PM Mitsotakis: Eurobonds exclusively for the defense security of Europe
The idea of issuing eurobonds exclusively for the defense security of the European Union was proposed by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis upon arriving at the European Council in Brussels on Thursday.
Greece approves purchase of seven firefighting planes from Canada
Greece on Thursday approved the purchase of seven firefighting aircraft from Canada to bolster its defences against wildfires, which have ravaged the country in recent years.
Former SYRIZA transport minister seeks lifting of his own immunity over rail crash
Former transport and infrastructure minister Christos Spirtzis, who served under SYRIZA from 2016 to 2019, is demanding that his immunity from prosecution be lifted in relation to the ongoing investigations into the deadly train crash in Tempe last year, which cost the lives of 57 people.
Finance Ministry tightens Golden Visa rules
The Finance Ministry announced on Thursday measures to cut down on bureaucracy, facilitate taxpayers, use modern technology in collaboration with the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE) and enhance transparency. Moreover, it presented the changes to the Golden Visa programme, which on the one hand give priority to the housing needs of households and on the other hand allow investments to continue with new, more balanced terms.
https://www.amna.gr/en/article/806126/Finance-Ministry-tightens-Golden-Visa-rules
ATHEX: More growth for stocks at Athinon Avenue
The prospect of interest rate cuts in the US and Europe boosted markets in the eurozone and sent the Greek bourse benchmark higher on Thursday. Despite receiving little support from the usual suspects – i.e. the banks – the main index and that of blue chips gained more ground, confirming that despite the temporary cashing-in efforts, traders have a bullish attitude for the long term.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1234570/athex-more-growth-for-stocks-at-athinon-avenue/
KATHIMERINI: 20 university schools have no students
TA NEA: Electricity bills: which program is the cheapest
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: Armament hysteria in Europe
AVGI: The impasse leads Karamanlis to Justice
RIZOSPASTIS: EU Summit decides new increase of military expenditure
KONTRA NEWS: Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden: Pay for your arms programs yourselves
DIMOKRATIA: Bank of Greece sets limits on mortgages
NAFTEMPORIKI: Comet-like companies targeted by Independent State Revenues Authority
LIGHTS, CAMERA, EUCO! As EU leaders converged on Brussels for the European Council summit Thursday, the crew of “Parlement,” the hit TV comedy about (you guessed it) the European Parliament, used the sturm und drang as a backdrop to film scenes. POLITICO’s Hans von der Burchard spotted actor Liz Kingsman, playing journalist Rose Pilkington, looking confused and trying to identify European Council President Charles Michel and U.N. boss António Guterres as they delivered statements to the press. You can catch Parlement on france.tv — though forget about watching it if you live in Brussels, thanks to EU geoblocking rules.
DRIVING THE DAY: EUROPEAN COUNCIL
EU RAISES PRESSURE ON ISRAEL OVER GAZA: Wrapping up a brief gathering in Brussels, European leaders rallied Thursday night behind a call for “immediate humanitarian pauses leading to sustained ceasefire” in Gaza, where Israel has been waging war against Hamas for nearly six months at the cost of thousands of civilian lives.
Zoom in: Leaders overcame divisions just as the United States submits a draft resolution to the U.N. Security Council calling for an “immediate ceasefire” as well as the release of all hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
De Croo claims credit: Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said that “gradually other countries joined our position and the fact that the U.S. have adopted [this position] too played a part.”
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Death toll: The call comes as Israel’s operations have killed more than 30,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry.
Pincer movement: The combined moves by Europe and the United States pile pressure on Israel to wrap up its operation in Gaza. Charles Michel and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also urged Israel to renounce its plans for an offensive into Rafah. Paul Dallison, Barbara Moens and Clea Caulcutt have the details.
Call for aid to flow: With aid agencies warning of an imminent risk of famine in Gaza, EU leaders urged Israel to rapidly open more entry points for humanitarian aid. U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron blamed “arbitrary denials by the Government of Israel” and “lengthy clearance procedures” for the slow pace of aid distribution in Gaza. “It is with enormous frustration that U.K. aid for Gaza has been routinely held up waiting for Israeli permissions,” he told Alicia Kearns, the chair of the foreign affairs select committee.
Bottom line: Israel is increasingly isolated as major Western countries sharpen their rhetoric against its operation in Gaza.
EUCO DAY 2: Today, Eurozone leaders will discuss the decade-old plan to boost investment and the economy. But it’s going nowhere fast, report my colleagues Bjarke Smith-Meyer and Giorgio Leali in this curtain-raiser.
FOLLOW ALONG … With the live blog, and catch up on Day 1 with the EU Confidential podcast.
AID FOR UKRAINE
BACK TO THURSDAY’S EUCO SUMMITRY: Addressing EU leaders via video link, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged them not to delay in approving further aid for Kyiv, particularly air defenses that protect civilians against Russian drone and missile strikes.
Not so fast: But that urgency was not reflected in the Council’s conclusions, which stopped short of breakthroughs on new funds to help Ukraine or using windfall profits from frozen Russian assets to finance weapons purchases.
Work in progress: In their conclusions, leaders said they had “reviewed progress on the next concrete steps towards directing extraordinary revenues stemming from Russia’s immobilized assets for the benefit of Ukraine, including the funding of military support.”
In other words, we’ll get back to you. De Croo, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the Council, told reporters it was “too early” to use profits from frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine after the EU executive proposed using 90 percent of the amount to finance weapons purchases.
Signals: There was “openness, at least on our side” to look at new types of funding to support Ukraine’s war effort, namely issuing joint debt or eurobonds, De Croo said, adding that Europe cannot “wait for the U.S. to make up our minds.” But the leaders ultimately couldn’t agree on the grand push for European financing of weapons to Ukraine, with De Croo noting the countries opposed to using eurobonds were the “classic ones.” Meaning: Germany and its fellow so-called frugals, including the Netherlands and Austria.
