Subsidies in August electricity rates for households, Skylakakis says
Environment and Energy Minister Theodoros Skylakakis on Wednesday announced that all households will receive subsidies for their electricity bills in August, with a consumption limit of 500 kilowatt hours per month. The amount of the subsidy will depend on the level of August tariffs (known as the “green” tariffs that are announced at the beginning each month) with the aim of keeping prices “at tolerable levels.”
Greece declares state of alert amid wildfires
The Civil Protection Ministry has declared a general state of alert due to multiple nationwide incidents and prevailing weather conditions, including high temperatures and strong winds. All fire services are on high alert.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/news/environment/1244208/greece-declares-state-of-alert-amid-wildfires
Greece joins international coalition for return of Ukrainian children
Greece officially announced its membership in the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children on Tuesday.
Androulakis: We support Thessaly’s efforts for resilient infrastructure
PASOK-KINAL supports Thessaly’s effort to acquire the kind of infrastructure that would make it resilient to the repercussions of extreme weather conditions, such as those it experienced in the deadly floods of 2003, underlined opposition PASOK-Movement for Change leader Nikos Androulakis in Larissa on Wednesday, after his meeting with regional governor of Thessaly Dimitris Kouretas.
ATHEX: Most losses offset at close of market
The Greek stock market all but offset its early losses on Wednesday to close the day with a minor decline for its key indexes, after another day of pressure on the energy sector due to the government’s measures regarding a levy on gas-fired power plants to subsidize electricity bills. However, other blue chips, such as Coca-Cola HBC and OPAP gaming company, helped the benchmark cover most of the ground lost.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1244244/athex-most-losses-offset-at-close-of-market/
KATHIMERINI: The “x-ray” of price hikes
TA NEA: Sudden tension in the Greece-Cyprus-Turkey triangle
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: The government is mocking citizens regarding electricity bills
RIZOSPASTIS: Large rally in Larimna in support of LARKO workers
KONTRA NEWS: Missile systems from Greece transferred to Ukraine
DIMOKRATIA: Greece’s defense has holes in it
NAFTEMPORIKI: Electricity bills: winners and losers due to the new measures
GOOD THURSDAY MORNING from Strasbourg, where far-left MEPs are making a last-minute bid to disrupt Ursula von der Leyen’s big moment, as she seeks reelection as Commission president today.
JAB FROM THE LEFT: The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance, a leftist-populist German party, has asked the European Parliament to delay today’s vote after an EU court ruled von der Leyen was not transparent enough with the public about Covid-19 vaccine contracts.
Fabio De-lay: “Von der Leyen should put all the cards on the table prior to a vote,” Fabio De Masi, one of the MEPs who sent a letter to Parliament President Roberta Metsola with his request, told Playbook. The entire Left group of 48 MEPs (which De Masi is not part of) also called for the vote to be delayed until the Commission releases the contracts. They may force a vote on it but it’s very unlikely to pass.
PRESIDENT BIDEN IS UNWELL: Joe Biden tested positive for Covid-19 last night.
DRIVING THE DAY
WIND IN VON DER LEYEN’S SAILS FOR SECOND TERM: Barring a major upset, Ursula von der Leyen will secure a second term as European Commission president when MEPs vote at 1 p.m. today. We can expect the results around 2:45 p.m. Last night her team started informing political groups about the compromises they can expect to find in her policy program for the next five years.
Word in the corridors: Every single person I bumped into in the Parliament Wednesday — even those who wanted her to fail — predicted she would make it. Think tankers agree. Of course, they could all be wrong, but the sense is that the deals have been done, and there’s now inexorable momentum toward von der Leyen’s reelection.
Deals galore: The mood has changed since last week. Tuesday’s pre-cooked votes on 11 vice presidents showed the new house can stick to deals across party lines, feeding a sense that enough of the deals made by von der Leyen will also be kept today.
Breezing through: “I am sure she will pass, I am sure the votes are there,” Romanian lawmaker Siegfried Mureșan, from the European People’s Party (EPP), told my colleague Max Griera. All eyes will be on von der Leyen’s 9 a.m. address, and then crunch time comes between 11 a.m. and the 1 p.m. vote as all groups hold meetings to make up their minds once and for all.
