Greece to go ahead with plans for Aegean marine park, PM says
Greece will go ahead with plans to create a marine park in the Aegean Sea despite objections from Turkey, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Wednesday in an interview, during which he also addressed lingering diplomatic tensions with Balkan neighbors Albania and North Macedonia.
Androulakis presents his vision of a united, appealing European Union
PASOK-KINAL leader Nikos Androulakis shared his vision for the European Union during a discussion with young people on Wednesday.
PM Mitsotakis meets Emir of Qatar; two bilateral agreements signed
With the signature of two new bilateral agreements, including one on military cooperation, the meeting in Athens on Wednesday between Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, sealed the further strengthening of relations between Qatar and Greece.
Olympiakos triumphs in Conference League final
Olympiakos has become the first Greek club to win a European cup as on Wednesday it defeated Fiorentina in the Europa Conference League final in Athens.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/sports/1240089/olympiakos-triumphs-in-conference-league-final
ATHEX: Benchmark drops to a month-low
The decline of stocks continued on Wednesday at the Greek bourse, with the benchmark yielding significant ground as its drop accelerated and it closed at the lowest point of the day. It has also fallen to its lowest point in over a month. The announcement of the takeover of insurance company Europe Asfalistiki by Intracom led to a decline in the latter’s price.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1240045/athex-benchmark-drops-to-a-month-low
KATHIMERINI: Fear that the younger generation will abstain from the euro-elections
TA NEA: Olympiacos FC wins legendary trophy
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: Behold the poorest regions of poor Greece
AVGI: The government is threatening and destroying evidence regarding the Tempi rail-crash
RIZOSPASTIS: Lists of shame regarding children waiting to be operated on while the government blames health workers
KONTRA NEWS: PM’s office in panic due to the low interest of New Democracy’s voters for the upcoming elections
DIMOKRATIA: Beneficial loans for SMEs
NAFTEMPORIKI: 27 deals are changing the map of Athens Stock Market
UKRAINE AND NATO
NATO CZECH-LIST: As NATO foreign ministers gather in Prague today, the focus will be on how far Ukraine can go in its self-defense. Is it allowed to strike back with Western weapons against missile launchers, ammunition depots and troops that attack it from behind Russia’s borders?
How Ukraine strikes back matters: France, Poland, the Baltics and Germany are tending toward allowing Ukraine to use their weapons for self-defense behind the border, while the U.S. remains on the fence. But it’s not straightforward. Diplomats told Playbook the assessment depends partly on the type of weapons provided — allowing Ukraine to fire howitzers over the border is not the same as letting it use long-range ATACMS missiles to hit targets deep inside Russia.
Strategic ambiguity: U.S. Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith said there’s no change yet to Washington’s policy of American weapons only being used on Ukrainian soil, though she added: “This is ultimately Ukraine’s war. They need to make the determination about how to execute that war, and we leave it ultimately in their hands.”
Expect to hear new language on Ukrainian membership: Ukraine may get a stronger commitment to its aspirations to join NATO, Smith said in response to a question from my colleague Stuart Lau at a press briefing on Wednesday. “It won’t look exactly like the language that we had last year … There are some very important and useful ideas floating around the alliance right now.”
Make it irreversible: Outgoing NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has repeatedly referred to the prospect of Kyiv’s future membership as “irreversible.” But even adding a word like that could prove to be too much for Hungary, given the campaign rhetoric of its leader Viktor Orbán.
Managing expectations: At the Vilnius summit last year, NATO countries said they would invite Ukraine to join “when allies agree and conditions are met,” which Zelenskyy publicly derided as “absurd.” For weeks, NATO countries have been trying to manage Ukraine’s expectations about what they can and can’t achieve at this summit. Specifically, the U.S. and Germany are not ready to offer an invitation to Kyiv to accede to NATO with the war going on. The allies are being careful to avoid a repeat of Vilnius and giving the Ukrainians another unwelcome surprise.
VULNERABLE: Europe has only a fraction of the air defense capabilities needed to protect its eastern flank, the Financial Times reported, citing internal NATO calculations that it said expose the scale of Europe’s vulnerabilities. It said NATO members could provide less than 5 percent of the air defense capacities deemed necessary to protect its members in central and eastern Europe against a full-scale attack.
EU AND US
DON’T BE NAIVE ABOUT THE US, BRETON WARNS: In an interview with Playbook in his office at the Berlaymont, Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton insisted the EU must negotiate with Washington as “equals” and be realistic about their diverging interests, despite the shared values and close alliance with the U.S.
The task for the next Commission: While the U.S. and Europe were “key allies,” Breton said, the next Commission must keep in mind important differences in areas such as subsidies, tariffs and cybersecurity. “Let’s not be naïve,” the commissioner said. “The U.S. also pursues a clear America First policy,” even under President Joe Biden.
‘No consideration’: Breton mentioned Biden’s massive IRA industry subsidy program and “the planned increase of tariffs in several strategic sectors, regardless of who is in office and with no consideration of the impact on the EU.”
Hard lessons: “On vaccines, for example, it was only when the European Union set up an export control tool that we were able to negotiate from a position of strength and unblock the supply chains,” Breton said.
