PM Mitsotakis receives Archbishop of Athens and All Greece Ieronymos
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Monday received the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece Ieronymos at the Maximos Mansion. According to government sources, the premier and the Archbishop discussed current issues concerning the relations between the Church and State, especially social issues in the context of deepening mutual support between the two institutions.
Greece reduces senior military officer positions
Defense Minister Nikos Dendias has overseen a significant reduction in senior officer ranks as part of emergency reviews requested under the new Armed Forces structure.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/politics/1259857/greece-reduces-senior-military-officer-positions
Company executives face trial in Greece’s predator spyware case
The trial of four company executives linked to Greece’s Predator spyware scandal is scheduled for March 5 at Athens’ first instance court. The defendants face misdemeanor charges for breaching communication privacy laws.
Protesting farmers remain at their blockades on the highways
Farmers from the region of Larissa remained at their blockades on the national highway on Monday, with their tractors at the junction of Gyrtoni and other places continuing their mobilisations. Meanwhile, the Trikala farmers’ blockade was growing stronger every day at the junction of Megalohori. The coordination committee of the E65 (motorway) blockade in Karditsa, in an announcement, called on the farmers that are still in their villages to join the blockade.
https://www.amna.gr/en/article/879493/Protesting-farmers-remain-at-their-blockades-on-the-highways
ATHEX: Index losses minimized by closing
A handful of blue chips rallied toward the end of the week’s first bourse session, minimizing losses for the benchmark after imported pressure that saw foreign markets suffer from the decline of technology stocks. Talk about US tariffs and Chinese AI applications appeared to affect European markets negatively, but Athinon Avenue covered most of the ground lost compared to Friday’s 13.5-year high, with the banks index even closing with minor gains.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1259893/athex-index-losses-minimized-by-closing
KATHIMERINI: The pending answers for the Tempi rail crash
TA NEA: Renovation program X 2
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: Government between grinding stones due to the Tempi rail crash
RIZOSPASTIS: The rage for the Tempi rail crash must become power to rally
KONTRA NEWS: The outbreak of peoples’ rage shakes the government
DIMOKRATIA: Mitsotakis in panic due to the massive rallies for the Tempi rail crash
NAFTEMPORIKI: Public sector promises data for all
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DRIVING THE DAY: NGOs VS. EPP
SLASHING THE CIVIL SOCIETY SYMBIOSIS: The European People’s Party is plotting a sweeping probe into the relationship between the European Commission and the NGOs it funds. It’s yet another power move by the center-right block as it consolidates control in Brussels.
Beyond green groups: As POLITICO reported last year, the Commission told climate NGOs they can’t use EU cash for lobbying and advocacy anymore. That instruction jibed with the EPP’s campaign promises to hit the brakes on environmental regulations. And that’s just the beginning, a key EPP MEP told my colleague Louise Guillot. According to Dirk Gotink, funding awarded by the Commission’s justice and health departments could soon be in for scrutiny.
Concerns about circular lobbying: “The point is not to defund NGOs, the point is separation of powers and to stop this kind of shadow lobby of the European Commission,” Gotink said. A former spokesman for EPP boss Manfred Weber, Gotink is articulating a concern from a range of right-of-center lawmakers: That the Commission is funding lefty NGOs to lobby the capitals and the Parliament for the Green Deal and other (progressive) Commission initiatives.
The lobbying is the point: Some Commission grants, including the so-called LIFE program funding already in the crosshairs, are specifically intended to help civil society participate and “counter-balance the interests of other actors in the EU arena,” as the Commission website puts it.
Green campaigners hit back: Claims that green groups were paid by the Commission to lobby MEPs are “totally false,” wrote Chloé Mikolajczak, a green activist and campaigner in Brussels, in LinkedIn post. She noted that the LIFE operating grants available for NGOs account for €15.6 million annually, or 0.006 percent of the EU’s annual budget.
To put that in perspective, while the figures aren’t precisely comparable, the 50 companies with the largest declared lobbying budget spent €120 million on EU lobbying in 2022, according to LobbyFacts.
Never-ending story: The feud between the EPP and NGOs isn’t new. But with the second von der Leyen Commission on a deregulation kick — not to mention growing ranks of MEPs even further to the right who are reflexively skeptical of civil society — the balance of power is clearly shifting away from the activist set. Watch for the Committee on Budgetary Control to keep tangling over this issue through May as it scrutinizes how the Commission is managing the EU budget. More for Pro subscribers in Morning Sustainability.
Joining in: Jordan Bardella of France’s far-right National Rally wants to team up with the EPP to sink the Green Deal, Zia Weise and Nicolas Camut report.
PAY-FOR-PLAY: Follow the Money looks at a contract between the EU’s Committee of the Regions and Spanish news outlet EFE, which seems to be “blurring the lines between journalism and PR.”
WORST-CASE SCENARIOS DEPT.
RANKING THE RISKS TO THE EU: A new survey due out later today asked European politics experts to rank a list of 30 potential problems based on how likely they are to happen in 2025 — and how big an impact they would have on the EU. Some 400 weighed in.
Playbook advice: We got a sneak peek, and we recommend you do some deep breathing exercises before and after you read the top findings …
Trump’s nuclear impact: American withdrawal from European security guarantees is considered as dangerous for Europe as a Russian nuclear strike. Experts ranked the latter as the least likely of the 30 scenarios considered.
