Athens dismisses six-mile concessions
Greece has firmly ruled out any compromise on reducing its territorial waters to six nautical miles in its ongoing dispute with Turkey, a senior government official said, dispelling speculation about potential concessions ahead of crucial diplomatic talks.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/politics/foreign-policy/1250817/athens-dismisses-six-mile-concessions
Gerapetritis: First chapter of accession talks with Albania must include the rights of minorities
The first chapter of accession talks for Albania, which opens on Tuesday and concerns fundamental rights and the rule of law, must include both the rights of minorities, including the Greek ethnic minority, and in particular their property rights, Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis stressed upon his arrival at the intergovernmental conference in Luxembourg.
SYRIZA’s future in balance as it braces for showdown
The exclusion of former party head Stefanos Kasselakis from the leadership election has plunged main opposition SYRIZA into fresh turmoil. The majority insists there are now two camps: the party and Kasselakis. In a statement, Kasselakis condemned the decision to exclude him, calling it unprecedented in Greek political history. He vowed to challenge the decision by mobilizing supporters to reverse it at the party congress.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/politics/1250931/syrizas-future-in-balance-as-it-braces-for-showdown
Heating oil is expected to start on October 15 at the lowest level since 2022
The heating oil is expected to start on October 15 at the lowest level since 2022, according to the latest market estimates.
ATHEX: Lowest daily turnover in 18 sessions
Another subdued session at the Greek stock market turned early gains into eventual losses on Monday. While mid-caps remained in the black and losing stocks outnumbered gainers by the smallest of margins, banks remained the weakest link, with sellers focusing on National Bank in particular. This came on the lowest daily turnover of the last 18 sessions.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1250941/athex-lowest-daily-turnover-in-18-sessions
KATHIMERINI: EU sets terms to Tirana for the Greek minority
TA NEA: The pensions for 2025
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: Wiretappings scandal: What is the truth, Mr. Dimitriadis?
RIZOSPASTIS: Greek Communist Party rally for the 80-year anniversary since the liberation of Athens and Piraeus
KONTRA NEWS: New civil war within New Democracy in parliament: Vlahos vs. Hatzidakis
DIMOKRATIA: Wave of withdrawals in the Greek Navy
NAFTEMPORIKI: Liquidity of 7,8 bln for listed companies in 2023-2024
DRIVING THE DAY: HUB’S THE WORD
VDL EMBRACES EXTERNAL DEPORTATION CENTERS: Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU should consider legislating for “return hubs” in third countries to speed up ejections of undocumented immigrants, in a letter to capitals ahead of an EU leaders’ migration gabfest later this week.
Aligning deportation policies: The EU isn’t effective at removing people who arrive illegally, von der Leyen said in the letter, which was released to the media on Monday evening. Only around one in five of the non-EU citizens ordered to leave have done so. Dealing with this requires “a new legal framework to step up our capacity to act,” von der Leyen said, adding that revisiting the EU’s failed 2018 effort to align deportation policies would be an immediate priority for the incoming migration commissioner.
Going mainstream: The proposal for third-country deportation centers, along the lines of Italy’s contentious new initiative to ship migrants off to Albania, could mark a sharp new turn in the EU’s approach to migrants. Just last week, as Playbook reported, Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson downplayed the prospect of deportation camps, adding that no one has formally proposed this. Now, in writing, von der Leyen is pointing to Italy’s Albania initiative as an opportunity to “draw lessons from this experience in practice.”
That was then … As the Italian journalist David Carretta notes, the Commission deemed this sort of offshoring essentially illegal under EU law in 2018. And it was only in 2022 that Johansson said of the U.K.’s plan to deport people to Rwanda: “ Sending asylum-seekers more than 6,000 kilometers away and outsourcing asylum processes is not a humane and dignified migration policy.”
