Political center under siege
A fierce political confrontation is unfolding over the main opposition socialist PASOK party’s proposal to launch a parliamentary inquiry into former transport minister Kostas Karamanlis for his role in the Tempe train tragedy. The inquiry, expected to be the final clash on the case before trial proceedings begin, has become a broader battleground for political positioning ahead of the next electoral cycle.
PM Mitsotakis at UN Security Council, reaffirms Greece’s role in protecting freedom of navigation
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, during the UN Security Council’s high-level open debate on maritime security held on Tuesday in New York, highlighted the strategic importance of maritime security and reaffirmed Greece’s commitment to international cooperation for the promotion of global stability.
Greece catching up with European Commission recommendations, having fulfilled 2 of 6
Greece has improved its standing in terms of rule of law after fulfilling two of six recommendations by the European Commission.
Monthly drop of 12% in registered unemployment
Last month the total number of unemployed persons registered with the Public Employment Service (DYPA) amounted to 811,324 in total, a decrease of 59,990 people (-6.9%) compared to the corresponding month of April 2024 and a decrease of 114,717 people (-12.4%) compared to the previous month of March.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1270303/monthly-drop-of-12-in-registered-unemployment
ATHEX: Banks soar close to decade-high
The positive climate in European markets (reflected in Greek banks) and the ever-broadening interest in lower capitalizations at the Greek stock market gave the benchmark at Athinon Avenue a fresh boost on Tuesday, taking it once again to a highs unseen since May 2010. It was only the start of the session that saw some profit-taking, as banks quickly took the initiative to rebound with their index ending up at a nine-and-a-half year high.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1270315/athex-banks-soar-close-to-decade-high
KATHIMERINI: Independent Public Revenue Authority sends ultimatum to big debtors
TA NEA: Real estate assets: The map of prices throughout Greece
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: Humanity’s last 24 hours
RIZOSPASTIS: Greek Communist Party: Government officials of New Democracy and SYRIZA have specific legal liability for the crime at Tempi
KONTRA NEWS: MPs close to [former PM ] Samaras are “under surveillance” by the PM’s office
DIMOKRATIA: Tempi case: the authorities attempted to affect testimonies
NAFTEMPORIKI: The hidden surplus value of listed companies
DRIVING THE DAY: ISOLATING ISRAEL
IT SEEMS A LONG TIME since October 2023, when Israel’s allies lined up to support Benjamin Netanyahu’s right to hit Hamas hard after a coordinated attack killed some 1,200 people and took around 250 Israelis hostage. Fifty-eight hostages remain in captivity in Gaza. At the same time, Israel has blockaded Gaza for the past 11 weeks, with little or no aid making it through to many thousands of starving people.
14,000 babies “will die”: That was the shocking estimate that seemed to intensify the political outcry on Tuesday. It came from the U.N.’s humanitarian boss Tom Fletcher, who warned in a BBC interview: “There are 14,000 babies that will die in the next 48 hours unless we can reach them.” The BBC sought clarification for the basis of Fletcher’s comment from the U.N., which responded by trying to hose it down a little. Still, the situation is clearly very grave.
What’s needed: Baby food, flour and medical supplies including drugs and equipment. On Tuesday some 93 trucks carrying aid were allowed in but the U.N. said that they had not yet been able to distribute their cargo.
AGREEING TO DISAGREE: EU ministers met to discuss the crisis on Tuesday. Kaja Kallas, the bloc’s top diplomat, announced afterward that a “huge” majority of member countries wanted action. Specifically, they resolved to launch a formal review of the EU-Israel Association Agreement. That would now happen, Kallas said — but she gave no timeline for when it would conclude. Nick Vinocur has the story.
“The situation in Gaza is catastrophic,” Kallas told reporters after the meeting. “The aid that Israel has allowed in is of course welcomed, but it’s a drop in the ocean. Aid must flow immediately without obstruction and at scale.” It’s clear there is “a strong majority” for a review of the association agreement with Israel, she said, “so we will launch this exercise and in the meantime it is up to Israel to unblock the humanitarian aid.”
There has been pressure to suspend the deal, which in theory is one potential result of the review. But it’s not clear there would be enough support from EU countries for such a big step.
