Greeks celebrate Clean Monday and the start of Lent with kite-flying, picnics, music and dancing
Greeks throughout the country celebrated the Clean Monday holiday in the time-honoured fashion on Monday, with outdoor activities such as kite-flying and picnics, the traditional lenten delicacies, music and dancing.
A ‘landmark day’ for EU-Egypt relations notes Mitsotakis at EU leaders’ meeting with Egyptian president
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis expressed satisfaction with the upgrade of European Union relations with Egypt to a Comprehensive and Strategic Partnership, according to government sources commenting on the meeting, in Cairo, with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Sunday.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/news/1234310/greek-pm-and-egyptian-president-strengthen-partnership/
Erdogan: All Cyprus could have been ours
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in a speech he delivered to Turkish military personnel at a dinner Monday, not only defended the Turkish invasion of Cyprus but went even further by arguing that if Turkish forces had moved further south in 1974, then Cyprus might be all Turkish today
https://www.ekathimerini.com/news/1234350/erdogan-all-cyprus-could-have-been-ours/
New Democracy officials resign over voters’ list
Two conservative officials resigned and one was ousted on Friday amid a scandal involving the leak of an unspecified number of email addresses of Greek voters residing abroad.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/news/1234204/new-democracy-officials-resign-over-voters-list/
Moody’s maintains Greece below investment level
Moody’s remained on Friday the only major rating agency to maintain Greece outside the investment-grade states, as it affirmed the country’s credit rating at “Ba1”, with a stable outlook.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1234264/moodys-maintains-greece-below-investment-level/
ATHEX: Negligible losses for the week
The March triple witching sent the bourse’s turnover soaring to over 350 million euros on Friday, while the benchmark grabbed some more ground, all but offsetting the major losses it had suffered on Monday. That meant the week closed with small losses, for the first time after seven weeks of growth.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1234214/athex-negligible-losses-for-the-week/
TA NEA: Nuclear ‘rififi’ at the Aristotle University of Athens
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: The narrative of the PM’s office regarding the breach of voters’ personal data collapses
KONTRA NEWS: Fellony charges for breach of personal data
DIMOKRATIA: Soda industries are snatching public wealth
NAFTEMPORIKI: Luis de Guindos: Greece is a champion of the Eurozone
FARMERS VS. UKRAINE
THROWING KYIV UNDER THE TRACTOR: In a major cave-in to Europe’s farming lobby, EU countries overnight agreed to impose restrictions on Ukrainian agricultural sales, dealing a significant blow to its exports.
Less revenue for Kyiv: This retreat ahead of this week’s EU leaders’ summit (for which farmers are descending on Brussels again) paves the way for a deal with the European Parliament today to partly roll back Kyiv’s trade benefits, officials and diplomats told Playbook. That’s expected to result in a revenue loss of more than €1 billion a year for the war-struck country.
Masks off: At last night’s meeting of the 27 government envoys, France came out in support of Poland, asking for a limit on imports of Ukrainian poultry, eggs, sugar and wheat, according to two people briefed on the discussion.
Strategic yogurt, revisited: Just as Macron stressed France’s no-holds-barred support for Ukraine, the pitchfork-wielding farmers have blown a hole into his “whatever it takes” soufflé.
**A message from Wise: The people and businesses of Europe are being overcharged. Last year, they lost €30 billion to hidden fees in international payments. Everyone deserves the mid-market exchange rate(1) when sending and spending in other currencies. Payment providers hide fees. The Payment Services Regulation can fix them. Read how here: wise.com/campaign/hidden-fees-eu.**
Signal to Russia: Vladimir Putin can rely on European agri-food groups to do his lobbying for him. Russia’s full supermarket shelves — heaving with EU products — have been one of the regime’s go-to arguments to show Russia is winning the war.
Contradictory policy: This isn’t the first time the EU bowed to its agri sector when it comes to Russia’s war on Ukraine. While Russian-flagged ships are banned from EU ports, there’s an exemption for those carrying Russian fertilizers and pesticides. In previous decisions, the EU also rolled back asset freezes against Russian oligarchs involved in the agri-food trade.