Balance of power: Europe has to be assertive about looking after its own industrial, technological and security interests, and about maintaining jobs here. “This is the new reality,” Breton told Playbook. “That includes our ability to establish a balance of power.”
BUT HOW DOES THAT SIT WITH VDL? Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has been criticized for her close relationship with the Biden administration. POLITICO has reported about her Chief of Staff Bjoern Seibert’s close cooperation with senior U.S. officials. Does she envisage keeping the U.S. at arm’s length if she gets another term?
“Europe and the U.S. will remain each other’s most important international partners,” von der Leyen’s Chief Campaign Spokesperson Alexander Winterstein said. “During her mandate, President von der Leyen worked with both President [Donald] Trump and President Biden. She will have a good working relationship with whoever will be the next U.S. president.”
EU’S FUTURE
LEADERS’ PRIORITIES FOR THE NEXT COMMISSION: The 27 European leaders want the next European Commission to focus on three main strands — defense, competitiveness and the rule of law — according to the latest draft of the strategic agenda, seen by my colleague Barbara Moens.
Mood board: The document, which is being shepherded by European Council President Charles Michel, is essentially a mood board that EU leaders compile every five years to guide the incoming European executive in Brussels. The draft was discussed last week by the EU leaders’ right hands, the “sherpas,” and will be further tweaked before June’s European Council.
Defense is the top priority, as POLITICO reported last week. But in addition to making Europe more secure, leaders want it to be more competitive (while also continuing the climate agenda) and to robustly uphold the rule of law across the bloc, according to the document.
LATEST ON HUNGARY BLOCKING ACCESSION TALKS: Representatives of the EU27 had a heated discussion Wednesday about whether to start accession negotiations with Ukraine — as Playbook teased on Wednesday. The talks will likely take many years, but some members want to launch them now to bolster Ukraine and promote reforms in the country.
Inside the room: “One member state still requests significant changes” to the negotiating framework with Ukraine, one diplomat said of the talks, referring to Hungary, the EU country most opposed to Ukraine joining. Another diplomat said there was a “clash” with Hungary’s ambassador, who presented a list of 11 bilateral issues that Budapest wants added to the negotiation framework. Lithuania’s ambassador reminded his Hungarian colleague of the duty of “sincere cooperation” enshrined in the treaties, and that if each country came up with a list of bilateral issues, there would never be any progress.
Where to from here? The 27 ambassadors will try again to get a consensus next week.
NOW READ THIS — WHY HUNGARY CAN KISS A TOP JOB IN BRUSSELS GOODBYE: Fed up with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s constant obstructionism on Ukraine, his fellow EU leaders plan to punish him by giving his country a weak portfolio in the next European Commission, three diplomats familiar with the discussions told POLITICO’s Gabriel Gavin.
Hungary wants to keep the enlargement job, which has significant influence because of EU talks on Ukrainian accession into the bloc, but national governments have no appetite for Budapest’s current commissioner, Olivér Várhelyi (or any other Hungarian) continuing in such a major role, the three diplomats said. Read the full story here.
IN OTHER NEWS
HOW VON DER LEYEN’S APPROACH TO MELONI BACKFIRED: The Commission president spent a year courting right-wing Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni as a potential partner on the European stage, but on the eve of the European election, it has blown up in her face. My colleagues Barbara Moens and Hannah Roberts examine why the relationship is fraying and what it means for the balance of power in European politics.
What the polls show … MEPs from far-right parties look set to outnumber those from von der Leyen’s center-right European People’s Party in the next Parliament, polls suggest, though the fragmented extremist forces are seen as unlikely to unite into a single political bloc. Hannah Cokelaere looks at the numbers.
WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING — HONG KONG DEMOCRACY ACTIVISTS CONVICTED: Fourteen pro-democracy activists were found guilty in a landmark case brought under a law imposed by Beijing that has all but wiped out public dissent. The Associated Press has the details.
IRAN NUCLEAR CONCERNS: Britain, France and Germany have circulated a draft resolution against Iran ahead of the U.N. nuclear watchdog’s board meeting next week and appear determined to push it despite opposition from the U.S. ally, Reuters reported, citing three unnamed diplomats. “We are pushing the Americans, but they remain stuck in the thinking that nothing should be done to escalate with Iran,” a senior European official said. “That has achieved nothing so far and we believe we need to show firmness now.”
US AMBASSADOR BACKS STARMER ON GAZA: In a wide-ranging interview for the latest POLITICO Power Play podcast, Washington’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom Jane Hartley talked about her surprise at current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s decision to call an election, President Biden’s health, the special relationship between the U.S. and U.K., and the potential for a trade deal between the two nations. And she weighed in on the apparent difference of opinion between Starmer and his Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy about whether Britain should comply if the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
MALTA CASE UPDATE: Maltese Central Bank Governor Edward Scicluna and former Deputy Prime Minister Christopher Fearne pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to criminal charges in connection with a privatization deal for three hospitals, following an inquiry that has roiled Malta’s political elite. Ben Munster has the latest.