We got nothing: “Let’s be honest: nothing real is decided on financing defense,” said one EU official afterward.
Can we ask the EIB? EU leaders did agree to push the European Investment Bank to be more flexible in its lending policy to defense companies, which is currently too risky for the bank.
Small silver lining: The European Commission will reintroduce tariffs on Russian and Belarusian grain after receiving the nod at the summit, Bartosz Brzezinski reports.
AGAINST THAT BACKDROP … Russia on Wednesday said it would double down on its war by adding two new armies by the end of the year. Read the full story by Barbara Moens and Jacopo Barigazzi.
NOW READ THIS: The EU will have to seize Russian assets eventually if it wants Ukraine to win, a top European Central Bank official told my colleague Ben Munster. “Of course the aggressor’s funds must be used,” Bank of Latvia Governor Mārtiņš Kazāks said. “In plain geopolitical sense, Ukrainians need money and we need to provide the money — it’s in our common interest.”
INTRODUCING THE NEW EUROPEANS
MACRON’S NEW RIDE: French President Emmanuel Macron is making a fresh bid to unite Europe’s liberal parties under one banner, Elisa Braun and Eddy Wax report.
Welcome to the party: “New Europeans” was formed as an association under French law earlier this month and aims to bring together Macron’s Renaissance as well as other French, Romanian, Slovenian and Danish parties.
Not quite there yet: Renaissance has neither joined nor created an EU-level party since it first sent MEPs to the European Parliament in 2019 — and New Europeans is not a political party either. However, its members see it as a first step to creating one.
Come one, come all: “We want to convince everyone to join a single [European] political party,” said Gilles Boyer, a French MEP from a party called Horizons created by former French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, allied to Macron. “The message is that we’re uniting and that’ll make us stronger,” added Boyer, who will be the association’s treasurer.
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MORE ELECTIONEERING
WILL ANYONE SHOW UP TO VOTE IN THE EU ELECTION? Turnout is the European Parliament’s biggest election challenge, writes Giovanna Coi in this top analysis.
This might help: Belgian teens aged 16 and 17 will be obliged to vote in the EU election, the country’s Constitutional Court ruled on Thursday. Belgium, where voting is compulsory, extended voting rights for 16- and 17-year-olds back in 2022, though initially casting a ballot was to be voluntary. Thursday’s ruling extended compulsory voting to those teens.
TRANSPORT COMMISSIONER SEEKS A SEAT: European Commissioner for Transport Adina Vălean is running for a seat in the Parliament this June.
PUIGDEMONT SEEKS RETURN TO CATALAN POLITICS: MEP Carles Puigdemont on Thursday announced he’s running for the Catalan presidency in the snap regional election on May 12. Aitor Hernández-Morales has the details.
SLOVAKIA ELECTION: Slovaks head to the polls this Saturday for the first round of the presidential election. It’s very likely there will be a runoff on April 6, as none of the nine contenders is expected to win a majority. Outgoing President Zuzana Čaputová, who isn’t running for reelection, will finish up in the post in mid-June.
Runners and riders: The runoff is likely to be between Peter Pellegrini and Ivan Korčok, Playbook’s own Ketrin Jochecová reports. Pellegrini, the front-runner, is the parliamentary speaker and the pick of Russia-friendly Prime Minister Robert Fico. Just behind him is Korčok, the liberal candidate and a former foreign minister and Slovak ambassador to the U.S., EU and Germany.
Also running: Former PM Igor Matovič, former foreign minister and OSCE Secretary-General Ján Kubiš, neo-Nazi Marian Kotleba, and former Justice Minister Štefan Harabin (who was indicted for writing a social media post in which he approved of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine).
SPEAKING OF PUTIN’S PALS 1: Freshly “reelected” Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Thursday received his first congratulations from an EU leader: Viktor Orbán, who also hailed Hungary’s “cooperation” and “mutual respect” with Russia despite “very complicated” geopolitics. Denis Leven has more.
IN OTHER NEWS
SPEAKING OF PUTIN’S PALS 2: Yemen’s Houthi rebels reassured Russia and China their ships can safely travel through the Red Sea, according to Bloomberg. In return, Beijing and Moscow pledged “political support” to the Iran-backed militant group.
FRENCH SENATORS SEE OFF CETA: The French Senate on Thursday voted against ratifying the EU-Canada trade deal (CETA). France’s lower chamber, the National Assembly, will now get another say on the deal. And while the assembly approved it back in 2019, Macron’s party has lost seats to members who oppose free trade, making the outcome uncertain, reports Giorgio Leali.
RACISM? WHAT RACISM? Spain doesn’t have a racism problem, the country’s football league chief Javier Tebas told my colleague Ali Walker in an exclusive interview. That’ll be news to Real Madrid’s superstar forward Vinícius Júnior, who has been the target of sustained racist abuse from rival fans for years. “If we compare ourselves with other countries’ behavior, I think we have a lot less racism than in any other country,” Tebas countered.
99 problems but Saudi ain’t one: Tebas wants the EU to move quicker on his foreign subsidies complaint about Qatar’s ownership of PSG and he’ll “never” consider the Super League threat extinguished while his rival Florentino Pérez still champions the project. He’s not concerned, though, about Saudi Arabia’s emerging presence across world sport. “I don’t think they want to get into the organization level of European football as far as I know,” he said. Famous last words?
FRIDAY FEATURES: Sascha O’Sullivan delves into the secrets of pollsters in this week’s Westminster Insider podcast … and in the Declassified humor column by Paul Dallison, Trump and Putin wage war on the British royal family.