Greece to hold emergency security meeting following Middle East escalation
Greece’s top decision-making body on foreign and defense policy, KYSEA, will convene on Friday following the latest escalation in the Middle East, the government said. The meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, is scheduled for 6 p.m. local time.
FM: Recommendation to Greeks in Israel and in Iran
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued instructions to Greek citizens in Israel, following the rapid developments in the Middle East. According to the announcement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, taking into account the state of emergency declared in Israel, recommends that Greek citizens in the country remain in a safe place, near a shelter, and follow the instructions of the local authorities. Israel’s airspace is closed and there are currently no flights to and from Ben Gurion Airport.
https://www.amna.gr/en/article/910491/FM-Recommendation-to-Greeks-in-Israel-and-in-Iran
Greek, Turkish deputy FMs meet in Ankara, issue joint statement
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Türkiye, Ambassador Mehmet Kemal Bozay and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Hellenic Republic, Ambassador Alexandra Papadopoulou, held the 4th meeting of the Political Dialogue in Ankara, on 12 June 2025. The two Deputy Ministers discussed various subjects pertaining to our bilateral relations and took stock of developments since their last meeting, also in view of the preparation of the 6th High Level Cooperation Council, planned to be held in Türkiye.
https://www.amna.gr/en/article/910498/Greek–Turkish-deputy-FMs-meet-in-Ankara–issue-joint-statement
Greek citizens seeking to join Gaza March enter Egypt, sources say
The 42 Greek citizens who arrived at Cairo Airport on Thursday morning intending to join the Gaza March, and were briefly detained by Egyptian authorities, have been cleared to enter Egypt, according to diplomatic sources.
Due to yesterday’s strike of the journalists’ union there is no newspaper circulation today
DRIVING THE DAY: ISRAEL STRIKES IRAN
WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING: Israel launched what it described as “preemptive” military strikes aimed at Iran’s nuclear facilities, which also killed the country’s top three generals. The attack struck “at the heart of Iran’s nuclear weaponization program,” including its main enrichment facility in Natanz, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised address. He added that Operation Rising Lion “will continue for as many days as it takes.”
Scale of the damage: Aside from Iranian nuclear facilities, Israel targeted the country’s air defenses, missile facilities, weapons depots, labs, Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps officials and scientists, per the New York Times. Iranian state TV reported Hossein Salami, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, was among the dead.
IRAN VOWS “LETHAL” RETRIBUTION: Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on X that Israel had “prepared a bitter fate for itself.” The Iranian military, also on X, said of its plans for retaliation: “This will not be a mere demonstration of will or technological capability. This time, our response will be lethal.” Netanyahu told Israelis to prepare to remain in bomb shelters for an extended period of time.
SEEKING DISTANCE: U.S. officials rushed to declare Washington had played no role in the operation, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying in a statement that “Israel took unilateral action against Iran.” He warned: “Iran should not target U.S. interests or personnel.”
Notably missing from Rubio’s statement: The typical U.S. lines wholeheartedly defending Israel’s right to take action and reminding the world of America’s “ironclad” commitment to the country, as POLITICO’s Eric Bazail-Eimil and Nahal Toosi point out.
HOW WILL TRUMP RESPOND? The American president had earlier urged Israel to hold off on striking Iran. Instead, Washington wanted to keep pursuing talks with Tehran aimed at curbing its nuclear program, the next round of which is set to be held Sunday in Oman, Eric and Nahal write.
Trump will attend a National Security Council meeting at 5 p.m. Brussels time today.
TRANSATLANTIC RELATIONS
G7 CONFRONTS PRICE CAPS, EXISTENCE: A relatively new roster of G7 leaders will gather in the Canadian Rockies starting Sunday amid questions about the formation’s future as a strategic planning platform in the Trump era, Koen Verhelst reports.
Newbies: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney will be making their inaugural appearances at the G7 summit, which starts with informal meetings Sunday and continues through Tuesday.
Low expectations: “The best-case scenario in my mind,” said Josh Lipsky, senior director of the Geoeconomics Center at the Atlantic Council, “is that there’s no real blowups.” What already seems clear is that there will be no joint communiqué, with leaders instead convening around seven separate documents on specific topics. It shows the tension Donald Trump has cast over the meeting by slapping tariffs on his allies.
