Sharm el-Sheikh signals Greece’s growing role
The invitation extended to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to attend the Peace Summit in Sharm el-Sheikh by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, is seen in Athens as recognition of Greece’s growing role in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Work stoppages, all-day strikes in public transport on Tuesday
Public transport workers in Athens will hold work stoppages at the start and end of their shifts on Tuesday, October 14, in response to a 24-hour general strike called by union federations in protest against the “new anti-labour bill of the Ministry of Labour”.
https://www.amna.gr/en/article/940352/Work-stoppages–all-day-strikes-in-public-transport-on-Tuesday-
Council of State approves environmental compensation framework for construction
The Council of State has approved, with some comments, the presidential decree outlining the environmental compensation framework for developers who have used the incentives provided by the New Building Regulation (NOK). Once the decree is formally issued, building permits that had been effectively suspended since December will be able to proceed under the new environmental compensation framework.
Allwyn and OPAP create world’s 2nd-largest listed gaming firm
Global business giant Allwyn has chosen Greece for its next major step, local gaming company OPAP announced on Monday. Together, the two businesses will form the second-largest publicly listed gaming company in the world, with a market capitalization of 16 billion euros, listed on the Athens Stock Exchange.
ATHEX: Trade war fears prevail at the bourse
After the rising sequence of last week, the Greek stock market began this one with notable losses for most of its stocks and its benchmark under the 2,100-point level. Despite the interest generated by some business news, the mood was affected by the international worries over an all-out trade war between the US and China.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1283717/athex-trade-war-fears-prevail-at-the-bourse
KATHIMERINI: New scenery in the Middle East with Trump’s signature
TA NEA: Landmark day for the Middle East
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: Middle East: Big day, bigger questions
RIZOSPASTIS: Everybody join today’s strike and rallies!
KONTRA NEWS: Turkish army to oversee Gaza
DIMOKRATIA: The chaos regarding constructions ends
NAFTEMPORIKI: Mammoth-deal between OPAP and Allwyn
DRIVING THE DAY: SOCIALIST SPLIT-SCREEN ON ASYLUM-SEEKERS
FIRST BIG TEST FOR DEPORTATION UPDATE: Amid a Continent wide-surge by populist, anti-immigration parties, this week will see two opposing strategies for saving the center-left play out.
1 — Mette’s Method: Today marks the first-level political discussion of the Commission’s updated regs for deporting people who aren’t supposed to be in the EU. With controversial ideas like “return hubs,” the file is a priority for the Danish Council presidency and Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who has defied fellow Socialists (and, her supporters would argue, held off the far right) by taking a hard line on immigration.
2 — Sticking to solidarity: Socialists will gather in Amsterdam later this week to launch a “progressive mobilization” to take on populist triggers like the rising cost of living. Their manifesto laments that migrants are “criminalised and used as scapegoats.” Yet the dwindling cast of Socialist leaders are voting with their feet, with most, including Frederiksen, declining to show up. Keep reading further down for more details, but first: more on today’s migration meeting.
GREASING THE EXIT DOOR: The new proposals — set to be discussed today when home affairs ministers gather in Luxembourg — are designed to ensure migrants and asylum-seekers whose applications are rejected can be sent home or to other non-EU countries. They’re a top promise from the second von der Leyen Commission, which emerged after right-wing gains in the June 2024 European election — and growing support for parties like the Alternative for Germany and France’s National Rally.
Enforcement challenges: Even as irregular migration is on a downward trend, only 20 percent of non-EU citizens who’ve been ordered to leave actually do, as Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told leaders last year. Danish Minister for Immigration and Integration Rasmus Stoklund called that “unacceptable.” Speaking to POLITICO’s Gabriel Gavin, he added: “It threatens not only the security of our Union, but also the social cohesion and the credibility of the European institutions in the eyes of the European citizens.”
Details: Among the plans under consideration are deportation centers outside the EU that could receive people who’ve been kicked out (a variation on Italy’s controversial arrangement with Albania) as well as mutual recognition of deportation decisions between member countries. Sam Clark and Gabriel Gavin lay out why the path to agreement is rough, even if there’s considerable consensus on the political imperative.
UNCOMFORTABLE CONTEXT: A report out today finds that violent attacks at sea by the Libyan coastguard, which receives EU funding, are increasing. That accounting comes as Libyan authorities are scheduled to meet Frontex officials in Warsaw and European Commission officials in Brussels this week — the seventh such meeting since February, Elena Giordano reports.