… This is now: Under an agreement with Tirana, Italy could send up to 36,000 male migrants who have been stopped in international waters each year about 400km across the Adriatic Sea to two asylum-processing centers in northern Albania. Rights groups and opposition politicians have called the deal “dehumanizing” and “illegal.” But von der Leyen’s European People’s Party endorsed the general idea in its election manifesto earlier this year.
It’s Libra season: The Italian ship Libra set sail with the first batch of migrants en route to Albania on Monday. The 16 men on board — 10 from Bangladesh and six from Egypt — were rescued in international waters by the Italian coastguard on Sunday after trying to cross the Mediterranean from Libya, the Guardian reported. The ship was expected to arrive in Schëngjin, Albania, on Wednesday morning.
All on the same page: At this week’s European Council, EU leaders are on track to call for “determined action at all levels to increase and speed up” deportations, according to a recent draft of the summit’s conclusions. EU affairs ministers will also discuss the EUCO agenda in today’s General Affairs Council.
WARSAW’S MOVE ALSO UP FOR DISCUSSION: Poland’s decision to shut its border with Belarus to refugees could turn out to be the next red line to be erased. Warsaw this week doubled down on plans to turn back asylum-seekers pushed across the border as part of Minsk’s “hybrid war” on the bloc.
The Commission doesn’t like it … but can it stop it? Brussels warned that Warsaw’s move is almost certainly incompatible with EU rules; the Commission told POLITICO that member countries must deal with the provocations from Belarus and Russia “without compromising on our values.” But Finland earlier this year indefinitely extended the closure of its border with Russia; Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia have said they were leaving open the option of following suit.
Summit showdown: Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian ally Alexander Lukashenko “weaponize migration with an aim to destabilize the EU and sow discontent of the Europeans,” said a diplomat from one country affected by their strategy. “There should be an honest discussion at the EUCO among leaders to clearly identify and understand the new types of risks. And then we should talk about the EU-wide solutions.” Gabriel Gavin and Wojciech Kość have the story here.
Speaking of Putin: Ukraine’s top prosecutor urged Brazilian authorities to arrest the Russian leader if he turns up at the G20 summit in Brazil next month, according to Reuters. Andriy Kostin told Reuters he has intelligence that Putin may attend the gathering.
ZELENSKYY TO BRIEF EUCO: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will present his “victory plan” to European leaders at their EUCO summit, the EU’s outgoing foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters Monday. A diplomat said Zelenskyy is expected to attend virtually.
FOREIGN POLICY
CRUNCH TIME FOR GULF SUMMIT: With just weeks left to seal his legacy, European Council President Charles Michel is preparing to host the first-ever EU-Gulf Cooperation Council summit in Brussels on Wednesday. The risk, however, is that a gathering that’s meant to demonstrate unity on everything from trade to security gets more attention for what (and who) isn’t there than for any potential accomplishments.
What’s not there: The EU is struggling to get Gulf countries on board with a series of pro-Ukraine commitments ahead of the summit, according to a draft statement seen by POLITICO. In one passage, for instance, the EU proposed language calling on all countries to end material aid for Russia and condemning Iran for giving Moscow missiles and drones to use against Ukraine. But the Gulf countries instead wanted more generic language urging all parties to stop sending weapons to the conflict.
The possible solution? A joint proposal to ditch the paragraph completely. Read more here from Federica Di Sario and Camille Gijs.
Who’s not there: While Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the emir of Qatar, is expected to attend the summit as the co-host, it’s looking doubtful that similarly high-ranking officials from the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia will show up. A Council official declined to share the attendee list Monday, citing security concerns.
Who’s not coming to dinner: Less than half of the EU’s foreign ministers are expected to show up at a dinner with their GCC counterparts in Brussels tonight, according to two diplomats with knowledge of the planning who spoke to my colleague Stuart Lau. One of them attributed that to the EU’s poor planning. Ministers just wrapped up the Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg on Monday, but fewer than 10 wanted to kill a day waiting around in Luxembourg or Brussels for tonight’s dinner. Most will send their deputies instead.