Brace for disappointment: Respondents don’t expect the Israel-Hamas cease-fire to hold.
Drumroll please: A “cease-fire on Russia’s terms” in Ukraine is the top threat to the EU in 2025.
Wallow in your anxiety: The European Union Institute for Security Studies and the European University Institute will present the report this morning at 9.30 a.m., with livestreams on X and LinkedIn. Read it here later today.
ALREADY HAPPENING: My U.S.-based colleagues look at the fallout from U.S. President Donald Trump’s order to halt American foreign aid.
IS IT ANY WONDER THEN that the famously frugal countries of northern Europe are rethinking their parsimony? As Gregorio Sorgi reports, the spendthrift alliance is wobbling just as the EU prepares for its next big budget showdown.
New (di)vision: A group of Baltic and Nordic countries are developing a “different vision focused on the security issue that distinguishes them from the other frugals like Holland and Austria,” Eulalia Rubio, an analyst from the Jacques Delors Institute think tank.
Sovereignty has become the new rallying cry, and even staunch fiscal hawks like Denmark or Finland are warming to the idea of loosening the purse strings to bolster the EU’s collective defense and resilience against external threats. Read the full article.
DIPLOMATIC DASH: Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is making an urgent visit to the German Chancellery today, seeking solidarity in the face of Donald Trump’s insistence that Greenland should be under U.S. control, my Berlin Playbook colleagues report. She’ll also visit French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in Brussels. On Monday, Denmark said it would spend more than $2 billion increasing its military presence in the Arctic. Reuters has the details.
“Vow of silence”: Copenhagen has asked its allies not to react to Trump’s Greenland threats to avoid provoking a public confrontation with the president, the Financial Times reports this morning.
EU ENLARGEMENT
KALLAS JOINS PUSH TO ACCELERATE ACCESSION Top EU diplomat Kaja Kallas will join a breakfast today designed to jumpstart the Union’s accession process for Ukraine, as Kyiv pushes to accelerate its membership bid.
Who’s going: Sweden’s Europe Minister Jessica Rosencrantz hosts Kallas, Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos and Ukrainian Deputy PM Olha Stefanishyna for breakfast at the Sofitel, which will be followed by a press conference.
Sprint to March: Speaking to Playbook’s Nick Vinocur, Rosencrantz said Europe needed to “seize the momentum” on Ukraine’s accession to open the first “cluster” in membership talks with the EU, ideally by March. “We see that Ukraine has accelerated its reform process,” she said.
Plodding progress: EU leaders granted Ukraine candidate status in 2022 and opened its formal application process in mid-2024, but Kyiv has yet to open its first negotiation “cluster” with the bloc. The delay is down to the EU’s “year of doing nothing” and demands for reforms from Ukraine. But according to Rosencrantz, Ukraine has shown enough progress for the bloc to open a first cluster, which deals with “fundamentals” such as the rule of law, and opens the door to further negotiations.
35 in ‘25: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he wants Kyiv to negotiate five or six clusters out of 35 in 2025.
SINGLE MARKET: The breakfast is something of a pregame ahead of the General Affairs Council meeting today, where accession is also on the agenda. Prague wants to talk about “gradual integration of Ukraine and Moldova in the EU’s single market.”
GOING BACKWARD: EU foreign ministers on Monday suspended a deal for visa-free travel for diplomats from Georgia, whose accession process is in deep freeze amid diplomatic backslide.
SLOVAKIA
FICO LOOKS TO UNWOKE CONSTITUTION: Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico’s governing coalition is crumbling, and tens of thousands have taken to the streets to protest his pro-Russian stance. He’s responding by proposing amending Slovakia’s constitution to enshrine two genders, ban gay adoption and assert the primacy of national laws over EU regulations, according to Slovak outlet Denník N.
Context: Fico’s majority in Bratislava is in jeopardy after four members of the junior coalition partner said they would no longer vote with the government. The left-wing populist prime minister is also under heavy pressure following his secret trip to Moscow late last year and after public feuding with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy over access to Russian gas fueled mass protests.
Feb. 4: That’s when the Slovak parliament reconvenes and it will be clear whether Fico will be able to ride out the crisis or be forced to call snap elections.
New gambit: After initially accusing NGOs of trying to foment a coup d’etat, Fico appeared to switch gears Monday with a fresh focus on the culture war. Even if his current majority were stable, he’d still need votes from the conservative opposition to advance the amendments.
IN OTHER NEWS
WHO OWNS “MEGA?” The European Conservatives and Reformists, the right-wing political force anchored by the Brothers of Italy and Poland’s Law and Justice (PiS) parties, is holding its second “Make Europe Great Again” confab in the European Parliament today and Wednesday.
MEGA más: Even further to the right, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s National Rally, are planning a “Make Europe Great Again” gathering of the Patriots for Europe family in Madrid on Feb. 8, Max Griera reports.
CHIPPING AWAY: Donald Trump called the rapid rise of Chinese AI app DeepSeek a “wake-up call” for American tech companies, adding that the U.S. must be “laser-focused on competing.” The AI chat app shot to No. 1 in the Apple app store over the weekend, which led to an almost 17 percent drop in the stock price of the chipmaker Nvidia on Monday. NBC News has more.