenda, essentially a mood board EU leaders compile every five years to guide the incoming European Commission in Brussels.
It caused a “revolution,” one EU diplomat said, with the Greek, Italian and other prime ministers lambasting the duo’s proposed method. Eventually, the strategic agenda was approved with only one small tweak on defense. Leaders also wrestled over language on the Middle East, with Austria and others arguing the text went too far in the recognition of a Palestinian state. Relive it all via the live blog.
IT’S NOT THAT LIGHT AT 11 P.M.: Sweden’s EU Minister Jessika Roswall clearly pre-recorded her video congratulating von der Leyen, Costa and Kallas hours before the 11 p.m. deal.
Wild Strawberries: Roswallhanded out strawberries to Swedish correspondents. Sweetening them up for her bid to become a commissioner, perhaps? In case you were wondering, toppjobben is Swedish for top jobs.
NOW HEAR THIS: This week’s EU Confidential was recorded just hours ago, in the immediate aftermath of the EUCO summit. POLITICO’s Aitor Hernández-Morales and Barbara Moens join host Sarah Wheaton to consider the top jobs decision and plot out von der Leyen’s path to victory in the Parliament. From Paris, Clea Caulcutt has an update on France’s snap election. Listen here.
FUTURE COMMISSIONERS
MACRON BACKS BRETON — BUT DOES IT COUNT? A month ago, French President Emmanuel Macron backing Thierry Breton for another Commission term would have all-but guaranteed him the job. Now that’s not so certain. On his way out of the summit, Macron refused to comment on whether he — or France’s next (quite possibly far-right) prime minister — has the power to put forward a candidate. But he did endorse Breton — “he has the experience and the qualities for the job” — confirming earlier reporting in French media and POLITICO.
“How arrogant!” That’s what Macron had to say about National Rally suggesting it should get to nominate the next commissioner if it wins the snap election.
THE NEXT COMMISSION WILL BE A SAUSAGE FEST: Breton, Maroš Šefčovič, Valdis Dombrovskis, Michael McGrath, Tomaž Vesel … it’s already looking like many of the most likely next EU commissioners are men. Yet it’s highly probable von der Leyen will ask national capitals to send two names, like she did in 2019: one man, one woman.
Ireland won’t name a woman: “Respectfully and in accordance with the treaties, we have taken a decision to send one name,” Taoiseach Simon Harris said Thursday, arguing that lining up Finance Minister McGrath was enough hassle to justify sticking to one name.
Will Denmark? Rumors were flying around the press room that Danish PM Mette Frederiksen — who missed out on a top job she always said she didn’t want — could send herself to Brussels. At least it would mean a woman in the College, alongside other dead certs such as Spain’s Teresa Ribera, and of course Kallas and von der Leyen.
SCHMIT OR HANSEN? TheSocialists’ Spitzenkandidat Nicolas Schmit is still in the picture to be Luxembourg’s next commissioner, despite the fact his government back home is EPP-led, and Christophe Hansen would appear the obvious pick.
Nic’s pitch: “This is not a domestic issue. This is not just about small-party politics. This is about how finally Europe becomes more European, and that there is a European political dimension,” he said.
PARLIAMENT POWER GAMES
MELONI’S POWER TEETERS: WhileGiorgia Meloni was flexing her muscles in the Council, her hard-right alliance in the European Parliament was teetering. Former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told Playbook he was “50/50” about ditching Meloni to form a new grouping of central-eastern European parties, ranging from Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz and Andrej Babiš’ ANO to Janez Janša’s SDS.
“We are tempted in both directions,” Morawiecki told me in the Parliament’s Mickey Mouse café. When doorstepped leaving an EPP summit, Janša didn’t rule out that he was in talks to quit the center-right, saying: “We are in talks with everybody.” (One of his own MEPs called it fake news.)
Hungarians keen: Balázs Orbán, Viktor Orbán’s political director, told reporters at the summit that the “Hungarian goal” was still to align the far right in one giant group — but he conceded that’s not working because Meloni and France’s Marine Le Pen won’t collaborate. He promised announcements about a potential new group before July 4.
What are Brothers of Italy saying publicly? Niente.
Like herding cats — The far-right group that wasn’t: A potential new far-right “Sovereignists” group featuring the Alternative for Germany — as first revealed in Playbook — was meant to have its first meeting in the European Parliament Thursday, Spiegel reported. That didn’t happen, according to five sources Playbook spoke to.
PARLIAMENT THREATENS TOUGH COMMISSIONER GRILLINGS: Parliament’s frying pan for wannabe commissioners is already sizzling, President Roberta Metsola warned. At a press conference on Thursday, Metsola pushed back at recent criticism from the Council of the EU that the Parliament’s impending internal rule changes — aimed in part to toughen up incoming commissioners’ hearings — are a power grab that will throw the EU’s delicate institutional balance off kilter.
It’s on! Parliament vs. Council: EU ministers have balked at Parliament’s incoming reforms, which also command the Commission president to present their plans for all commissioners’ portfolios much earlier in the piece (as reported by La Matinale Européenne and MLex’s Jean Comte).
