Mitsotakis says farmers’ problems need to be resolved
Protesting farmers are not a “front” the government has to face but their problems do need to be addressed, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has said.
In his weekly review post on social media, the premier referred to several government initiatives, including measures to help the agricultural sector that he announced in parliament on Friday, developments in education and an increase in the minimum wage.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/news/1230237/greece-turkey-arms-race-continues/
Farmers protest rising production costs in Thessaloniki
Greek farmers and other representatives of the primary sector held a big rally outside the annual Agrotica trade fair in Thessaloniki on Saturday to protest over rising production costs.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/news/1230814/farmers-protest-rising-production-costs-in-thessaloniki/
Bomb explodes outside Labor ministry early on Sat; damage to buildings
A bomb went off at 01:29 on Saturday at the Labor Ministry on Stadiou street, damaging the front and windows of the building and nearby buildings.
ATHEX: Index reaches highs unseen since 2011
The Greek stock market took another step higher on Friday, closing at a new 13-year high for the second day in a row, as the local bourse appears close to shaking off the entire impact of the financial crisis that started in 2010 in Greece. The Athens International Airport IPO has played its part in the market’s optimism, with Bloomberg noting that it was the biggest public offering in the country in two decades.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1230738/athex-index-reaches-highs-unseen-since-2011/
SUNDAY PAPERS
KATHIMERINI: How closed real estate assets will return to the market
TO VIMA: The end of panhellenic university-entry exams
REAL NEWS: The bargain and the guarantees for Turkey’s F-16 jetfighters
PROTO THEMA: Hapf of university students are ‘eternal’ ones
AVGI: Government inside an escape room
MONDAY PAPERS:
TA NEA: Counter-terrrorism unit is also expecting assults with rockets
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: The 500-million-euro fiasco regarding aquaculture
KONTRA NEWS: The government is sending Ukraine the S-300 missiles
DIMOKRATIA: Putting out fire with gasoline
NAFTEMPORIKI: 6,2 billion ‘yeast’ for 2024 investments
TRUMP LEAD HAUNTS EU
EUROPE SHUDDERS AS TRUMP LEADS OPINION POLLS: The Donald Trump-shaped shadow looming over Europe is stretching longer by the day. Over the past week a series of polls showed the Republican challenger leading President Joe Biden with nine months to go until the November election, raising the likelihood of a brutal post-election hangover for Europe.
Exhibit A: A national NBC poll published Sunday showed Trump ahead of Biden by 5 percentage points, with 47 percent of registered voters backing the former president versus 42 percent for the incumbent. Perhaps more worryingly, the survey uncovered a huge 20-point gap between Trump and Biden on who would better handle the economy.
Exhibit B: A CNN poll carried out by SSRS and published Thursday revealed a slightly smaller, 4-point lead in favor of Trump — though the pollster said this trend was essentially unchanged since the fall.
Exhibit C: Biden’s favorability ratings are in poor shape, with NBC’s poll showing 37 percent of voters giving him a thumbs up while CNN’s poll showed 59 percent had unfavorable opinions. But Trump’s numbers don’t look much better — the CNN-SSRS poll showed 55 percent had a negative view of the former president.
**A message from Equinor: Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is one of the solutions needed to achieve our global climate goals according to the IEA and the UN International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).**
Why this matters for the EU: Beyond the obvious risk to NATO and the transatlantic order if Trump is reelected in November, there is the impact of his poll strength on U.S. foreign policy right now — most crucially on aid to Ukraine.
A glimmer of hope? As my U.S. colleagues report here, a bipartisan group of senators have unveiled a deal that would send around $62 billion in support to Ukraine — but the package faces an uphill battle in Congress.
Over the weekend, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said he would back a separate spending bill that includes $17.6 billion in aid for Israel, but zilch for Ukraine. Johnson may have said he isn’t taking orders from Trump, but anyone who doesn’t see the ex-president as calling the shots, on some level, needs to update their operating system.
ICYMI: Trump’s chief propagandist, Tucker Carlson, is in Moscow as you read these lines, amid chatter about a possible sit-down with Russian President Vladimir Putin. More on that from Eva Hartog here.
The upshot for Europe is that the Continent could soon be on its own to back Ukraine financially. And despite the sighs of relief after the last EU Council meeting where leaders signed off on a €50 billion aid package for Ukraine, the plan was never that Europe’s outlay would suffice on its own to support Kyiv.
Remember? EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell telling the European Political Community late last year: “Well, certainly Europe cannot replace the U.S.” on funding Ukraine.
Do the math: Ukraine’s finance ministry has said it will need €34.45 billion in external contributions through 2024. Yet Europe’s €50 billion in aid, spread out over four years, doesn’t cover that. Remove the nearly €11 billion in aid expected this year from Washington, and Ukraine’s non-U.S. allies — the EU chief among them — could soon be facing a deeply uncomfortable conversation about further Ukraine funding.
Signs of jitters abound: In Sweden for a state visit last week, French President Emmanuel Macron restated his country’s nuclear deterrence policy. Due to a reporting error (since corrected by Contexte), the comment was erroneously taken to mean that France was offering to extend its nuclear umbrella to the rest of Europe, prompting cries of protest from both the far left and the far right.
Jumpiness: Macron wasn’t saying anything new or surprising on French nuke policy. But the fact that the quip took flight speaks volumes about Europe’s growing Trump anxiety syndrome.
