Mitsotakis: EU must use ‘carrot and stick’ in approach to migration
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis emphasized the need for a strategic “carrot and stick” approach to migration during a press briefing on Thursday following the conclusion of the European Council in Brussels.
Greek authorities, EU agree to work on quick OPEKEPE absorption by tax service AADE
Greek Deputy Premier Kostis Hatzidakis met with European Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Christophe Hansen on Thursday on the OPEKEPE agency for agricultural funding that will be incorporated into the Greek tax service, AADE. OPEKEPE mishandled EU funding for agriculture and its services and personnel and will be absorbed by the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE), as soon as related laws are voted on in the Greek Parliament.
Ruling ND widens lead
Ruling New Democracy holds a strong lead with 30.2% support if elections were to be held today, according to a new MRB poll, outpacing PASOK by 16.2 points. Center-left PASOK remains second with 14%, while the protest party Course of Freedom falls to third at 13.6%.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/politics/1273595/ruling-nd-widens-lead
Androulakis: The government handles key national issues with amateurism
“Europe must acquire both a role and a voice. And this means a common foreign and defence policy,” main opposition PASOK-Movement for Change leader Nikos Androulakis said on Thursday in the pre-conference of the leaders of the European Socialist Party. “We consider it unacceptable that private Turkish companies can utilise the SAFE program. And this is the responsibility of the New Democracy government. Likewise, it is responsible for the unpleasant events in relation to Libya and the EEZ, as well as the developments regarding St. Catherine of Sinai in relation to Egypt,” the PASOK leader added. “Unfortunately, the government tends to treat major national issues through the lens of communication strategy and with a degree of amateurism,” Androulakis noted.”
ATHEX: Bourse posts new 15-year index high
The benchmark of the Greek stock market grew for a fifth session in a row on Thursday to reach levels unseen in over 15 years. Athinon Avenue is building on the relief from the lasting ceasefire in the Middle East as well as on the apparent window dressing by traders ahead of the end of the year’s first half on Monday. Metlen’s process to get listed on the London Stock Exchange is another factor.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1273600/athex-bourse-posts-new-15-year-index-high
KATHIMERINI: OPEKEPE scandal: “He must take care of our guy, he is one of us”
TA NEA: University entry exams: the thresholds set by the grades
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: Herds of corruption and vested interests
RIZOSPASTIS: NATO state-members are vast weapons factories
KONTRA NEWS: MPs enraged with Voridis – Avgenakis
DIMOKRATIA: OPEKEPE tsunami
NAFTEMPORIKI: Competition Commission is scanning 6 markets
DRIVING THE DAY: EU’S NEW TRADE PLAN
BEAT TRUMP AT HIS OWN GAME: “Uncertainty is the worst thing for our economy,” said Council President António Costa, at a post-EUCO press conference right around midnight.
And then, from a podium to Costa’s right, one of his predecessors contradicted him.
“We have to be very innovative … sometimes maybe unpredictable — as our friends from the other side of the Atlantic,” said Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who also served as Council president from 2014 to 2019.
WTO 2.0, EUrsula’s version: Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, to Costa’s left, floated the idea that the EU’s 27 countries could join forces with 12 members of the Asian-led Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership bloc (CPTPP) to form an alternative to the World Trade Organization. U.S. membership would not be a given.
COUNTERPOINT — PREDICTING DEFEAT: The horseradish in the mashed potatoes that accompanied leaders’ duck legs wasn’t the only bitter taste they had to swallow. As POLITICO’s Camille Gijs was first to report, U.S. President Donald Trump delivered a fresh proposal for further negotiations ahead of a July 9 deadline. If there’s no deal by then, tariffs on EU goods could shoot up to more than 50 percent.
Adjusting expectations: Only a month ago, EU countries were bullish about pushing Trump to back down in his trade war. They scorned the outline agreement the U.S. president struck with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, insisting the bloc was a trading superpower and would never accept Trump’s baseline 10 percent tariff.
Now, all that has changed: “It would be best to have the lowest tariff possible, 0 percent is the best,” said French President Emmanuel Macron. “But if it’s 10 percent, it’ll be 10 percent.” Read the full article from Tim Ross, Camille Gijs, Gabriel Gavin, Clea Caulcutt and the whole POLITICO EUCO team.
