PM rules out snap election, hints at reshuffle
In his first interview after Sunday’s European Parliament elections, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis ruled out the possibility of holding an early election despite the disappointing result for his conservative party.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/politics/1241196/pm-rules-out-snap-election-hints-at-reshuffle
PASOK categorically denies plans for cooperation with New Left
Associates of opposition PASOK-Movement for Change leader Nikos Androulakis on Tuesday categorically denied press reports claiming that PASOK-KINAL and the New Left party have agreed to cooperate.
https://www.amna.gr/en/article/826252/PASOK-categorically-denies-plans-for-cooperation-with-New-Left
Interior Ministry issues directions for remote work during heatwave Tue-Thurs
A circular of the Interior Ministry outlines how civil services will operate during a heatwave forecast in Greece from Tuesday through Thursday by the National Meteorological Service.
Power rates look set to soar
Electricity consumers should expect further rate hikes in July after the price increase in the wholesale market, while a permanent threat for additional charges is the deficit of the renewables account (ELAPE), which the latest forecasts raise to 600 million euros by year-end, from €450 million in March.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/energy/1241108/power-rates-look-set-to-soar
ATHEX: Benchmark gives up 10 points
Non-bank blue chips helped the Greek bourse contain its decline on Tuesday, as it fared better than other stock markets in the eurozone. The political worries generated in the European Union after Sunday’s European Parliament elections continue unabated in certain countries, unlike in Greece. The daily turnover at Athinon Avenue remained at a low level, and it appears to be heading in the opposite direction to the temperatures outside.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1241230/athex-benchmark-gives-up-10-points
KATHIMERINI: PM puts an end to scenarios about a right turn
TA NEA: Government reshuffle: backstage, dilemmas and risks
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: The center-left parties must discuss collaboration and not stab each other
AVGI: Ongoing electro-shock
RIZOSPASTIS: The Greek Communist Party is stronger and will organize the struggle of the working class
KONTRA NEWS: Government reshuffle: which ministers are coming and which are leaving
DIMOKRATIA: The PM did not understand the message of the euro-elections
NAFTEMPORIKI: First tremors for the new EU Stability and Growth Pact
DRIVING THE DAY: PARTIES CRASHING
KNIVES OUT FOR RÉPUBLICAINS BOSS: What does it feel like to have the weight of the entire European mainstream bearing down on you? Just ask Eric Ciotti, head of French center-right party Les Républicains (LR). His embrace of a possible united front with Marine Le Pen’s National Rally infuriated not only his fellow LR members, but also other camps in the broader European People’s Party.
Just a sampling: “Never, never” can an alliance with a “a populist and anti-European party be the solution,” said LR stalwart Michel Barnier, who also happens to be the EU’s former Brexit negotiator, in an X post. Barnier also said Ciotti had “lost the legitimacy” to speak for the party, and he faces heavy pressure to resign. Victor Goury-Laffont has more.
Beyond the Hexagon: An alliance with RN is “obviously incompatible” with the EPP, Thanasis Bakolas, its secretary-general, told Playbook. “But I seriously doubt [Ciotti] has his party behind him,” Bakolas hastened to add. Germany’s CDU would also move to kick LR out of the EPP if they crossed the cordon sanitaire with Le Pen, Euractiv reports.
No love lost: Granted, LR’s relationship with the broader EPP hasn’t been great, with its MEPs expected to vote against Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for a second mandate.
DISSEMBLEMENT NATIONAL: Le Pen’s budding alliance with another wing of the French right, Reconquest, appears to be withering as well. Apparently there’s still a cordon around Eric Zemmour, specifically.
Left alliance also falters: While it looked like MEP Raphaël Glucksmann’s center-left Place Publique party had signed onto a left-leaning alliance (along with Greens and the leftist France Unbowed), he threw cold water on the idea Tuesday.
LIBERALS FRAYING: Macron might be looking at these hapless efforts to defeat him with a satisfied chuckle — until he looks in the mirror. As Clea Caulcutt, Victor, Sarah Paillou and Pauline de Saint Remy report in this morning’s must-read, he’s increasingly seen as a loose cannon, out of touch and deluded about his own appeal. So toxic is he, his own Renaissance party doesn’t want to campaign with him. Yikes.