Mission just-about-possible: Von der Leyen’s big challenge was to keep most of her coalition on board — the Christian Democrats, Socialists and liberals — while also poaching votes from the Greens, avoiding alienating the right, and attracting some votes from the hard-right ECR if she could. She has almost reached the end of that tightrope without falling …
VDL eats her Greens: The Greens are stretching every sinew to be part of the coalition that elects von der Leyen. How else can they remain influential than by becoming a team player? While everyone is holding out until they see her formal pitch this morning, the noises emanating from the Greens are resoundingly positive. In another sign they’re willing to play ball, this week they voted almost unanimously to reappoint the EPP’s Metsola — a big change from 2022 when they challenged her.
Shapeshifter extraordinaire: If she makes it, von der Leyen will have pulled off an eye-of-the-needle maneuver, getting elected by a right-leaning Parliament that has over 100 far-right MEPs behind a cordon sanitaire, after five years as the greenest Commission president ever, the last of which she spent aggressively pruning her environmentalist image.
Signs that Meloni will support her: The Brothers of Italy’s 24 MEPs have not said what they’ll do, but insiders tell Playbook they expect them to vote in favor. Their ECR group backed Metsola. And Meloni’s main interest is a strong portfolio for Italy … so if that is something that she feels she can get, why risk it by voting no?
Eye of the beholder: Von der Leyen is whoever you want her to be. In the Green MEPs’ minds, she’s opened up to them fully and considers them part of their coalition. In the EPP MEPs’ minds, she’s focused on the three-party platform that got her nominated at the European Council.
ECR snubbed? Von der Leyen has not, as far as we’re aware, approached any ECR MEPs individually, but has held several sit-downs with the Greens, liberals and Socialists. “When she met with us she made no promises,” said the far-right Swedish MEP Charlie Weimers, who said his three-strong Sweden Democrats and its Nordic and Baltic allies will vote no. “She didn’t want to lose a single vote to the left,” said an ECR insider. Three Latvian ECR MEPs will abstain, too. Other parts of the ECR, including the Czechs, will vote in her favor.
THE REASON VON DER LEYEN IS PROBABLY SAFE: The lack of an alternative candidate.
THE REAL REASON SHE’S SAFE: Everyone is so done and just wants to go on holiday.
WHAT IF SHE FAILS? That thought scares the Greens because VDL is the greenest president they’ll get, and it worries the right because they know the Socialists would boycott someone more right-wing, making a majority tricky. Names like Valdis Dombrovksis, Metsola, Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Antonio Tajani are still floating around the Parliament as potential alternatives. Not everyone is buying the narrative that von der Leyen being rejected would bring institutional havoc. “If we would send back von der Leyen there could be a strengthening of Parliament,” said Green Volt MEP Damian Boeselager (though he was waiting for her speech this morning to decide how he and his four other Volt MEPs will vote).
EPP PROMISES NOT TO RENEGE ON DEAL: Two people in the know said that EPP chief Manfred Weber on Wednesday gave the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group assurances they’ll get the presidency of the Parliament after Metsola — something already agreed by the EPP’s negotiators, Polish PM Donald Tusk and Greek PM Mitsotakis.
DON’T GET COMPLACENT: There could still be hidden numbers of rebels in the three centrist parties, on top of those such as Ireland’s Fianna Fáil, that have ruled out supporting her. Think about von der Leyen’s own Christian Democratic Union in Germany, for example.
BUT IS IT ALL TALK? Some of those parties that threatened not to support von der Leyen during the campaign trail — like the Dutch Farmer-Citizen Movement, the French Republicans or the Slovenian EPP — may not end up voting against her. In a secret ballot, we might never know the truth.
THAT’S A HARD NO: “She is authoritarian,” said freshly minted MEP Joachim Streit. A member of Germany’s Renew-aligned Freie Wähler party, Streit cited past sins including scandals in von der Leyen’s time as German defense minister along with fresh complaints from his brief tenure in the European Parliament, such as the fact that she’s not expected to provide lawmakers with her political plans until the day of the vote. “This is not correct, but this is her style,” he told Playbook’s Sarah Wheaton. “This is not transparent.” Streit didn’t have a suggestion for an alternative to von der Leyen.
ONCE BITTEN … Then again, von der Leyen’s vote counters have been wrong before. Her team thought she had a healthy majority ahead of her first vote in Parliament, someone who worked on her 2019 effort recalled. The mere 9-vote margin was a jarring result.
FOLLOW THE VOTE … Our live blog will bring you detailed coverage from around 8:50 a.m.
HUNGARIAN PRESIDENCY
BORRELL UNDER FIRE AFTER WAVERING ON HUNGARY BOYCOTT: EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell is under pressure after signaling he would backtrack on plans to boycott the foreign ministers meeting in Budapest next month.