The argument, back then, was that tougher restrictions on Russian fertilizers would lead to higher food prices in Europe. But that’s exactly what restrictions on imports from Ukraine will also do.
HAPPENING TODAY: The Belgian Council presidency and MEPs will meet this evening for negotiations on the new restrictions. Parliament has also asked for a lower ceiling at which the restrictions will kick in, as my colleagues Camille Gijs and Bartosz Brzeziński report in this must-read.
WINNERS AND LOSERS: Take a moment to appreciate the farming lobby’s political feat. Sky-high energy prices, a narrowly averted winter heating crisis, an influx of millions of refugees and Putin’s nuclear saber-rattling didn’t undermine EU will to support Ukraine — but farmers successfully convinced leaders to U-turn on policies aimed at supporting Kyiv’s income.
Winners: EU agricultural groups, who get to have their cake and eat it. After a host of measures meant to lower their production costs (such as derogations from environmental rules and the reintroduction of fossil fuel subsidies), they will now get measures to shield them from competition and increase their sales prices.
Also a winner: Russia. Today’s decision doesn’t just mean a revenue loss for Ukraine; it proves that EU leaders’ support for Ukraine caves under interest group pressure.
Losers: Ukrainian farmers, who look set to forgo some €1.2 billion a year in sales to the EU. And European consumers, who will get even less supply and choice, which could again drive up food price inflation.
BLAME IT ON THE ELECTION YEAR: Asked why they caved in, senior officials blamed their leaders’ fear that the farmers’ protests could fuel new populist parties, such as the BBB in the Netherlands.
But there are other ways to placate them: As some EU officials stressed, countries could help the majority of farmers simply by distributing subsidies more fairly. Some 80 percent of the EU’s direct farm subsidies go to the 20 percent biggest farms, according to the Commission.
MEANWHILE, IN BRITAIN: Hospitals, town halls and government departments will be heated via a massive energy deal with a subsidiary of a firm still importing Russian gas to Europe, my colleague Charlie Cooper reports.
MORE SUMMIT PREP
EU AFFAIRS MINISTERS TALK REFORM AND ENLARGEMENT … WITHOUT COMMISSION INPUT: EU affairs ministers meet today to prepare for the EUCO summit — and the “future of Europe.” Ahead of the eventual integration into the EU of Ukraine, Moldova and some Western Balkan countries, the bloc has a Herculean task of getting its own house in order.
On the back burner: But as the June EU election approaches, Brussels is keeping a lid on the work being done to prepare for enlargement (which many argue may be decades away). “Let’s be honest: nobody wants to talk about this before the European elections,” one EU official said. “Talking about [fewer] subsidies for European farmers is not something you’d want to put on your campaign slogans — or give as electoral ammunition for the far right.”
Waiting for the Berlaymont: The Commission was set to publish a communication on pre-enlargement reform at the end of February. That didn’t happen — and the draft has been heavily watered down, according to three EU officials, with several countries asking the Commission to focus less on the financial implications and future institutional reforms, one EU diplomat said. The communication is now set to be published on Wednesday — the day after ministers were supposed to discuss it. Read more by Barbara Moens.
LEADERS WANT ‘INNOVATIVE SOURCES’ TO FINANCE WEAPONS: In the latest draft conclusions for this week’s EUCO summit, obtained by Playbook, EU leaders call for “innovative sources” of financing for the defense industry.
EIB time: As Playbook reported last year during the showdown between Nadia Calviño and Margrethe Vestager for the European Investment Bank top job (which the former won), some countries were pushing for a change to the EIB’s mandate to finance weapons production. Now, the time has come to make that wish come true. The draft conclusions say the EIB “is invited to adapt its policy for lending to the defence industry” and to widen its definition of dual-use goods — which it can finance the production of.
Majority in favor: A majority of EU countries— including Germany, France and Italy — backed that line in a letter addressed to Calviño and dated Sunday, seen by POLITICO.