Brave to say that at EUCO: “The aim precisely of this reform is rather than increase the imbalance, [to] correct the imbalance that there currently is between the co-legislators,” Metsola said. “The Parliament is certainly able and independent enough to reform itself,” she added. “There will be a very effective commissioner hearing process.”
ASSISTANTS FEAR EXCLUSION: Parliament assistants are outraged over plans they say could exclude them from political negotiations on legislation with the other EU institutions. “Excluding us would result in a loss of expertise and knowledge during negotiations, ultimately weakening the Parliament’s position,” a committee representing assistants wrote in an email Thursday, seen by Playbook.
Background: Assistants don’t have a legal guarantee to sit in on negotiations but can attend trilogues. They’re worried that’s about to change with an ongoing reform in this code of conduct, which explicitly allows for only one political adviser to join MEPs in the talks. They want legal certainty that all relevant staffers can attend with their MEPs. “This is a matter of principle and respect,” Tara Hadviger, chair of the APA committee, told Playbook.
CLEGG BLOGS: Former U.K. deputy PM turned Meta lobbyist Nick Clegg is blogging about the new European Parliament here.
US PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
TRUMP LOOMS LARGE: As Europeans slept, Americans watched — often with cringing discomfort — the 2024 presidential contest get shaken to its core. No point in hedging: The televised debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was a disaster for the incumbent, POLITICO’s Global Editor-in-Chief John Harris emails in to report. A second Trump term has never looked more plausible.
Biden’s halting, meandering performance — his words delivered in a hoarse, faint voice that occasionally wandered into incoherence — sparked immediate speculation that Democrats might yet coax Biden to reconsider his reelection plans and open the way to an open convention to find a new nominee. For now, that’s still a fanciful scenario.
But here is the unmistakable reality: On a night when the 81-year-old Biden’s principal aim was to quiet doubts about his physical and mental command and his ability to wage a winning fight against Trump, he achieved the exact opposite.
Here in our Washington newsroom, reporters were hearing in real-time from Democratic sources bemoaning Biden’s performance. We heard also from several European diplomatic sources with a common message: We may not like what Trump says, but at least we can understand what he says.
Make no mistake, by any conventional standard of debating, Trump himself was hardly a model of coherence. He was a firehouse of insults, unsupported assertions, and sentence fragments that didn’t quite parse. There is no question, however, that he won the stylistic contest. Only three years younger than Biden, he was far more animated and seemingly at ease.
From a European perspective, Ukraine was the most prominent issue. Biden spoke of his campaign to unite the West in opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion, and taunted Trump, “This is a guy who wants to pull out of NATO.” Trump seemed unfazed, saying Biden’s bungled withdrawal from Afghanistan invited Putin’s aggression and said the invasion would never have happened if he was in office: “He knew not to play games with me.”
The debate was also a historical milestone: Surely the most juvenile, least edifying presidential debate of the modern era. Both candidates called each other criminals, with Biden noting accurately that only one candidate was “a convicted felon,” clashed over whether Trump had or had not slept with a porn star, and snarled not at all playfully at each other over who was the better golfer. Trump has “the morals of an alley cat,” Biden said.
From Biden’s perspective, his only hope is that public attitudes about both men are so fixed that even a pitiful performance has no real effect on the race. Few Democrats we spoke to in Washington and state capitals are very confident of that.
OTHER NEWS
FRANCE VOTES: Voters cast their ballots in the first round of what could be one of the most important legislative elections in France’s modern history this Sunday. Our team in Paris will have the results and key takeaways in a rolling live blog starting Sunday at 5 p.m.
While you wait, read this: Marine Le Pen is seeking to reshape France’s strategic direction, sparking intense debate and concern among EU and NATO allies, Clea Caulcutt reports.
CHIEF PROSECUTOR RAPS COMMISSION: Laura Codruța Kövesi, the chief EU prosecutor, blasted the Commission for labeling her European Public Prosecutor’s Office a “decentralized agency,” according to a speech she gave last night, Elisa Braün writes in to report.
Why so furious? In functional democracies, prosecutors are meant to be independent from executive power. Decentralized agencies, meanwhile, are under the responsibility and thus control of the EU executive power. The Commission’s designation implies Kövesi is on a leash.
Go back to law school: Not understanding basics like the separation of powers when you’re supposed to be the guardians of the EU treaties is awks. “If a different interpretation were possible, we would have a real issue with rule of law in the EU,” Kövesi said.
CHINA’S MILITARY GETTING EU FUNDING? A group of Chinese universities with military ties known as the “Seven Sons of National Defense” are involved in EU-funded research projects, POLITICO’s Pieter Haeck reports.
CALLS FOR NEW EU MEDIA PLATFORM: The Council for European Public Space think tank called for a European media platform financed by EU institutions to battle disinformation at an event on Thursday hosted by MEP Christian Ehler.
WHOOPS! SAMSON ADMITS ERROR IN TAKING GAS JOB: Diederik Samsom, a former powerful aide of ex-Commissioner Frans Timmermans, admitted he breached EU ethics rules for former officials when he took a new job for a major gas network operator. Karl Mathiesen and Sarah Wheaton have the story.