Top target: An EU-backed deal to lower the oil price cap on Russian fossil exports to $45 from $60 — but Trump is worried about the potential impact on energy prices. Morning Trade has a more extensive preview of the gathering in Kananaskis.
COSTA’S PITCH TO TRUMP: Europe has the will to step up its role in NATO and common defense, writes European Council President António Costa in an FT op-ed. But “trade conflicts and tariffs” would “undermine the very economic strength that is needed for this strategic transition.”
BRUSSELS’ PITCH TO PARIS: The European Commission is weighing a side declaration to ease French concerns and secure the approval of a long-delayed trade pact with the Mercosur trade bloc, Camille Gijs, Hans von der Burchard and Antonia Zimmermann report.
WARSAW CHINWAG: American and EU lawmakers will meet in Warsaw on Saturday and Sunday to talk trade, energy security, defense and AI, according to a program seen by Max Griera.
Making the trip from Brussels: Brando Benifei (S&D), Bernd Lange (S&D), Paulo do Nascimento Cabral (EPP), Željana Zovko (EPP), Isabel Wiseler-Lima (EPP), Mika Aaltola (EPP), Lucia Annunziata (S&D), António Tânger Corrêa (Patriots), Dominik Tarczyński (ECR), Adam Bielan (ECR) and Nikolas Farantouris (The Left).
From Capitol Hill: Five Republicans representatives and three Democrats, according to a draft list seen by POLITICO. On the Republican side: Nathaniel Moran, Joe Wilson, Victoria Spartz, Chuck Edwards and Craig Goldman. The Democrats: Jim Costa, Adam Gray and Tim Kennedy.
PARTY POLITICS
GREENS GRIEF CIRCLE: Over 40 leaders from European Green parties are meeting in Brussels today, licking their wounds and plotting a comeback. It’s been a rough year, starting with electoral losses in the 2024 European Parliament election, followed by their loss of influence in key strongholds like Germany and Austria.
From green wave to (cutting) red tape: Green policy is not as sexy as it was in 2019; simplification is the new buzzword in Brussels (more on those efforts here and also here this morning). That’s one of the issues the leaders will address, Max Griera reports, as they start shifting their narrative from regulation to “green investment.”
War over war: Leaders will also need to find a common position on Europe’s military build-up. Southern members oppose it, while the Nordics and Germans are all for it.
METSOLA WATCH: Malta Today, citing sources from Malta’s National Party, reports that European Parliament President Roberta Metsola is now floating a plan under which MP Adrian Delia would become leader of the party, while she’d take the symbolic post of chair. (Metsola dodged Playbook’s efforts to corner her at a reception Thursday, see below.)
KREMLIN INFLUENCE WATCH: Fernand Kartheiser, the rogue Luxembourg MEP who recently traveled to Moscow, emailed his 719 colleagues on Thursday to tell them he’d found “the Russian parliamentarians open to dialogue and willing to engage” on topics ranging from human rights to security, war and migration. “I propose to now organise such a remote meeting for interested MEPs,” he said. H/t Max Griera.
SCHENGEN’S MIDLIFE CRISIS
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Forty years ago, near the small Luxembourgish commune of Schengen, ministers from Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, France and the Netherlands vowed to usher in an era of seamless European travel. Since then, the Schengen zone has become the largest area of free movement in the world, covering 450 million Europeans in 29 countries.
The stat being highlighted: 2 million people commute daily across internal Schengen borders, facilitating intra-EU trade amounting to over € 4,100 billion last year (h/t the European Council press release).
The stat being swept under the rug: But as POLITICO’s Hanne Cokelaere reports, the uncomfortable truth is Schengen is facing a mid-life crisis. Eleven of the Schengen Area’s 29 countries, including Austria, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, have notified the European Commission of plans to reintroduce border controls.
It all started with Covid, when EU countries shuttered their borders to keep the virus out. With the border taboo broken, countries implemented measures to keep out migrants. Germany, citing “serious threats to public security” caused by illegal migration, imposed checks on all its borders last year. Slovenia, Italy, Austria, the Netherlands, France and Bulgaria did likewise.
