Mitsotakis: No one can benefit from a generalized trade “war”
The message that the government will fight to ensure that “the Greek economy remains unaffected to the best possible extent from this new serious turmoil in the global economy” and that it “remains firmly committed to the principles of free trade, and will actively participate in co-shaping the unified European response to the new reality” was sent by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in his weekly review of the government’s work in a post on social media on Sunday.
https://www.amna.gr/en/article/895357/Mitsotakis-No-one-can-benefit-from-a-generalized-trade-war
Sparks could fly over power cable
The resumption of exploratory work that will eventually lead to the laying of the power cable that will link the electricity grids of Greece and Cyprus – and, eventually, Israel – could potentially reignite tensions with Turkey. Operations will involve the deployment of research ships east and south of the Greek island of Kasos, in international waters in the southeastern Aegean.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/politics/foreign-policy/1266319/sparks-could-fly-over-power-cable
Mitsotakis rules out early elections, criticizes ND ‘navel-gazing’
Faced with declining popularity for his conservative party and increasing criticism within its ranks, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis ruled out early elections on Friday. “I will say it again as clearly as I can: elections will be held at the end of the four-year term, in 2027, and they will be victorious with me at the forefront of the battle,” Mitsotakis declared in a speech to New Democracy MPs, who had gathered to elect a new party secretary.
Severe weather forecast for northern Greece
Heavy rain, thunderstorms and a sharp drop in temperatures were expected in northern and northeastern Greece starting Sunday afternoon, according to the National Meteorological Service. Storms will hit eastern Macedonia and Thrace before moving to the northeastern Aegean, including the island of Limnos. Snow is forecast in mountainous areas and could reach semi-mountainous regions overnight into Monday.
ATHEX: Markets in free fall as China responds to US tariffs
The expansion of the international trade war, with the strong response by China to the tariffs introduced by Donald Trump, wreaked havoc on European bourses on Friday and forced the Greek stock market lower by almost 5% in a day, with the Greek success story being lost for now in the global context. The question is to what extent the European Union will react, as this will be partly decided by Greece and have a considerable impact on this country too.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1266241/athex-markets-in-free-fall-as-china-responds
SUNDAY PAPERS
KATHIMERINI: Trump fever hits Greece as well
TO VIMA: Tariffs, global chaos and Greece’s defenses: The perfect storm
REAL NEWS: Greece’s gains due to foreign universities opening branches in Greece
PROTO THEMA: US tariffs: The equation of terror
MONDAY PAPERS:
TA NEA: Athens gets open line with Trump through Netanyahu
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: Easter without pensions
KONTRA NEWS: Vile government behavior against pensioners who will get paid after Easter
DIMOKRATIA: The government tore apart healthcare as well
NAFTEMPORIKI: Haircut in interest rates paid by the Greek state through the payback of PSI warrants
DRIVING THE DAY: EUROPE PLOTS TARIFF RESPONSE
MINISTERS STRATEGIZE: This isn’t a phrase that’s often said, but the action is in Luxembourg today, where EU foreign ministers are meeting to come up with a strategy on how to respond to Trump’s tariff onslaught on “Liberation Day” (which is increasingly looking like “Liberation From Your Stock Portfolio Day”).
Plotting the response: This is the first major gathering since Trump unveiled the tariffs and comes just a few days after Maroš Šefčovič, the EU’s chief trade negotiator, briefed ambassadors over lunch on Thursday about how he saw the situation with Washington. “I was clear: US tariffs are damaging, unjustified,” he posted on X. The EU remains “committed to meaningful negotiations but also prepared to defend our interests,” he added.
Chaos theory: There’s a lot of fine print, but the main message from diplomats who listened to Šefčovič seems to be: market chaos and political turmoil are doing Europe’s work.
Or, to quote Napoleon: “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”
First things first: The EU looks poised to respond to Trump’s previous round of tariffs on steel and aluminum on Wednesday. The European Commission is collecting final feedback from national capitals and more debate is in order, but the overwhelming expectation is that the bloc will vote to hit back this week.
Heart of the matter: That leaves the automotive and 20 percent blanket tariffs against the EU that Trump announced last week. According to two EU diplomats who spoke to POLITICO, the prevailing mood among European capitals is that while the bloc hates the tariffs and wants to avoid escalation, a clear majority believes something must be done to catch Trump’s attention. “This could be a classic case of dealing with a schoolyard bully — you have to punch them in the nose,” said one.
A second diplomat said: “Everybody around the table thought we should react not necessarily immediately, but that we should react from a position of strength.”
Yoo-hoo, over here! One concern is that the Trump administration officials Šefčovič has been dealing with — Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer — aren’t the decision-makers Europe needs to convince to drop the tariffs. Instead, it’s Trump, his Vice President JD Vance and trade adviser Peter Navarro (aka Ron Vara) who are the hardliners — and they aren’t meeting anyone from the EU side.
In other words, Šefčovič may have had a “frank” two-hour conversation with Lutnick and Greer when he was in Washington, but there’s no guarantee anything he said will influence Trump’s thinking.
On the EU side, things are more clear cut. The main characters are Šefčovič, who has the exclusive mandate, and DG Trade boss Sabine Weyand, who came into this crisis armed with years of experience dealing with Brexit.
Today’s talk, per these diplomats, will be all about strategy — when to hit back, what sectors to target and how, rather than a navel-gazing round-robin of capitals declaring what industries they want to protect.
Why the delay: The bloodbath in American financial markets, growing jitters among senior Republicans (including Texas Senator Ted Cruz), and even billionaire Trump-backer Elon Musk publicly breaking with Navarro over the tariffs — it all plays in Europe’s favor, the thinking goes.
