House approves same-sex marriage bill
Greece’s 300-member Parliament approved the bill granting same-sex couples equal rights in marriage in a roll call vote on Thursday night. The reform extends full parental rights to gay couples but will not allow for medically assisted reproduction through a surrogate.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/news/1231843/house-approves-same-sex-marriage-bill/
Farmers decide to hold a tractor rally in Athens
Charging that the government “did not scrape the bottom of the barrel as it had promised,” farmers on Thursday voted during a nationwide meeting in Nikaia in Larissa to continue their mobilizations and to descend on Athens on Tuesday with their tractors to hold a large-scale rally.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/news/1231814/tractorcade-to-head-to-athens-on-tuesday/
Greek inflation rate slowed to 3.1% in January
The Greek annual inflation rate slowed to 3.1% in January from 3.5% in December 2023 and 7% in January 2023, Hellenic Statistical Authority said on Thursday.
https://www.amna.gr/en/article/797309/Greek-inflation-rate-slowed-to-31-in-January
Greek prime minister meets with visiting Vodafone CEO to discuss further investments
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met at Maximos Mansion with visiting CEO of Vodafone Group Margherita Della Valle on Thursday and discussed the company’s investments in Greece as well as expanding collaboration.
ATHEX: Mixed day sees stock index slip
The Greek bourse had a mixed session on Thursday, with stocks almost split between gainers and losers, the benchmark posting a minor loss despite spending the first few hours in the black, and mid-caps showing growth. Coca-Cola HBC stood out for a second day in a row, following its impressive 2023 results.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1231821/athex-mixed-day-sees-stock-index-slip/
KATHIMERINI: Same-sex marriage bill: 176 “yes” with cracks in parties
TA NEA: Same-sex marriage bill: winners and losers
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: Same-sex marriage bill: Victory for human rights – “Civil war” within the Right
AVGI: Same-sex marriage bill: Historic step with the votes of SYRIZA
RIZOSPASTIS: Farmers escalate their protests: Tractorcade in Athens on Tuesday
KONTRA NEWS: Farmers to rally in Athens on Tuesday
DIMOKRATIA: 107 New Democracy MPs voted in favor of demolishing the family institution
NAFTEMPORIKI: Industry under pressure due to price hikes
DRIVING THE DAY
UKRAINE AND TRUMP LOOM OVER MUNICH: Western powers will do their best to project confidence and transatlantic unity today as top United States and EU officials converge at the Munich Security Conference, days after former President Donald Trump threatened to abandon low-spending NATO allies and as Ukraine faces a critical battlefield situation in the eastern city of Avdiivka.
Big guns: The EU is sending Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, as well as several European commissioners to Munich. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will attend alongside other leaders, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is also expected at the conference.
Security agreements: Ahead of his trip to Munich, Zelenskyy will also head to Paris to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron — who’s skipping Munich — and to sign a bilateral security agreement between France and Ukraine.
And in news breaking this morning … Zelenskyy is set to do the same in Germany. A German government spokesperson said the Ukrainian president will meet Scholz in Berlin, where the two will sign a bilateral security agreement.
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Back in Munich: On the U.S. side, Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, among others, are all expected to do their best to convince the conference crowd that the U.S. remains a steadfast NATO ally and supporter of Ukraine, despite Trump’s vows to the contrary.
What to keep an eye on: Von der Leyen will be giving a press conference late morning with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg — full agenda details below. And make sure you subscribe to POLITICO’s Global Playbook by my top colleague Suzanne Lynch, who’s reporting from Munich and will bring you the very latest.
Back to business: Behind the show of strength we are likely to see at the conference, the struggle is real. Trump’s comments sent shockwaves through Europe, as the team from our EU Confidential podcast unpack this week.
Lipstick, meet pig: Try as they might, U.S. administration officials cannot guarantee Trump won’t neuter NATO if reelected president in November. Nor can they promise that U.S. aid for Ukraine, blocked by Republicans in Congress, will ever be released.
Can’t hide this: Europeans can tout the fact they have overtaken the U.S. in overall financial support for Ukraine, with a €50 billion package agreed earlier this month. But their efforts to help Ukraine militarily are falling short. Battlefield commanders in the strategic town of Avdiivka report that the situation is “critical” as Russian forces pound the stronghold amid a severe shortage of ammunition for Ukraine.