How Michel sees it: “The summit in and of itself is a deliverable signaling the significant momentum in the EU-GCC relations, which have been growing in intensity over the past years,” said a Council official in an email to Playbook. It will also be an “opportunity to send a strong message on the urgency of an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and Lebanon and unconditional release of all hostages,” the official said.
SPEAKING OF THE FAC — LAMMY LOVE-IN: British Foreign Secretary David Lammy joined the EU’s Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg on Monday. It’s only the second time since Brexit that a U.K. foreign secretary has participated (Liz Truss attended in 2022 after Russia launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine).
The mood at the meeting was “very good,” Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský told Stuart Lau, “and around the table, there was strong applause for his presence.” Lammy highlighted the need for the U.K. and the EU to work closer on defense and security.
AGRI-VATION
BLOWBACK TO FARMING REFORMS: Ursula von der Leyen’s Strategic Dialogue on the Future of EU Agriculture — a seven-month forum on agri-food policy — initially looked like a PR coup, seemingly satisfying both farmers and NGOs and yielding a balanced report. But that success may have been short-lived. My colleagues Alessandro Ford, Paula Andrés and Bartosz Brzeziński report that Copa-Cogeca, Europe’s biggest agricultural lobby, is hardening its position. Its national members were outraged by some of the dialogue’s final recommendations, particularly on promoting plant-based diets. Read their full report here.
VDL’s €1K-per-day adviser phones it in: Peter Strohschneider, the Commission adviser who oversaw the report, didn’t show up in person to address the European Parliament’s agriculture committee on Monday.Given POLITICO’s revelations that the German academic was allocated nearly €150,000 for his work, MEPs were peeved.
Strategic monologue: Speaking to Parliament on Monday, Strohschneider apologized for only being able to join online. (A European Commission spokesperson later said he couldn’t travel to Brussels for “personal reasons.”) But that didn’t stop MEPs from criticizing Strohschneider, especially after he appeared to log off after his 15-minute speech.
Feeling snubbed: “He was paid enough, he should have been here in person, leading the debate with MEPs,” South Tyrolean European People’s Party (EPP) lawmaker Herbert Dorfmann tweeted. “Professor Strohschneider, well done, you’ve damaged the confidence [in the strategic dialogue on agriculture], even though we’ve paid you a crazy amount of money,” Luke Flanagan, an Irish Left MEP said.
Who’s to blame? Parliament’s invitation was only sent last Thursday, giving Strohschneider limited time to plan a trip, and it expressly gave Strohschneider the option of joining online. He’d been expecting to meet with the committee on Sept. 26 — but Dorfmann’s EPP asked for the meeting to be postponed due to the group’s trip to Naples. So is it the EPP’s fault? “At least he could stay connected for the panel,” Dorfmann said.
ELECTION INTEGRITY
THE EU’S DODGED MISINFO BULLET: The Kremlin-controlled deepfake campaign many feared in the run-up to the European Parliament election in June doesn’t seem to have played out, a European Commission review found.
According to a new election assessment report seen by POLITICO, to be published by the Commission later this week, the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO) recorded the highest level of EU-related disinformation in May, the month before Europeans headed to the polls. But that wave of shady activity didn’t produce a “major incident … capable of disrupting the elections,” Commission Vice President Věra Jourová said.
Room for improvement: Platforms didn’t act on 45 percent of the 1,321 online posts fact-checked and identified as disinfo by the Elections24Check network. The response rate varied: Meta acted on 80 percent of flagged posts, TikTok on 40 percent, X on 30 percent and YouTube on 25 percent.
What happened to the deepfakes? At the start of this election year, fears were rampant that artificial intelligence, and more specifically highly manipulative deepfakes, could destabilize the electoral process. But officials said those fears didn’t materialize. The EU assessment report said the technology has not been used “to a large extent,” although it identified some cases of unlabeled generative AI content by parties, such as France’s National Rally and Italy’s League.