Hayer under pressure: Macron could soon see control of the Renew Group in the European Parliament slip through his fingers. Valérie Hayer, who led Macron’s list in the European election, is currently in charge of the group. But the ALDE party is agitating to replace her, Eddy Wax reports. One name he keeps hearing as a possible successor: Ex-Belgian PM Sophie Wilmès.
LE PEN, SALVINI, WILDERS IN BRUSSELS: Some of Europe’s main far-right leaders, including France’s Marine Le Pen, Italy’s Matteo Salvini and the Netherlands’ Geert Wilders will descend on Brussels today for a hush-hush meeting to chew over the election results and the future of their Identity & Democracy group in the European Parliament, five sources tell Eddy and our Berlin Playbook colleague Pauline von Pezold.
AfD wants back in: The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which was kicked out of ID, has not been invited. But according to a source close to the AfD, Austria’s Freedom Party will advocate for the German party to be allowed to rejoin the group, with some in ID arguing the AfD had done enough by excluding troublemaker-in-chief Maximilian Krah from its ranks. It will largely be up to Le Pen to decide.
Speaking of Wilders: The four parties negotiating to form a Dutch coalition government have reached agreement on their Cabinet ministers, Wilders said Tuesday. De Telegraaf has info on who might get which post.
MEANWHILE, BACK IN BERLIN … Time is running out for Chancellor Olaf Scholz, writes my colleague Matthew Karnitschnig. While all eyes are on the snap French election, Germans too may soon face an early vote, after Scholz’s Social Democrats were beaten into a humiliating third place by the AfD. “The fact is the coalition government has been voted out, and Olaf Scholz must call for new elections like Macron,” said Bavaria’s premier, Markus Söder.
TOP JOBS
MERRILY WE FLOAT ALONG: Despite all the chaos described above, the ritual of doling out Brussels leadership posts amongst the political families looks smoother than ever. It’s almost as though the weekend’s election was totally irrelevant to the process …
Familiar shortlist: The names being floated for the EU’s most important jobs are the ones you’ve been hearing all along. Thanks to extensive reporting from Barbara Moens, Aitor Hernández-Morales, Jacopo Barigazzi and Eddy, here’s the crystallized list, with your Playbooker’s ratings for the suspense factor, out of four drumrolls.
Commission president … 1 drumroll … Ursula von der Leyen, EPP, Germany
Council president … 2 drumrolls … António Costa, Socialists, Portugal
Parliament president … zero drumrolls, utter silence … Roberta Metsola, EPP, Malta
Foreign policy chief … 3 drumrolls … Kaja Kallas, Renew, Estonia
Read the rationale and caveats here.
DIPLOMATS RESCUE MICHEL FROM ‘DINNERGATE’: European Council President Charles Michel’s attempt to shut his Commission counterpart out of a key top job discussion did not go over well with capitals, Barbara Moens hears.
ICYMI: Michel had been plotting to keep Ursula von der Leyen off the guest list for the June 17 dinner with EU leaders, the first post-election gathering of the EUCO.
‘Unanimous’: At a meeting of European ambassadors on Tuesday, the envoys made clear that they expect von der Leyen to be invited — the opinion was “unanimous,” as one diplomat put it.
Apéro only: That said, since one of the top jobs that leaders are discussing is, well, hers, von der Leyen will likely be expected to excuse herself before leaders get down to the meat-and-potatoes of negotiations.
FIGURATIVELY DRIVING THE DAY: ELECTRIC VEHICLES
BRUSSELS TO BRAKE (HARD) ON CHINESE EVs: The big day when the European Commission is set to announce provisional duties on Chinese electric vehicles producers is upon us.
It won’t land well in Berlin: Germany has launched an 11th-hour bid to avert a full-scale trade war between Europe and China, resisting French calls to hit Chinese electric vehicles with punitive duties. Both Paris and Berlin have ramped up their lobbying efforts — with conflicting messages on just how tough Brussels should get on Beijing.
Timeline: The EU executive is expected to inform Chinese EV-makers today of temporary duties resulting from its probe into unfair state subsidies. EU member countries would then vote this fall to confirm the duties — making it vital for von der Leyen to pitch them at a level that the bloc’s two heavyweights can live with.
What Berlin wants: The EU now charges a 10 percent tariff on all car imports — below China’s 15 percent. Realizing that it won’t be able to avert the tariffs, Berlin is now pushing to keep them as low as possible, ideally on a reciprocal level that China also imposes on the EU — meaning 15 percent.
