PM: Greece sending Navy ships to monitor migrant vessels off Libya
Greece is planning to sent Navy ships outside Libya’s territorial waters “as a precaution” to monitor migrant flows, Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Monday, during a regular meeting with the President of the Republic, Costas Tasoulas.
Photos of Souda and encrypted software found on the laptop of the 26-year-old Azeri arrested for espionage
Over 5,000 photos of the Souda base were taken within four days by a 26-year-old Azeri man, who was arrested on Sunday for espionage based on intelligence and at the recommendation of the Greek National Intelligence Service (EYP), sources said on Monday.
Efforts to extinguish the blaze by firefighters are ongoing
Firefighters continue to battle the flames on the island of Chios on Tuesday. Reinforcements from Athens, Thessaloniki, Kavala and Lesvos have arrived at Chios where 444 operate with 21 forest commando teams, 85 vehicles as well as 30 volunteers -hiking units- with 4 volunteer vehicles assisted by 2 aircraft and 6 helicopters.
https://www.amna.gr/en/article/913500/Efforts-to-extinguish-the-blaze-by-firefighters-are-ongoing
Over 4 million tourists visited Greece in the period Jan-Apr 2025
More than 4.1 million tourists visited Greece during the January-April period, marking an increase of 5.8% compared to the same period in 2024. Tourist arrivals from the United States rose by approximately 27%.
ATHEX: Late surge takes stocks out of the red
European stock markets displayed remarkable resilience in a particularly volatile global context on Monday, posting gains and carrying the Greek bourse along. Athinon Avenue spent most of the day in the red, but enjoyed a late rally that turned things around and led to a second consecutive day of recovery for the benchmark and most indexes. Traders appear convinced that international volatility is the new normality, and that tends to offer significant opportunities.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1273257/athex-late-surge-takes-stocks-out-of-the-red
KATHIMERINI: Missile attack by Iran after it warned the USA
TA NEA: 12th day of war: Sleeper agents and limited counter-strike by Iran
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: OPEKEPE scandal: Even…goats voted in 2023
RIZOSPASTIS: Message of uprising! Greece must exit the imperialistic war – No participation in the massacre
KONTRA NEWS: Erdogan is sending to Greece boats of migrants
DIMOKRATIA: Greek war ships outside Libya
NAFTEMPORIKI: 10+1 changes in the labor market
BREAKING OVERNIGHT — TRUMP’S UNILATERAL “CEASEFIRE”: Iran and Israel have agreed to a ceasefire, U.S. President Trump declared on Truth Social at around midnight Brussels time. Hours later, at least three people were killed as Iran unleashed several barrages of missile attacks at Israel. The truce was set to kick in just now. Our colleagues in Washington have all the details.
A reprieve would be good news for European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, who is due to depart today from the United Arab Emirates. Her return to Brussels — where she’s meant to receive an award and meet with Bill Gates — was suddenly in doubt when Iranian counterstrikes prompted Emirati airspace to shut down temporarily on Monday.
HOWDY. Sarah Wheaton here for this newsy Tuesday edition of Brussels Playbook. Tim Ross will be with you Wednesday morning.
DRIVING THE DAY: QUEEN URSULA’S PEASANT REVOLT
GREEN-WASHING GAMBLE RISKS VDL AGENDA: The anti-greenwashing bill that the Commission decided to kill wasn’t, in and of itself, a particularly high-profile or consequential measure. But it could turn out to be the straw that broke the back of the centrist, pro-EU coalition that gave Ursula von der Leyen a second term as Commission president.
“Von der Leyen has to make a choice,” said René Repasi, leader of the German Socialists in the European Parliament. The Commission president and her allies in the center-right European People’s Party can keep teaming up with the far right to roll back parts of the Green Deal, or she can say goodbye to guaranteed support from centrist factions for the other parts of her agenda, Max Griera reports.
What’s at stake: Support from the Socialists & Democrats and the liberal Renew group will be crucial for passing legacy-cementing items, such as rules on deportations for asylum-seekers and an overhaul of the Common Agricultural Policy.