MEANWHILE, BEIJING DOES A DEAL: The U.S. and China signed a trade deal on Wednesday that included a commitment by Beijing to deliver rare earth minerals, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told Bloomberg. Trump on Thursday appeared to confirm this, saying: “We just signed with China yesterday.”
WON’T SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF THE GERMAN INDUSTRIES? In a briefing, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz listed a litany of sectors that “are all currently being burdened with such high tariffs that it is really putting companies at risk.”
The need for speed: He continued, “And that’s why it’s better to act quickly and simply than slowly and in a highly complicated way.”
Right on cue: Von der Leyen will receive 12 top German CEOs for lunch in Brussels on Wednesday, POLITICO’s Rasmus Buchsteiner reports. The guest list includes Carsten Knobel of Henkel, Michael Lewis of Uniper, Miguel López of Thyssenkrupp and Armin Papperger of Rheinmetall.
Comfort zone: The person who got the group through the Commission chief’s door is the premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hendrik Wüst, a fellow member of von der Leyen’s CDU. But it’s worth noting von der Leyen’s door was often open to German industry during her first term as Commission chief.
DADDY ISSUES
SEARCHING FOR FATHER FIGURES: NATO boss Mark Rutte may be trying to walk back his Trump “daddy” comment, but it’s already an indelible joke/humiliation for Europe.
Enough Daddy Donalds: Donald Tusk, asked if he’s the “daddy” of Poland’s closing Council presidency, replied, “One daddy is enough, that’s for sure, especially with the same name.” But Belgian PM Bart de Wever suggested Merz could be the “new daddy.” Read more.
OFF MESSAGE: EU Special Representative for the Sahel João Gomes Cravinho played armchair psychologist while sharing his take on the NATO summit with Portuguese TV, saying Trump has “personality deformations” that make him “need to be flattered constantly.” During an appearance on the SIC channel, the EU representative — who was appointed by the bloc’s foreign ministers last year, and whose term extends until August 2026 — was particularly critical of Rutte’s “servile” attempts to keep Trump happy during the summit, which he said were “embarrassing.”
Undiplomatic opinions:Gomes Cravinho — a veteran diplomat who headed the European External Action Service’s delegations to Brazil and India prior to serving as Portugal’s foreign minister under then-PM António Costa — was also critical of NATO members for agreeing to Trump’s demand to earmark 5 percent of their GDP for military spending, “buying peace now” by committing to “goals they’re unlikely to meet later.” The sole EU leader he praised was Spain’s Pedro Sánchez, who refused to back the spending target, and who the diplomat said had been “more honest” than other summit attendees.
More diplomats pile on: The Hague was still on diplomats’ minds at the Brussels EUCO. One diplomat marveled to POLITICO’s Ben Munster, with more than a hint of disgust, at how Rutte “must have really lowered his self-esteem” to appease Trump.
LISTEN UP — Of Daddies and Queens: Donald, Ursula and who’s really in charge in Europe. This week’s episode of the EU Confidential podcast unpacks both the NATO and EUCO summits before turning to the rebellion in von der Leyen’s coalition over her Green Deal reversals.
BUDAPEST PRIDE
THE PITFALLS OF PRIDE: A who’s-who of European political leaders will descend on the Hungarian capital Saturday in defiance of the national government’s ban on the celebration of LGBTQ rights and identity. But European liberals’ greatest hope of ousting Prime Minister Viktor Orbán will likely be nowhere in sight, Max Griera reports.
Magyar stays away: “We will not be used in a culture-war provocation designed to divide society and distract from the collapse of public services and the soaring cost of living,” said Zoltán Tarr, a top Tisza MEP. Run by ex-Fidesz insider Péter Magyar, right-leaning Tisza is working to build a broad coalition ahead of the April 26 election in Hungary, and Tarr’s comments to Max suggest a caravan of rainbow-flag-waving cheerleaders arriving from Brussels wouldn’t necessarily be helpful.
Pride piper? “We want our fellow MEPs to understand that the only way to minimize the benefit to Orbán and maximize the benefit for Hungary is to avoid falling into his trap. He wants a moral outrage show so he can say: ‘Brussels is attacking Hungary again,’” Tarr warned.