What’s in this EU-Israel deal? It’s a political and economic framework governing EU-Israel relations. But that’s neither here nor there. The aim of the review, as Kallas explained, is to add diplomatic pressure on Israel to change course. Calls to Israeli diplomats went unanswered last night.
Are EU countries discussing sanctions on Israeli settlers? Kallas said they were. “It’s prepared, we have had those discussions but unfortunately it was blocked by one member state,” she said. The U.K. went there already.
IN LONDON: British PM Keir Starmer condemned the “horrific situation in Gaza” as “utterly intolerable,” telling parliament: “We cannot allow the people of Gaza to starve.” His Foreign Secretary David Lammy was so visibly furious that at times he seemed almost unable to speak. The U.K. halted it own talks with Israel on a new trade deal, as POLITICO’s Sophie Inge reports. Israel’s foreign ministry last night said: “External pressure will not divert Israel from its path in defending its existence and security against enemies who seek its destruction.”
Next up: Britain is drawing up plans to sanction senior members of Netanyahu’s government, with the Times reporting Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Defense Minister Israel Katz are potential targets.
READING THE DONALD: There was some intriguing briefing to the Washington Post from one anonymous source, saying Donald Trump is running out of patience with Netanyahu. The American president “has been letting Israel know ‘we will abandon you if you do not end this war,’” the anonymous source told the paper. The claim of a threat was shot down by U.S. government officials, though not the sentiment of frustration.
Liberal arts: But the idea of Trump running out of patience would be in keeping with his recent change of heart on Ukraine, for example, in which his literary model seems to have switched from “The Art of the Deal” to “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*k.”
BIBI’S RESPONSE: After telling the U.K., France and Canada to get real, Netanyahu issued a curt statement from his office announcing that he was pulling his top negotiators out of ceasefire talks in Doha. “After approximately one week of intensive contacts in Doha, the senior members of the negotiating team will return to Israel for consultations; the working echelon will — at present — remain in Doha,” the statement said.
UNLUCKY KID. Glenn Micallef, the European commissioner for intergenerational fairness, youth, culture and sport, somehow picked the shortest straw in town and will represent the Commission in a debate in Parliament on “the EU’s response to the Israeli government’s plan to seize the Gaza Strip,” POLITICO’s Max Griera reports.
PUTIN’S WAR
SANCTIONS LATEST: EU foreign ministers on Tuesday approved a 17th round of sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. The package doubles the number of banned ships in Russia’s shadow fleet, the tankers that Moscow uses to circumvent a maximum oil price agreed on by the West, and puts restrictions on a Russian oil company and a shipping business, among other measures. Details here.
At Tuesday’s Foreign Affairs Council, Kallas said Russia must face “more pressure” because it is clear Vladimir Putin doesn’t want peace and won’t agree to an “unconditional ceasefire.” She said there’s chatter about targeting Russian banking services next.
Oil price squeeze: Kallas made it clear she’s in favor of lowering the oil price cap, a measure introduced at the G7 level in 2022. “The oil price cap is clearly something that has a clear effect on Russia’s economy,” she said.
The spies say: Kallas noted “intelligence” assessments showed Russia had given up trying to mask its economic woes at home with propaganda claiming everything is fine. “They can’t even cover it with the propaganda any more and they are saying it [the Russian economy] is in stagnation,” she said.
WHAT’S IN THE SANCTIONS PIPELINE: Commission President Ursula von der Leyen flagged on Tuesday that an “18th package” of “hard hitting sanctions” is already “being prepared.” That’s where Kallas’ oil price cap idea could come in as part of new energy measures. A plan to target the Russia-to-Germany Nord Stream pipeline is also being discussed. (Side bar: Members of the European Parliament will debate the question of what to do about Nord Stream this evening — details in the agenda.)
Why now? As our Energy and Climate colleagues report in their newsletter this morning, efforts to target Nord Stream, blown up in an apparent act of sabotage in late 2022, may prove trickier than expected. The White House and even a member of Germany’s governing coalition have called for a return to Russian energy after a potential ceasefire in Ukraine.Targeting Nord Stream with sanctions now could help shift the momentum back, our colleagues report.