Target No. 1 would be von der Leyen’s deregulation drive. Over at the Council of the EU, the incoming Danish presidency is already bracing for divisions in the Parliament’s center to complicate inter-institutional negotiations over the simplification packages. “Within that centrist, von der Leyen majority, there is no consensus on how far you can take that,” Danish Permanent Representative Carsten Grønbech-Jensen told your Playbook author at POLITICO’s ApéroPro event last night. It’s a “big challenge,” he added.
INTRIGUE IN THE BERLAYMONT — RIBERA FIGHTS ALONE: The furor over the corporate greenwashing bill was just the latest, lonely fight for Commission Green Deal boss Teresa Ribera (nominated by Spain’s Socialist government) while colleagues try to undermine her sustainability agenda. As Karl Mathiesen and Marianne Gros report, Ribera mounted a rearguard effort to pressure Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall not to dump the bill.
Wins that feel like losses: That effort was a success. But ultimately, it was too late, after Italy reversed its position on the bill (claiming that it had never been in favor).
Shots fired: “You may claim being green or you may decide not to do it. But customers deserve respect. We should honour their trust and ensure a reliable information support,” Ribera wrote on Bluesky Monday.
NATO SUMMIT
NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS: NATO leaders are descending on The Hague for a two-day summit designed less for big strategy than careful stage management.
The big deal is already done, with negotiators already working out the details to boost defense-related spending to 5 percent of GDP.
KIS-off strategy: The goal is to keep it short, keep it smooth — and keep Donald Trump from blowing it up. Even Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is being sort-of sidelined, on the guest list for tonight’s dinner but not invited to the closed-door leaders’ session on Wednesday, thus reducing the chance of another Oval Office-style confrontation with Trump. Read more from Chris Lunday.
First draft of history: Don’t mistake understatement for low stakes. The boost in defense spending — and the political transformations it could trigger, for better or worse — is historic. For Caspar Veldkamp, the Dutch minister responsible for organizing the summit, the Dutch political center could come to represent for the alliance what a Dutch university town represents for the EU: “Like Maastricht is inextricably connected to the Treaty on European Union, I hope that The Hague will from now on be linked to The Hague Investment Plan: a historical leap forward in bolstering the trans-Atlantic security,” Veldkamp said in a statement to Playbook.
POLITICO’S NATO TAKEOVER: Our team is at the center of the action at the NATO summit today, hosting a full day of exclusive panels and networking inside the POLITICO Lounge at “NATO in the Huis,” an event hub co-hosted by the Munich Security Conference and the Clingendael Institute. From our industry breakfast unpacking NATO’s 5 percent spending target to evening cocktails, we’re convening key voices on defense and security, including U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Chris Coons. More details here.
Pro Defense on offense: Also breaking overnight, POLITICO is strengthening our defense and foreign policy reporting team, with these new members:
— Victor Jack becomes NATO reporter, based in Brussels.
— Chris Lunday joins our EU defense team, based in Berlin.
— Esther Webber becomes senior foreign and defense correspondent, based in London.
— Playbook’s own Nick Vinocur becomes chief foreign affairs correspondent (and he’ll continue penning Monday’s Playbooks too).
MIGRATION
SETTING THE STAGE FOR MIGRATION TALKS: The EU is looking to smooth the entry of legal immigrants from India while plugging the persistently leaky path from Libya, Ursula von der Leyen told EU leaders in a letter that sets the stage for their migration talks at this week’s European Council summit. Read it here.
By the numbers:
— 21 percent: Overall decrease in illegal border crossings into the EU, compared to this time last year.
— 69,000: Estimated illegal border crossings through mid-June.
— 93 percent: Proportion of illegal crossings beginning in Libya (Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner will travel there “soon”).
— 1,035: People who died in the Mediterranean Sea and English Channel in the first quarter of this year, per the IOM.
For the agenda: Von der Leyen will host a conference of the Global Alliance to Counter Migrant Smuggling on Dec. 10.