Where it counts: While Brussels is abuzz with talk about rearming, the bloc is falling short on its commitment to deliver ammo to Ukraine. That’s partly by choice.
FRANCE DIGS IN ON ‘BUY EUROPEAN’: While the bloc ramps up shell production, it could seek to alleviate Ukraine’s immediate shortage by using EU money to jointly purchase ammo on the global market.
Non: Yet, according to three EU diplomats, a small group of countries led by France is blocking attempts to use EU money for buying shells from outside of the bloc. The reason? European arms manufacturers need orders to justify ramping up their production.
How it went down: Earlier this week at a meeting of the Political and Security Committee, a majority of EU countries was in favor of allowing EU money to be used to buy non-EU produced shells as an emergency measure to help Ukraine, the diplomats told Playbook. But France, Greece and Cyprus opposed the effort, the diplomats said.
Receipts: That’s despite a senior French official telling my Paris colleagues late last month that France would allow non-EU purchases if the bloc missed its target of delivering 1 million shells to Ukraine by March — which it will.
Looking at you: France also won’t reveal the total amount in euros of its contributions to Ukraine, despite pressure from Germany (most countries have shown their cards).
Priorities: Paris has at times led the pack in supporting Ukraine, sending SCALP missiles even as Berlin balks at sending Tauruses. But by making immediate support for Ukraine secondary to the aim of building up the EU arms industry, France opens itself to accusations of cold-heartedness.
NOW READ THIS 1: It’s time for the EU to subsidize countries’ defense spending, Ursula von der Leyen told the FT in an interview. “We have to spend more, we have to spend better, we have to spend European,” the Commission president said. “We have a very fragmented defence market and that needs to change,” she continued. “What is the competence of the Commission? It’s industry. This is our core business. We are an enabler, not a buyer.”
Giving tanks: “We should work with incentives so that it is better for member states to work together. Say you want a new tank? Well, huddle up!” von der Leyen said.
NOW READ THIS 2 — TECH REVOLUTION IN MUNICH: Antoaneta Roussi and Joshua Posaner report on the revolution underway in the defense industry, driven by war in Ukraine and tighter integration with civilian technology. In Munich, tech CEOs will schmooze with arms-makers and military brass — and all will have to get to grips with the new techno-military industrial complex. Read more here.
FAR RIGHT IN PARLIAMENT
LE PEN’S PLAN TO DISRUPT EU INTEGRATION, GREEN DEAL: Marine Le Pen’s National Rally isn’t known for its deep engagement with EU affairs. But with polls showing her camp scooping up more than 30 percent of the French vote in the upcoming European Parliament election, boosting the Identity and Democracy (ID) group’s potential seat count to 89, the nationalists are formulating plans for how they might steer EU policy — or at the very least stop parts of it from happening.
Key words: Blocking minority. Rather than aspire to joining some grand right-wing coalition to reorient the EU, the National Rally sees itself forming ad-hoc alliances with like-minded peers to block specific bits of legislation, my Paris-based colleague Sarah Paillou reports here.
Top of their list: Anything that smacks of EU federalism (such as proposals for treaty change) and killing off whatever is left of the Green Deal — or as one Le Pen aide who asked not to be named called it, “punitive ecology.”
Banding together: On that front, the nationalist camp sees itself finding common cause with Manfred Weber’s European People’s Party, which tried, and nearly succeeded, to sink the so-called nature restoration law in Parliament. “The Germans like their big cars,” said the same aide, referring to the EPP chief’s nationality.
Anti-EU: Also in the nationalist right’s crosshairs: migration reforms, and any plans to enlarge the EU or deepen integration between its members. In other words, combatting the agendas of Berlin and Paris, which have both thrown their weight, albeit in different ways, behind plans to bring Ukraine and Moldova into the Union.
Russia between us: But in all of this, the chances of ID joining forces with Parliament’s other right-wing bloc, the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), are slim. As Sarah reports, the two camps would have to reconcile their opposing stances toward Russia, which ID tends to embrace and the ECR tends to reject. That’s unlikely.
MEANWHILE, OVER AT THE ECR: In a sit-down with Jacopo Barigazzi, Nicola Procaccini, co-chair of the ECR group, said he would consider the question of whether Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s party, Fidesz, could join the ECR only if a request is made. “If, and I repeat if, Fidesz will make the request to join ECR we will think about it and we will take a decision with the other delegations.”