SCOOP — FINAL BOSNIA PUSH AHEAD OF EUCO: Seven European countries have urged their counterparts and the European Commission to open accession negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina at this week’s summit.
Friends of the Western Balkans: Austria, Croatia, Czechia, Greece, Italy, Slovakia and Slovenia want to “seize the momentum and the current window of opportunity,” they wrote in a letter, seen by Barbara Moens. The foreign and EU ministers of the seven countries argue that taking this step “will entrench Bosnia and Herzegovina firmly on its EU path and bring it one step closer to the EU. Failing to do so would weaken the role of the EU in the Western Balkans and send a negative message to the whole region, to which we have made the promise that its future lies within the EU more than 20 years ago.”
Background: The European Commission last week recommended taking that next step on Bosnia’s road to EU membership, but not all EU countries are convinced the country has done its homework.
Say what you mean, mean what you say: “It is crucial to use the current momentum and to decide to open accession negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina at the European Council later this week,” Austria’s EU Minister Karoline Edtstadler told Playbook. “The people in Bosnia and Herzegovina deserve the next step! The EU must keep its promises!”
MORE EU ELECTION
RENEW PICKS TRIO: The EU’s centrist political families completed their trio of lead candidates for the EU election on Monday, announcing Valérie Hayer will join “Team Europe” with MEP Sandro Gozi and German MP Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann. All three are running for a seat in the European Parliament — unlike Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and her Socialist rival Nicolas Schmit.
No to the Fictionkandidat: Gozi told my colleague Eddy Wax that it’s too soon to say which of their three lead candidates is gunning for which top EU job. “It will depend on the balance of power between the different political groups,” he said. Regardless, Renew isn’t embracing the Spitzenkandidat system. “We don’t like fiction, and we don’t like to pretend,” he said.
What’s the problem? Until the EU fully embraces so-called transnational lists under which voters can cast ballots for pan-European lead candidates standing for the Parliament in a different EU member country, it makes no sense to embrace the Spitzenkandidat system, he argued, criticizing the Council for blocking it.
IN OTHER NEWS
BIENVENUE: Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in Paris in early May, on his first trip to Europe since the Covid pandemic, several European officials told Clea Caulcutt and Stuart Lau.
On the invite: Xi’s outreach coincides with the 60th anniversary of Paris-Beijing diplomatic relations, amid ongoing effort by China to rebuild bruised ties with Europe over its “no limit partnership” with Putin’s Russia. China is also expected to use the opportunity to show that it’s open to businesses, in a desperate attempt to stop the EU’s de-risking moves.
Not just propaganda: The mood in France is likely to be different compared with festivities that marked the 50th anniversary of bilateral relations between the two countries, according to a person familiar with preparations for the trip. “It will be less festive and more studious given the current economic and geopolitical stakes,” they said. “We demand reciprocity in relations with China, in particular in the key area of ecological transition.”
NATO’S RETENTION PROBLEM: European countries are struggling to recruit enough soldiers — or to keep those they’ve already trained, report my colleagues Laura Kayali and Joshua Posaner. “People are … not willing to come to defense forces,” said Emmanuel Jacob, president of the European Organization of Military Associations and Trade Unions. Those who do sign up “are not willing to stay,” quitting due to “working conditions, the pay,” and the lack of recognition, Jacob added.
ANOTHER LOST DECADE? The introduction of reformed EU spending rules in 2026 and the European Commission turning off the money taps may leave a black hole in the French and Italian budgets — potentially just months before both face crucial elections. Gregorio Sorgi has the story.
BIDEN WARNS NETANYAHU OVER RAFAH: In their first call in over a month, Joe Biden warned Benjamin Netanyahu against a military offensive in Rafah. The U.S. president invited the Israeli PM to send “military, intelligence and humanitarian officials” to Washington in the coming days to hear concerns. Netanyahu agreed and U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan predicts Israel won’t invade Rafah until that conversation happens, per my Stateside colleagues.
Now read this: With pressure mounting, Netanyahu and his trusted aides are considering whether an early election might be the best tactic to keep him in power, reports my colleague Jamie Dettmer.