BERLIN “BACK ON BOARD”: Ahead of the EUCO, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will join 14 other national leaders (representing a qualified majority) at an informal meeting to discuss migration, convened by Denmark, Italy and the Netherlands, a German government official tells my colleague Nette Nöstlinger. It’s the first time a German leader has taken part in these gatherings, the official said, adding: “We are back on board with the topic of migration.”
CALL TO PAUSE NEW VISA LIBERALIZATION DEALS: Nine EU capitals argue that talks on adding new countries to the visa-free travel list should not be concluded until the Commission puts out its new visa strategy, expected later this year. Sweden, joined by France, Austria and others, also backs the idea of reviewing whether countries still meet the criteria for visa-free travel every few years. Swedish Migration Minister Johan Forssell offered up the food-for-thought document (“non-paper,” in Eurospeak), viewed by Playbook, to Brunner last week.
MORE EUCO PREP
RUSSIA ROW ROLLS OVER: Top EU diplomats failed to find an agreement for the bloc’s latest round of sanctions on Moscow on Monday at a meeting of foreign affairs ministers in Brussels, Gabriel Gavin writes in to report. The Commission has put forward proposals to squeeze the Kremlin’s war chest with restrictions on companies linked to the Nord Stream pipelines, those selling on fuel refined from Russian oil and a lower price cap on the country’s crude exports.
Not so fast: Hungary and Slovakia, however, have been expected to join forces and use their vetoes to block the proposals — which require unanimous support — unless they’re given exemptions to a planned phaseout of Russian fossil fuels by the end of 2027. “This would undermine Hungary’s energy security,” Budapest’s Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said Monday, claiming he had “blocked” the package from moving forward. More on their demands here.
Bratislava clarifies: Slovakia, meanwhile, said it doesn’t actually oppose the 18th package — although it has threatened to hold it hostage to gain assurances it will be exempt from the REPowerEU Russian gas phaseout.
LAST-MINUTE TWEAKS: Watch for EU ambassadors to meet again on Wednesday in Coreper II to iron out the final language of the European Council conclusions before EU27 leaders meet Thursday.
CZECH-IN
COURT PUTS BABIŠ IN A CORNER: Former Czech PM Andrej Babiš is in legal jeopardy again after Prague’s High Court on Monday overturned an earlier ruling clearing him of wrongdoing in a €2 million EU subsidy fraud allegedly linked to his agriculture business, Ketrin Jochecová reports.
The case now returns to the same Prague district court that last year acquitted Babiš and his former adviser (and current Patriots MEP) Jana Nagyová of manipulating ownership documents so that Babiš’ agriculture holding qualified for the subsidy. The High Court said the lower court hadn’t properly evaluated the evidence. Both Babiš and Nagyová deny wrongdoing and have pleaded not guilty, claiming the accusations are politically motivated.
The timing is tricky, ahead of a parliamentary election this autumn. Babiš’ right-wing populist ANO party leads in the polls, while the ruling coalition has been hit by a recent scandal. Several opposition politicians have called on Babiš to drop out of the election.
MORE GRIM ACCUSATIONS: MEP Filip Turek (from the Patriots for Europe group) is facing a criminal complaint filed last year by an ex-girlfriend who accused him of rape and abuse, Czech media platform Page Not Found reports. Turek denies the allegations, calling them “absurd” and “politically motivated ahead of the elections.”
A prosecutor’s office in Prague is investigating the complaint, but the case could be dismissed because the alleged abuse took place 15 to 20 years ago. What happens next depends on whether more recent allegations are made.
IN OTHER NEWS
CRUNCHING MEP MEETING DATA: There are loads of juicy findings in Transparency International EU’s new analysis of more than 30,000 logs of EU lawmakers’ meetings with interest reps since their mandate started on June 1, 2024 — including a growing presence from MAGA groups like the Heritage Foundation and Republicans for National Renewal. Read the NGO’s report here, out today.
CIGARETTES ARE GETTING CHEAPER IN EUROPE: That’s the warning from the World Health Organization in a new study, Rory O’Neill reports for Pro Health Care subscribers. It comes as the Commission mulls new super-taxes on tobacco products and vapes to curb their use.