GAZA CEASEFIRE
EUROPE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN ON PEACE DEAL: European leaders flanked Donald Trump (minus French President Emmanuel Macron, who sat facing him) as the American president celebrated the ceasefire and hostage release in Egypt on Monday.
The glad-handing masked the foreboding. Playbook’s conversations with diplomats, advocates and others with experience in the region revealed little optimism that Trump’s deal would yield lasting results — and even less that Europe would step up to have a major role in a peace that it did little to secure.
Well when you put it that way: Compared with earlier phases of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, “The only fundamental change is the position of the peripheral players,” said Tim Eestermans, a lobbyist and former diplomat with extensive experience in the region. “Egypt is weak; Syria is gone; Iran is weak; Iraq is gone.” Turkey, meanwhile, “seems to still have carved out a role for itself in spite of its weakness.”
What about the big players? “Gulf states are strong, not aligned, but likely to replace EU as paymasters; Europe is weak and nobody cares for it; Russia is absent; China is lurking in the shadows, but not playing a role.”
Please, Europe, keep paying: “The EU has been missing in all of this,” a Gulf state diplomat told Playbook, noting Brussels had failed to exert pressure on Israel during key escalations. Still, the diplomat said that while the Gulf states were ready and willing to step up their humanitarian assistance, this remains the key avenue for Europe to exert leverage. “No one can substitute what Brussels is providing to the Palestinians.”
Too little for Palestinians … “In two years of genocide, the European Union has been unable to put any pressure, to put any sanctions on Israel,” said Bertrand Heilbronn, president of the European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine. Von der Leyen only proposed suspending parts of the trade aspect of the EU-Israel Association agreement in September, and now that there’s a ceasefire, it’s safe to assume the Council will never back it, Heilbronn said. He called instead for capitals to set a timeline for the peace deal’s conditions, with sanctions set to trigger if deadlines are missed.
… and too much for the Israelis: The EU should “really pause the deliberations” on sanctions, said Matthijs Schussler, executive director of ELNET EU, a pro-Israel lobby. Von der Leyen’s late push to suspend parts of the deal, he said, “made it much more difficult for Israel to enter into these negotiations.”
Legends in their own minds: My POLITICO colleagues spoke with quite a few European officials who did believe their efforts — especially the statehood initiative at the U.N. — bore fruit. “We need to keep [the threat of sanctions] and condition their removal,” said a former French official. “Everything that has been obtained from [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu has been done under duress.” Read the article by Tim Ross, Esther Webber, Clea Caulcutt and Nette Nöstlinger.
Back to normal: The divisions that prevented the EU from taking collective action against Israel continue, and even the sanctions currently on the table could be quickly wiped away “if the support needed by Gaza finally gets to the people there,” a member country official texted to Playbook. “If yes, [the] Commission will withdraw their proposal and that’s it.” (Commission spokesperson Paula Pinho acknowledged this possibility Monday, adding, “We’re not there yet.”)
Up next: The Commission’s proposals for trade suspensions and sanctions are slated to be discussed at the Foreign Affairs Council on Oct. 20.
TENSION POINTS: A lot could still go wrong. Hamas is yet to return some 20 dead hostages’ bodies. Thousands of Palestinians are still in Israeli prisons, including Marwan Barghouti, a popular leader who had backed a two-state solution. And settler action in the West Bank is another powder keg.
Then again, early breaches can be overcome, the Gulf state diplomat said: “There is a huge political weight around this from Muslim countries, form Arab countries, the United States,” the diplomat said. “A lot of countries’ credibility will be on the line.”
Europe’s credibility, evidently, is not.
MEANWHILE, IN ISRAEL: Since Oct 7., 2023, “הביתה” or “homeward” has become a national rallying cry for Israelis seeking the return of the hundreds of people taken hostage by Hamas, appearing on banners, posters and at vigils. On Monday morning, as the remaining 20 living hostages were set to be freed, a giant version of the phrase (along with a thank you to Trump) appeared on a Tel Aviv beach as the American president flew over it; last night, public buildings in Israel (as well as POLITICO’s parent company Axel Springer’s Berlin HQ) projected the phrase to mark their release.