Another case in point: The Czech Republic’s call for Europe to buy 450,000 artillery shells for Ukraine on the world market rather than try to source them from European factories, revealed in this report by top colleagues Josh Posaner, Paul McLeary and Jacopo Barigazzi. Here again, the fact that some EU countries want Europe to address Ukraine’s “ammunition hunger” by purchasing shells outside the bloc isn’t new. But the fact that such calls are breaking out of the diplo circuit, and into public view, is.
Bottom line: A Trump win in November would set Europe reeling. But he doesn’t need to win to rattle the transatlantic order.
SANCTIONS LATEST
SANCTIONS, A CASE OF BELIEVING: The pressure is on for the 27 EU countries to deliver on fresh sanctions on Russia. But time is short.
Father, I confess: Over the weekend, groups of member countries got together during so-called confessionals to discuss their wishes for the 13th sanction package against Russia. Governments are aiming to hammer out a new package by the two-year mark of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Camille Gijs and Koen Verhelst report.
Sacrosanct listings: Two EU diplomats said on Sunday that the package will mainly include new listings and ban more companies from exporting dual-use goods and battlefield products. One of them said that the general sense is “the timeline is too short for something bigger,” adding it was better to get the package over the line in time and highlight the recent measures the EU took to support Ukraine.
Don’t get your hopes up: Most diplomats dampened expectations on Friday, saying it would be mostly a “symbolic” package, with the focus now on “working on the global narrative” around sanctions and ensuring compliance of third countries.
Aluminum prayer: The EU still imports half-finished aluminum products from Russia, which is a thorn in the side of — surprise, surprise — European producers of the metal, who feel the competition from cheap imports. As POLITICO’s Morning Trade scooped recently, this is the first time a full ban on aluminum products is on the wish-list of some member countries.
However, an aluminum ban may be too ambitious considering there’s only three weeks to get the agreement done. Aluminum is crucial for broad sectors like packaging, construction and aviation, so there will be opposition to a ban.
Diplomat travel ban: Another idea being floated is to limit the travel of Russian diplomats to the country where they are accredited, instead of to the whole Schengen area, one EU diplomat said. The proposal is a longstanding request from the Czech Republic, which last year pushed to end the freedom of movement of Russian diplomats.
Devil’s in the details: But how to go about that will be tricky, as the bulk of intra-Schengen travel is often unmonitored. Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský proposed last year to insist on biometric passports for diplomats.
UK VS. EU ON RUSSIAN GAS: Meanwhile, the U.K. is heading for a clash with its European allies over Russian gas. U.K. Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho will later this month urge European neighbors to stop importing Russian liquefied natural gas, amid concerns it could end up in the U.K. energy system. Charlie Cooper has the details.
GREENS DOUBLE DOWN
EUROPEAN GREENS SEEK FULL CLIMATE NEUTRALITY BY 2040: Undeterred by farmers’ protests or election polls which show them losing about a third of their seats, the European Greens want the EU to raise its climate ambitions further, according to a party manifesto adopted on Sunday.
How about yesterday? The Greens argue that the bloc should achieve full climate neutrality by 2040, a full decade earlier than the 2050 target that has been agreed at EU level, my colleague Louise Guillot reports from the group’s party congress in Lyon. It represents a setback for the German Greens who had pushed for a less ambitious target of climate neutrality by 2045.
Coal, be gone: The manifesto also urges the EU to phase out all fossil fuels by 2040, with a ban on coal by 2030.
Our friends the farmers: The Greens did take note of farmer protests, amending their manifesto compared to previous drafts to say they will campaign for “a new agricultural model that reduces emissions, protects the environment and fosters social justice.”
It goes on to say that “farmers should make a decent income of their work” and that the Greens will push to “make sure farmers are not exposed to unfair competition from products not respecting the same standards, including those imported from third countries.” As Louise notes, that last bit has been a key demand from farmers’ unions during the protests.
**Not going to Munich for the Security Conference? Don’t worry, our Pro Defense team has got you covered. Join us online on February 19 as we debrief you on what happened.**
IN OTHER NEWS
RENEW STAFFER AIMS TO BE FIRST UKRAINIAN MEP: Latvian liberal party Movement For! will today announce a Ukrainian citizen as its lead candidate for the European election in June. Ivanna Volochiy currently works for the Renew group in the European Parliament. Her party wants Ukraine to join a reformed EU within a decade.
Can she make it? The liberal alliance that included Movement For! and delivered MEP Ivars Ījabs to Brussels in 2019 is no longer operating, and given that Ījabs is running again for another liberal party it means their votes could be split. Movement For! is only polling around 3 percent and is no longer represented in the Latvian parliament.
ELECTION SECURITY: The European Parliament’s chief cybersecurity official, Pascal Paridans, will leave his post early, just months before the June election, amid criticism that the assembly is struggling to cope with increasing cyberthreats. Antoaneta Roussi has the story.
EU-ETHIOPIA HEALTH TALKS: Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides and delegates from eight member states are on a four-day visit to Ethiopia to strengthen EU-Africa health ties. Kyriakides will hold talks with high-level officials on bolstering health care system resilience and enhancing cooperation and will sign a pivotal Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority agreement.
THE $10T QUESTION: Fixing broken food systems could generate up to $10 trillion in economic benefits per year globally, according to leading scientists who say politicians are doing too little to tackle the single largest threat to human and planet health. Paula Andrés has more.
WHACK-A-MOLE IN THE MIDDLE EAST: Deterring Iran isn’t working. Joe Biden is getting drawn into a game of whack-a-mole eagerly engineered by Iran, writes POLITICO’s Jamie Dettmer.