What Paris wants: France lobbied hard for the probe, which was announced by von der Leyen in her set-piece annual address last fall. And, despite Beijing’s threat to hit back at French cognac makers in an anti-dumping investigation, Paris wants much higher duties on Chinese EVs.
Read POLITICO’s tour-de-force reportage on the Franco-German face-off here.
NOT DRIVING THE DAY (BUT MAYBE SHOULD HAVE BEEN)
WHAT’S NOT ON THE AGENDA AT COREPER: Sometimes the news is what’s left unsaid, Barbara Moens writes in to report as EU ambassadors meet this morning.
Not on today’s agenda 1: The Belgian presidency has postponed a discussion on accession talks for Ukraine and Moldova, given lack of headway on Hungary’s objections on the draft negotiating framework. The Belgians will make another attempt next week amid a looming June 25 deadline, on which the EU hopes to formally kick off the negotiations with the two countries.
Not on today’s agenda 2: EU countries have not yet received the text of the strategic agenda from Council chief Charles Michel, which ambassadors were set to discuss today. The strategic agenda lays out the priorities from EU leaders to the next European Commission.
THE EUROPEAN PROJECT
FRUGALS PROTEST EESC PAY BUMP: EU ambassadors today will consider a request from the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) for a raise to keep up with inflation. It’s a reasonable ask — but an awkward one for an EU institution whose raison d’être is increasingly in doubt. Even more awkward: the plan to hike the pay for Zooming in.
What even is the EESC? It’s a full-fledged, Treaty-defined EU institution made up of civil society, trade unions and employers, set up to weigh in on Brussels’ plans. Lawmakers have increasingly questioned whether its worth the budget of more than €150 million annually. (Read my colleague Hans von der Burchard’s seminal reporting on the EESC from 2020.)
Meetings meetings meetings: Members aren’t paid, but they do get allowances for attending meetings. Arguing that this allowance hadn’t been increased since 2013, EESC President Oliver Röpke asked the Council for an adjustment last year — arguing that real costs have gone up by around 23 percent over a decade. The Belgian presidency is now proposing increasing the allowance for attending in-person meetings from €290 to €367, according to Council documents viewed by Playbook.
Covid cost-savings: During the pandemic, members met virtually and everyone agreed that the teleconferences should become a permanent thing. Members still get an allowance for Zooming in: €145. That’s set to be increased to €149.
Refusing to rubber stamp: Austria, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden will abstain from the proposed raise, the countries said in a joint statement. They cite the “already considerable” payouts and an agreement not to increase non-salary spending by more than 2 percent. Finance ministers are nonetheless expected to greenlight the measure on June 21.
Lobby subsidy? On the one hand, EESC members don’t get paid a salary. On the other hand, lobbying and advocacy is, in many cases, part of their day jobs, and meetings are held during business hours.
ALSO COSTING THE EU TAXPAYER: The European Commission often trumpets that its massive antitrust fines feed into the EU budget, potentially cushioning the burden on taxpayers. A Tuesday court ruling raised the prospect of this going the other way around when officials were ordered to pay Deutsche Telekom an extra €1.8 million in punitive interest on top of a penalty they had to return after a (partly) successful appeal.
Ballooning bill: Deutsche Telekom is just the start of a longer line of headaches for the EU executive; companies sought more than €750 million in interest last year. Fortunately for the Commission, it can rewrite the EU’s reimbursement rules, and it’s in the process of doing just that. But the changes won’t enter into force until later this year. More for Competition Pros in POLITICO’s Fair Play newsletter.
IN OTHER NEWS
FROZEN RUSSIAN ASSETS UPDATE: A major transatlantic rift threatens to derail a plan to secure a massive loan for Ukraine ― leaving negotiations to run past this week’s G7 summit. France and Germany reject the U.S. proposal for Europe to act as guarantor for the loan, report Gregorio Sorgi and Jakob Hanke Vela.
Fear and loathing in Europe: There’s palpable anger about the U.S. plan, which the Europeans argue would put them on the hook to pay the loan back if anything goes wrong ― while American companies would reap most of thebenefits from Ukraine’s reconstruction contracts. “We might be stupid but we’re not that stupid,” said one senior European diplomat.
Trump looms large: But negotiators are running out of time, not just because Ukraine desperately needs the money, but because there’s no certainty that a Donald Trump presidency would back the initiative.