MEANWHILE, IN GAZA: Crowds gathered in Khan Younis to welcome home the first Palestinian prisoners freed by Israel in exchange for the Hamas hostages. Pictures and videos from the scenes here and here.
DOMESTIC INTERVENTIONS
SHOT: “Cigars and Champagne, who the hell cares about that?” Donald Trump, during his speech to the Israeli parliament, urging a pardon for Netanyahu on long-standing fraud and bribery charges.
CHASER: “You look great. But I have to make you stop smoking,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who apparently does care about that, to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
AMSTERDAM ABSENTEEISM
PROGRESSIVES “REVITALIZED” — OR REHASHED? The Party of European Socialists (PES), Europe’s second-biggest political family, is throwing itself a three-day pep rally in Amsterdam this Thursday through Saturday. It’s ostensibly to fire up the troops ahead of the Dutch election on Oct. 29, Max Griera writes in to report, where former executive vice president for the Green Deal, Frans Timmermans, is dreaming of a comeback as PM.
Mobilizing the masses … just not the leaders: Despite calls to “revitalize progressive thought” and rally the left against Europe’s far-right surge, PES has had limited success rallying its own top figures. Of the three Socialist prime ministers in the EU, only one — Spain’s Pedro Sánchez — is showing up. Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen and Malta’s Robert Abela have other plans.“All our leaders are invited and may join at the last moment,” PES spokesperson Catarina Faria told POLITICO.
Also attending: European Council President António Costa, German Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil, Austria’s Vice Chancellor Andreas Babler, and other national party leaders.
On the defensive: The congress aims to bring together progressive parties, NGOs, unions and activists to map out a response to what it calls a “new world order” shaped by nationalism and right-wing populism. The congress’ concluding declaration to be adopted later this week, obtained by POLITICO, warns that the far right is “fueling fear, preying on insecurity and dividing societies while chipping away at the foundations of democracy.”
Yet there’s not much new in their response to this new order. According to a second resolution seen by POLITICO, the Socialists’ campaigns will highlight quality health care, well-paid jobs, affordable housing, renewable energy and international multilateralism.
HUNGARY GAMES
PARLIAMENT VS. COMMISSION IN COURT OVER UNFROZEN ORBÁN FUNDS: The Parliament and the Commission are facing off today at 9:30 a.m. in the Court of Justice of the EU in Luxembourg. The elected house is accusing the executive of politicizing how it assesses countries’ rule of law violations, following the Commission’s December 2023 move to unfreeze cash for Hungary amid a bid to overcome Budapest’s veto on Ukrainian EU accession.
The charges: The Parliament accuses the von der Leyen Commission of “misuse of powers” and “manifest errors of assessment” in deciding Hungary had undertaken sufficient judicial reforms, and failing to adequately justify its decision to unblock EU funds that had been held back over human rights and rule-of-law concerns.
Why it matters: The ruling, expected months after today’s hearing, will set a key precedent for how the Commission must assess rule-of-law breaches, and could spark debate over whether the EU executive’s democratic oversight has become too politicized. Stay tuned for a dispatch from Luxembourg by Max Griera. For a refresher, read our explainer.
IN OTHER NEWS
IN FROM THE COLD? Could legendary Eurocrat Martin Selmayr be returning to Brussels soon? Playbook’s Nick Vinocur received this job listing for deputy secretary-general for geoeconomics and interinstitutional issues at the European External Action Service — also amid speculation in Euractiv — that it seems highly suited to the Juncker-era super-aide, once controversially promoted to the post of Commission secretary-general.
That’s not a no: Playbook asked Selmayr if he’s looking to leave Rome, where he currently serves as the EU’s envoy to the U.N. agencies there and to the Holy See. (The Commission confirmed Monday that he last met EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas at Pope Francis’ funeral.) “Multilateralism and geopolitics are my passion, and Rome is to me a perfect place for working on this,” he said.
But but but: “I am 54 so I have still many years of active service before me,” Selmayr added, saying he’s ready to serve elsewhere if called upon. “Whether and when this should be the case one day in the future, is not for me, but for others to decide,” he said in an email.
RIVETING READ ON THE “ACCIDENTAL POWER COUPLE”: Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya and Siarhei Tsikhanouski give a bracingly candid interview to the Washington Post about the role-reversal that happened when he became a political prisoner and she ran in Belarus’ presidential election — and their struggle to rebuild their relationship upon his return.