A center-right Commission: Predicting a swing to the right in the Commission and Parliament, Procaccini touted a “common strategy” with the EPP, the body’s largest political group, in the next legislature. “I have a very frank talk daily with Manfred Weber,” he said. “We have a lot of points in common with the EPP, we have a strategy also in common.”
Right-wing dream: “If the polls are correct even in the Parliament, the next Parliament, the balance will move to the right. I think we can go back at the original idea of Europa: Something really different from the Superstate.”
DIGITAL SERVICES ACT
CLOCK TICKING FOR TECH PLATFORMS: Online platforms have less than 24 hours before the EU’s flagship content-moderation rulebook fully kicks in. As of Saturday, the Digital Services Act will start applying to platforms with fewer than 45 million European users — six months after tech giants started to face the heat with tougher rules, my POLITICO Morning Tech colleague Mathieu Pollet reports.
From Saturday, companies like Telegram, Spotify, Reddit, OnlyFans and eBay will have to swiftly remove illegal content like child sexual abuse material and dangerous products, and regularly open up about their content-moderation activities. They’ll be under the watch of national regulators where they have their European headquarters.
One problem: Only a third of those regulators were in place based on the Commission’s own data as of mid-February, paving the way for a very quiet first meeting of the European Board of Digital Services early next week.
ICYMI: POLITICO’s Mark Scott details why the landmark digital rulebook’s enforcement could get off to a bumpy start.
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DAVID CAMERON ON THE WORLD STAGE
CAMERON INVITED TO EU GATHERING: Two officials confirmed that an invitation was extended to British Foreign Secretary David Cameron to join a gathering of EU foreign ministers — but he wasn’t able to attend, Jacopo Barigazzi writes in to report.
We’re busy: According to one of the two officials, the EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell invited both Cameron and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to discuss the Middle East, possibly in person, but neither was able to attend due to agenda clashes.
Zoom in? A third Union official said Borrell had had a phone call with Cameron a couple of days ago, during which they discussed the Brit’s potential participation in the EU’s Foreign Affairs Council. Cameron “was invited to join by VTC [video-teleconference], but it was not possible for the foreign secretary to attend for agenda reasons,” the third official said. The second official said they still hoped to have Cameron join future meetings.
HE CAN WHAT? This week, Cameron urged U.S. lawmakers in an op-ed to pass Ukraine funding and not to “give in to tyrants” like Russian President Vladimir Putin, as some did during the rise of Adolf Hitler. In response, Republican congresswoman and Trump ally Marjorie Taylor Greene told the foreign secretary to “kiss my ass.” Andrew McDonald has more on the mini-spat.
HE GETS AROUND: Cameron will be appearing on a panel on Friday at the Munich Security Conference, moderated by POLITICO Europe’s editor-in-chief Jamil Anderlini. Focusing on trade and global prosperity, it will also feature Bulgarian Deputy PM Mariya Gabriel, U.S. Senator (and Olaf Scholz lookalike) Chris Coons and UNCTAD Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan.
And buckle up for this: The foreign secretary and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov are both expected at a meeting of G20 foreign ministers in Brazil next week, with one U.K. official predicting a “shouting match” between the two. Ahead of that, POLITICO’s Dan Bloom takes a look at Cameron’s recent flurry of efforts on Ukraine.
IN OTHER NEWS
GERMANY AND ROSNEFT: German leaders are facing a dire predicament over what to do about a critical fuel refinery in northeast Germany that is majority-owned by Kremlin-controlled Rosneft. Berlin faces the prospect of supply cuts and a huge payout to Russia if it moves to nationalize Rosneft’s assets. Victor Jack has the details.
COVID JAB WASTE: Italy is on the hook to buy almost 40 million Covid vaccine doses over the next two years, despite vaccinations having slowed to a crawl, Carlo Martuscelli reports.
GREEK PRIDE: Greece’s parliament voted late on Thursday to pass a landmark bill legalizing same-sex marriage. Nektaria Stamouli has more.
THE POWER OF TAYLOR SWIFT: What if European leaders were able to get the all-powerful backing of pop sensation Taylor Swift? In this week’s Declassified column, Paul Dallison reckons all of Europe’s ills would be solved if the world’s biggest pop star decided to speak out.
NOW READ: Thought you might be able to fly in an air taxi at the Paris Olympics? Too bad — the plans have flown into regulatory headwinds, Tommaso Lecca reports.