Walking it back: After some EU countries, including Germany, the Netherlands and Italy, initially criticized Borrell’s planned boycott out of fear it would create a precedent under which Brussels could cancel the informal “Gymnich” meetings between foreign ministers, Borrell on Tuesday got cold feet and said he was considering allowing the meeting in Budapest to take place after all.
But that backfired even more: While several member countries initially were skeptical about the Budapest gathering, many on Wednesday warned that the U-turn is worse because it signals disunity and would be read as a victory for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
Time to grow some balls: “If Borrell invites us to Brussels, we’ll go to Brussels. If he invites us to Budapest, we’ll go there,” said an EU diplomat. “In the end, it’s his decision. You either have cojones or you don’t.”
The view from Brussels: People close to Borrell argued he had been in favor of holding the meeting in Brussels instead of Budapest, but that EU countries were hiding behind him. Borrell is now planning to discuss the question with foreign ministers at their next meeting on July 22.
“This is peak Schuman roundabout idiocy,” said an EU diplomat from another EU country. “Borrell should have taken this decision, end of story. But instead of leadership, we have some stupid drama between some irrelevant small things, and the big picture was lost. But let’s see — maybe they will find some courage at the last minute.”
HUNGARIAN OPPOSITION CRITICIZES COMMISSION: The instruction to commissioners not to attend informal meetings under Hungary’s presidency is not the right approach, the country’s leading opposition figures told journalists in Parliament Wednesday.
“We’re sorry because this is bad for Hungary. And it doesn’t really solve the problem,” Péter Magyar, now an MEP in the EPP, argued in Strasbourg. He said he hoped that Budapest and the Commission “can find a solution at the highest level.”
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
PLUNDERING THE PATRIOTS’ BOUNTY: As outgoing MEPs garland themselves with going-away gongs, and new ones grab inventive titles such as “coordinator” and “deputy secretary general,” another game has been playing out: Sharing out the spoils created by the cordon sanitaire.
Playbook hears the Greens will get to chair the culture and education committee, while the EPP is nabbing the transport committee. Both had been earmarked for the far-right Patriots for Europe. This will be put into action by votes on Tuesday.
WILL THE REAL PATRIOTS PLEASE STAND UP: The Patriots have a new official account on X but there are also impersonators with more elaborate logos.
DIANA, PRINCESS OF WEIRD: Don’t miss this piece by Seb Starcevic on the eccentric — to say the least — new far-right and pro-Moscow MEP Diana Șoșoacă from Romania, who has proposed summoning a priest to sanctify the European Parliament and cleanse it of “devils.” She could start in the canteen.
IN OTHER NEWS
DEMOCRAT LEADERS CONFRONTED BIDEN: Even before he was forced to cut short a campaign trip after testing positive for Covid-19, doubts about President Joe Biden’s place on the ticket were deepening on Wednesday, with another lawmaker calling publicly for him to stand down and revelations that several top Democrats have gone directly to Biden to stress the party’s concerns in recent days.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told Biden last week that she and other Democratic lawmakers worry that he’s dragging down the party, my colleague Rachel Bade reported. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had a frank private conversation with Biden on Saturday (before the assassination attempt on Trump), while House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries sat down with the president a few days earlier to voice concerns that he could cost the party in other races.
While you were sleeping: Trump’s new running mate, J.D. Vance, formally accepted the VP nomination at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. Trump is expected to speak at the RNC on Thursday night local time.
BREXIT REBOOT: Thursday’s European leaders’ summit in Oxfordshire is an opportunity for the U.K.’s new Prime Minister Keir Starmer to reset relations with the EU. Hosting more than 40 leaders from across the continent at the European Political Community (EPC) summit, Starmer has a long to-do list — including progress on cross-Channel migration, revisions to Boris Johnson’s Brexit trade deal and a broad new security pact. My colleagues Jon Stone, Emilio Casalicchio and Laura Kayali have written a curtain-raiser here.
NORDICS SAY VISAS ARE KEY TO MIGRATION POLICY: Nordic governments want migration and foreign affairs ministers to work more closely together to tackle potential abuse of the EU’s visa policies, according to a letter to foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson. “We must avoid situations where neighboring visa-free third countries that have not aligned their visa policies with that of the EU are being used as hubs for irregular migration,” said eight ministers from Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Finland and Sweden in the letter dated July 12.