Case in point: Orbán accused von der Leyen and EPP chief Manfred Weber of “building Hungary’s future puppet government,” in an interview with Hungarian media on the sidelines of EUCO.
Who’s assembling: More than 70 MEPs, European Equality Commissioner Hadja Lahbib, Spanish Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun, Dutch Education Minister Eppo Bruins, French government representatives, mayors from major European capitals, former Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo, and former Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar.
Press point of pride: Leaders of three Parliament groups — the Socialists and Democrats’ Iratxe García, Renew’s Valérie Hayer and the Greens’ Terry Reintke — are holding a joint press conference at the European Parliament Information Office for Hungary in Budapest Saturday morning.
(NO) CONFIDENCE GAMES
VDL TAKES IT FROM ALL SIDES: Ursula von der Leyen started the week with the left flank of her informal coalition livid over her team-up with the right to wipe out an anti-greenwashing directive. Now, she’s ending it with a group of right-wingers launching a no-confidence vote against her, Max Griera reports.
Let’s be clear: This won’t lead to her ouster. But debate and a vote during the July plenary could be embarrassing.
More Pfizergate fallout: Romanian right-wing lawmaker Gheorghe Piperea has filed a motion of censure against von der Leyen over her secret texts from 2021 with Pfizer’s CEO, meeting the low threshold of 70 MEPs out of 720.
ECR split: The initiative exposes split mindsets within the European Conservatives and Reformists political family. On one side are center- to hard-right national parties that want to be taken seriously in discussions at the EU level, from Italy, Belgium and Czechia. On the other are hard- to far-right parties that are avowedly in the opposition. In that latter category is certainly Piperea’s AUR party, which only joined ECR last year despite internal misgivings. Twenty members of Poland’s Law and Justice party, also ECR, signed the letter, according to a list obtained by Euractiv — as did non-aligned lawmakers, Patriots and even one MEP from von der Leyen’s European People’s Party (Branko Grims of Slovenia).
Keep us out of it: “This is not an initiative of the ECR group,” a group spokesperson said flatly. And an ECR lawmaker was even more dismissive in comments to Max: “He knows the motion won’t pass, it’s more like a PR stunt … publicity for [AUR leader] George Simion in Romania.”
No comment was the reply to all this from a Commission spokesperson.
CLIMATE POLITICS
HOT AIR OVER CLIMATE TARGET: Numerous EU leaders vented their frustration Thursday night about the bloc’s upcoming 2040 climate target proposal, which is expected next week. Dinner featured a “very long” and “heated” discussion — as Belgium’s Bart De Wever put it — where it was apparent that concerns abound over not only the 2040 emissions-cutting target itself, but also how quickly the EU is moving to cement it.
There were 2 basic camps on Thursday night, according to numerous people familiar with the proceedings: Those wanting to continue with the basic plan that’s unfolding … and those who want further concessions, more conversations — and perhaps more delays.
In one corner: France’s Macron kicked off the debate by suggesting the EU shouldn’t be in a rush on its 2040 goal, with Poland’s Tusk jumping in to back him up.
In the other corner: Hold on, others said. We can’t just keep kicking the green can down the road. Earlier in the day, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen (whose country will hold the rotating Council presidency starting Tuesday) expressed this sentiment, arguing that climate had “moved a little too far down the agenda.” More details for Pro subscribers in Morning Energy.
Speaking of the Danish presidency … it’s pitching a climate-forward message to an EU that is moving in the opposite direction, report Lucia Mackenzie and Bartosz Brzeziński. And in this feature, Jacopo Barigazzi explains how Trump’s claims on Greenland could derail the presidency.
IN OTHER NEWS
PROTECTING MEPS’ REPS: Parliament President Roberta Metsola said she’s taking steps to shield lawmakers from being publicly named by Belgian police during criminal investigations. Max Griera has more.
CHANCELLORS DOING IT FOR THEMSELVES: Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker told the Berlin Playbook podcast that he sees Friedrich Merz as a key partner in drastically cutting irregular migration to Europe — despite tensions between the two over Germany’s domestic border crackdown. Gordon Repinski and Nette Nöstlinger have the write-up.
BAILING OUT LE PEN: A U.S. State Department political appointee proposed using American taxpayer money to support French far-right leader Marine Le Pen as she appeals her embezzlement conviction, POLITICO’s Eric Bazail-Eimil reports.