What about next time? Although this summer’s electoral process wasn’t disrupted as badly as expected, officials say European governments are far from adequately prepared to confront the risks posed by generative AI. It’s a point Jourová will press to ministers in Luxembourg today, calling for a “whole-of-society approach” that involves debunking bogus narratives, effective law enforcement in the digital space and strong independent media, my colleague Mathieu Pollet reports.
MEANWHILE, IN GEORGIA: President Salome Zourabichvili told the Financial Times her country is being run by a “Russian government,” accusing the ruling Georgian Dream party of using propaganda, polarization and other tactics imported from Russia to win a parliamentary vote on Oct. 26 that many see as pivotal to its future. “This is anything but a normal election,” the president told the FT, but rather “a choice between a European future and a Russian past.”
US ELECTION
WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING: Kamala Harris held a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, where she put her rival Donald Trump front and center, showing video footage of the Republican candidate talking about “enemies from within”… suggesting the military could be deployed on Election Day … and that one “violent” day of policing could resolve America’s crime problems.
“Donald Trump is increasingly unstable and unhinged, and he is out for unchecked power,” Harris told the crowd, according to a report by POLITICO’s Jessica Piper and Meredith Lee Hill. Meanwhile, the Democratic nominee is rolling out new efforts to shore up support among Black men after daunting polling indicated that Trump is starting to peel off some voters. And Trump complained that Fox News has “grown weak and soft” after the network announced it would interview Harris.
POLES APART: Meanwhile, Poles hoping their American brethren will vote Democrat to keep Putin far from their borders should not read this next bit. POLITICO’s Emilio Casalicchio has been touring Pennsylvania chatting to Polish Americans about Harris’ warnings that a second Trump presidency could put Poland at risk — the logic being that once the Republican barters Ukrainian land to Moscow, Putin will turn his sights on Poland. But most of those Emilio speaks to — both several generations deep and first-gen immigrants — respond to the warnings with a shrug. Read Emilio’s story on why Harris’ pitch is falling flat.
MIDDLE EAST
ISRAEL EXPECTED TO STRIKE IRAN BY NOV. 5: Israel aims to focus its planned retaliatory strike against Iran on military facilities, while avoiding nuclear and oil sites, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has indicated to the U.S. government, the Washington Post reports. An Israeli strike on Iran is expected before the U.S. election on Nov. 5, an official familiar with the matter told the newspaper.
UNIFIL LATEST: The U.K., France, Italy and Germany issued a joint statement condemning Israel’s strikes on the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), saying they must “stop immediately” and “the protection of peacekeepers is incumbent upon all parties to a conflict.”
Bibi responds: In a video posted to social media, Netanyahu said the allegations that Israel directly attacked U.N. forces “is completely false.” The prime minister said “Israel repeatedly asked UNIFIL to get out of harm’s way” temporarily, adding that the militant group Hezbollah uses the peacekeepers’ “facilities and positions as cover while it attacks Israeli cities and communities.”
Speaking of Germany: Top leaders in Berlin blocked the sale of weapons to Israel despite Berlin’s insistence the country was not under an arms embargo, a person familiar with the matter told POLITICO.
NOW READ THIS: Doing a Gaza in Lebanon isn’t the answer, writes POLITICO’s Jamie Dettmer.
IN OTHER NEWS
AML UPDATE: Italy, Germany and the Netherlands are on the short list for an EU top job running the bloc’s new anti-money laundering body, according to multiple officials.
WHAT PARIS IS OBSESSING ABOUT TODAY: Paracetamol. Giorgio Leali has the story.
LITHUANIA ELECTION LATEST: Social Democrat Vilija Blinkevičiūtė, a member of the European Parliament, said she would quit as an MEP to take up the job of Lithuanian prime minister after the weekend’s election. More here.