Where it hurts: Among the ideas being floated privately — and publicly, in France’s case — is to hit back at the U.S. services sector with measures that could include non-tariff action such as regulatory penalties against Big Tech companies, according to the diplomats who spoke to Playbook. This would have the advantage of hitting the most profitable part of the U.S. economy, which runs a substantial surplus with the EU, while avoiding a tit-for-tat on goods, where Washington has more surface area to tariff. More on that option here by Pieter Haeck, Mathieu Pollet and Eliza Gkritsi.
Divisions: But as is often the case, the EU isn’t advancing in total lockstep. Over the weekend, the economy ministers of Spain and Italy came out pleading for a cautious response — or none at all. One of the diplomats said that of these two countries, Spain appears to be the more flexible, with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni now increasingly leaning toward Trump.
Meloni vs. Europe: That’s in keeping with Meloni’s ambivalence on Europe’s defense ramp-up, her contacts with Trump and her recent FT interview, in which she said that choosing between Trump and Europe was “childish.” “She’s not abandoning EU mainstream policies, but she’s certainly questioning them,” said the second diplomat.
Lest anyone forget, the European Commission doesn’t need unanimous support to implement trade policy. Only a qualified majority against policies can stop them. That said, the Commission won’t want to ride roughshod over two of its largest members. So the idea will be to land on a response that suits all the key players, without rushing it.
Bottom line: All in all, trade is an area in which — unlike on defense — the EU is a formidable player, well-suited for advancing into battle in a tight-knit formation. The lesson of Brexit is that unity and perseverance serve the bloc well. In this fight, even countries that may shy away from antagonizing Trump realize they are worse off on their own than as part of a unified EU bloc.
BEYOND EUROPE: Playbook caught up last week with Japanese diplomats who were in town as observers for the NATO ministerial meeting. Their take on Trump’s tariffs is decidedly more dovish than that of China or even the EU, with no plans to hit back. “For the moment, we don’t have the intention to declare such counter-measures,” said Toshihiro Kitamura, press secretary for Japan’s foreign ministry. And he warned against letting Beijing take advantage of the situation. “China will try to pretend to be the champion of free trade,” he said.
SIDESTEPPING BRUSSELS ON DEFENSE
A NEW EUROPEAN DEFENSE MECHANISM: Finance ministers from EU countries plus the U.K., Norway, and Switzerland will discuss setting up a new intergovernmental fund, called the European Defense Mechanism (EDM), for speeding up common purchasing of military equipment in Warsaw this week, Giovanna Faggionato writes in to report.
What that means in practice: The fund would not only centralize purchasing but could also own military equipment, which would cut costs and load them onto its balance sheet. The fund would also lend to countries that face greater security threats, such as those that share a border with Russia or Belarus, without making them pay interest.
See you in Warsaw: The Polish government, currently at the helm of the EU’s rotating Council presidency, asked think tank Bruegel to draft a proposal that will be presented at this week’s informal meeting of finance ministers in Warsaw, which is set to be attended by ministers from the U.K., Norway and Switzerland.
Sidestepping Brussels: Similar to a previous pitch from the British government, the fund would be open to non-EU countries, and won’t need to include all 27 EU members.
Fiscal advantages: “The key advantage comes from bringing down the costs through joint procurement,” said economics professor and Bruegel senior fellow Guntram Wolff, who co-authored the proposal. “The second advantage is the ownership … if the EDM owns the asset, then it’s off the balance sheets of the member states.”
Governance: Members of the proposed EDM fund would pay a subscription share based on the size of their economy and their military spending or assets, and decisions could be taken according to their capital shares or by a qualified majority.
Berlaymont’s role: The paper suggests the EU can become a “separate shareholder, represented by the European Commission” to help coordinate the initiatives that will have an impact on defense policies. But that’s a sensitive element. “It is very difficult for the U.K. to have the Commission in a leading role and it will be controversial for other EU big countries,” a diplomat said. “But we did want to be more efficient.”
Bottom line: The fund meets the demands of several Northern and Eastern countries. The test will be whether it wins broader support. More in today’s Morning Financial Services Pro newsletter.
NOW READ THIS: European NATO allies should have a “clear roadmap” spelling out how any U.S. pullout from the continent would work, Finnish Defense Minister Antti Häkkänen told my colleague Jacopo Barigazzi.
IN OTHER NEWS
PRO-LE PEN RALLY FLOPS IN FRANCE: Despite sunny skies in Paris on Sunday, only a modest crowd turned out to support Marine Le Pen following her conviction for embezzling EU funds and a five-year ban from holding public office, Victor Goury-Laffont writes.
She has a dream: In a speech at the rally, the far-right leader called the ruling “politically motivated” and likened herself to a civil rights icon: “We will take Martin Luther King, who defended civil rights, as our role model,” she said.
Former PM hits back: Gabriel Attal, head of President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance party, slammed Le Pen’s National Rally for “double standards” and undermining French institutions, Šejla Ahmatović reports. “You steal, you pay,” he told supporters at a different rally in Saint-Denis.
TOP READ — DEEP SEA SABOTAGE: Suspicious Russian tankers keep slashing Europe’s internet and power cables. Victor Jack, Lucia Mackenzie and Sam Clark take you to the Gulf of Finland, where the coast guard is hunting would-be saboteurs.
LIVING WITH STARLINK: Ukrainians will have to live with the specter of Elon Musk cutting off their satellite communications, because there are no short-term alternatives that can match Starlink for now, reports Mathieu Pollet.
VUČIĆ PICKS NEW PM: On Sunday evening, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić nominated Đuro Macut as the new prime minister-designate, Šejla Ahmatović reports. Macut, a renowned endocrinologist who has no political experience, is set to succeed Miloš Vučević, who resigned earlier this year following political tensions and public protests. A new government will be chosen by Good Friday, Vučić said in a press conference. Write-up here.