U.S. OBJECTS TO SUPPORTING UKRAINE IN G7 STATEMENT: The U.S. is opposed to including “further support” for Ukraine in a G7 statement that is being hashed out by finance ministers in Canada. Washington is also reluctant to describe Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine as “illegal” in the text, two officials involved in the negotiations told our colleague Gregorio Sorgi, who has the story for Defense and FinServ Pros.
ICYMI — BERLIN UNCHAINED: Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said Germany is open to getting defense spending up to 5 percent of GDP.
NOW READ THIS: Russiasanctions have emptied many London mansions, and now they’re falling apart. Two giant townhouses linked to Russian oligarchs on bougie Prince of Wales Terrace have been in disrepair for years: peeling paint, broken windows, weeds. That’s upsetting locals, Eleanor Myers writes.
RO(W)MANIA
IS HE SERIOUS? Romania’s election just got weird again. George Simion, the failed hard-right candidate for the presidency, on Tuesday decided he didn’t accept the election result after all. That amounted to a reversal of his previous reversal of his attempt to reverse the result. Probably.
What next: Simion announced he’d challenge the official outcome in Romania’s Constitutional Court, on the basis of foreign interference by France and Moldova. (Both have rejected his claims in the past.) The judges agreed to annul the last election when a far-right candidate looked like winning; why not now?
CIAO, CIAO! Romania’s President-elect Dan, meanwhile, kept calm and carried on preparing for office, taking calls and messages of congratulations from Germany’s leader Friedrich Merz, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, NATO boss Mark Rutte and Italy’s PM Giorgia Meloni.
Ouch: It was Meloni, remember, who helped Simion look more like an international statesman by receiving him for a photo-op in the final week of the campaign.
COMING TODAY
BIG HUAWEI REVEAL: Roberta Metsola will at 3 p.m. reveal the identities of the five MEPs whose immunity Belgian authorities have asked the European Parliament to lift in relation to an investigation into Huawei’s allegedly corrupt lobbying practices. Maltese Socialist Daniel Attard, Bulgarian Renew member Nikola Minchev and Italian EPPer Salvatore De Meo have already gone public and stated they are willing to work with the authorities to prove their innocence, as POLITICO reported Monday. The names of the remaining lawmakers, affiliated to the EPP, remain unknown.
SINGLE MARKET STRATEGY: The European Commission will today publish its single market strategy — its latest attempt to remove the obstacles for businesses in one EU country trying to sell their wares in another. My colleague Carlo Martuscelli has seen a draft of the plan, and has this preview of what to expect. Playbook has a summary (with the caveat that things could still change from the draft).
What’s in the plan: A regulation on packaging that seeks to make labeling more uniform … A push to digitize paperwork … A measure to allow entrepreneurs to opt into a common digitalized procedure to start a company anywhere in the EU. What’s not: The financial sector is mostly excluded, Carlo reports.
TEARING UP THE PRIVACY RULEBOOK: The Commission will also present its plan to amend the General Data Protection Regulation to ease reporting requirements for small and cash-strapped businesses. As Ellen O’Regan writes in her curtain-raiser this morning, it’s the latest law to fall victim to the Commission’s drive to slash red tape and simplify legislation.
IN OTHER NEWS
SYRIA SANCTIONS LIFTED: The EU is lifting economic sanctions on Syria, with foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas writing on X, “We want to help the Syrian people rebuild a new, inclusive and peaceful Syria.” Write-up here.
TRUMP SLUMP: Business travel bookings from Europe to the U.S. crashed by more than a quarter in April compared to the same month in 2024, according to data seen by POLITICO. Tommaso Lecca has the story.
MORE DATA ANALYSIS: Sunday’s blockbuster elections may have seen centrists defeat far-right candidates in Romania, Poland and Portugal, but we’ve dug into the data and found the hard right is stronger than ever.
TOO WEIRD NOT TO SHARE: Sean “Diddy” Combs took pills shaped like former President Barack Obama’s face, the hip-hop mogul’s former personal assistant revealed on Tuesday. Combs is currently on trial for sex trafficking, among other charges.