The expectation: The Council of the European Union on Thursday approved a declaration to “renew its commitment to the Schengen area,” vowing that “the EU is committed to continuing to invest in a common area without internal borders, ensuring strong external border management and a high degree of internal security.”
The reality: But with centrist governments across Europe attempting to respond to surging anti-immigration sentiment and support for the far right, they’re more likely to put up (proverbial) walls than to tear them down.
NOW READ THIS: Germany’s tough-on-migration turn leaves Afghans in perilous limbo, reports Nette Nöstlinger.
ISRAEL-GAZA ECHOS
HASSAN RETURNS TO FRANCE: Franco-Palestinian MEP Rima Hassan returned to Paris on Thursday after being deported by Israeli authorities. She was detained for taking part, along with Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, in an effort to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza by sea. The left-wing parliamentarian said she was placed in solitary confinement after writing “Free Palestine” on a wall in the detention center, prompting her to begin a short hunger strike, Victor Goury-Laffont reports from Paris.
Growing prominence: Hassan, born in a Palestinian refugee camp before moving to France as a teen, has become one of the most recognizable figures in France’s pro-Palestinian movement. Several thousand people gathered at Place de la République — the French capital’s go-to spot for protests — to welcome her home, highlighting her growing profile as the humanitarian situation in Gaza takes on increasing importance in French and European politics.
RABBI CONFERENCE CANCELED IN SARAJEVO: A European Commission spokesperson said it was “regrettable” that the Conference of European Rabbis (CER) had to nix a gathering planned for next week in Bosnia and Herzegovina after the hotel it was meant to be held in canceled its reservation.
Background: CER, an organization of Orthodox Jewish religious leaders from around Europe, was planning to hold its biannual meeting starting June 16 at the Swissotel Sarajevo. On Wednesday, the group complained in a press release that the hotel — Swissotel — had abruptly canceled it.
The CER blamed the move on a Facebook post from Bosnian Labor Minister Adnan Delić labeling the meeting “an attempt to send a message of legitimization of one genocidal creation and their shameful acts of crimes against humanity.” He called for “all the relevant institutions to prevent the realization of this gathering.”
Swissotel, in a statement, did not address questions about whether government messages played any role. “After careful consideration and assessment of potential safety risks related to hosting the event, the hotel decided to cancel the booking due to security reasons. This is in no way representative of any political affiliation or ideology,” the statement said. (The Bosnian labor ministry did not reply to Playbook’s email.)
Accession angle: Characterizing the blocked religious gathering as a violation of fundamental rights, Pinchas Goldschmidt, CER’s president, called for Bosnia and Herzegovina’s EU accession process to be curtailed.
Commission statement: Asked about the incident at Thursday’s midday briefing, European Commission spokesperson Markus Lammert invoked those fundamental rights of religion and association, calling it “regrettable that the relevant authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina have withdrawn their invitation.” The EU “remains committed” to the country’s “EU accession perspective,” he continued, and will keep monitoring the situation.
IN OTHER NEWS
SÁNCHEZ APOLOGIZES FOR PARTY’S CORRUPTION: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Thursday apologized “to the citizens and supporters of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party,” after the Socialist Party’s third-highest ranking member, Santos Cerdán, was implicated in a kickback scandal.
Sorry? Yes. Responsible? No. Sánchez, the EU’s most powerful socialist politician, rejected calls from opposition parties to resign or call a snap election, saying he felt an obligation to defend his party. The PM announced he would restructure the top of the Socialist Party and order an independent audit of its finances. Read more from Aitor Hernandez-Morales.
LISTEN UP — ALL ABOUT THE €€€: Bulgaria’s euro dreams are about to come true. That could be a giant step toward European integration. But if it turns out Sofia wasn’t actually ready, then that’s a nightmare scenario for the whole bloc. Izabella Kaminska, POLITICO senior editor and finance expert, unpacks the possibilities in this week’s episode of the EU Confidential podcast. Plus, former Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis on Ukraine, Greenland, the “coalition of the willing” and why Europe’s actions don’t match its hawkish rhetoric. Listen and subscribe to EU Confidential here.
Ruling out the nightmare scenario: Bulgaria won’t “do a Greece” when it joins the eurozone, its central bank chief promises Izabella.