PASOK-KINAL leader tables joint censure motion in Greek parliament
PASOK-KINAL leader Nikos Androulakis tabled a four-party censure of motion against the government on Tuesday afternoon, as he had announced earlier.
SYRIZA chief calls for PM’s resignation
Accusing the government of a cover-up in the 2023 Tempe railway disaster, the leader of Greece’s main opposition party called on Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to resign from his post and put an end to the “political impasse.”
https://www.ekathimerini.com/news/1234781/syriza-chief-calls-for-pms-resignation/
Asimakopoulou states email data came from ND party official
Former transport and infrastructure minister Christos Spirtzis, who served under SYRIZA from 2016 to 2019, is demanding that his immunity from prosecution be lifted in relation to the ongoing investigations into the deadly train crash in Tempe last year, which cost the lives of 57 people.
New Democracy expels former MP over Tempe comments
Ruling New Democracy has expelled a former MP for comments he made concerning the 2023 Tempe railway disaster in which 57 people, mostly university students, died.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/news/1234806/new-democracy-expels-former-mp-over-tempe-comments/
ATHEX: Three-day week begins with decline
A short trading week of just three days has started at the Greek stock market with a moderate decline for the benchmark and the majority of stocks, though a number of blue chips responded to pressure and rebounded. Turnover also showed signs of significant recovery on Tuesday, after one more long weekend and ahead of another.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1234826/athex-three-day-week-begins-with-decline/
KATHIMERINI: 75 days of extreme political clash before the Euro elections
TA NEA: Greece to buy F35/4 jetfighters instead of simple F35
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: Parliamentary front against the cover-up of the Tempi rail-crash
AVGI: Apology hour for Mitsotakis
RIZOSPASTIS: The people’s fight against antipopular policies and the Tempi cover-up must be reinforced
KONTRA NEWS: Mitsotakis’ government is in a state of isolation
DIMOKRATIA: Deep state
NAFTEMPORIKI: The conversion of Greek wages with European ones is a lost dream
START WITH THIS: A serious security breach has hit the EU’s law enforcement agency, with highly sensitive files containing the personal information of top officials disappearing from a secure storage room deep inside Europol’s headquarters in The Hague, my colleague Antoaneta Roussi reports this morning. Among the missing documents: Europol chief Catherine De Bolle’s hardcopy personnel files. It’s the talk of the agency, with staff exchanging notes over how the files went missing. Against that backdrop …
EU INACTION ON CHINESE CYBERATTACKS
CHINA HACKS EU MPs, BROUGHT TO YOU BY WASHINGTON: Dozens of European lawmakers have been targeted by Chinese cyberattacks in the past few years. Rather than a public disclosure from EU governments, however, the reveal came from U.S. prosecutors.
It takes a U.S. indictment to expose it: Late Monday, the U.S. Department of Justice issued an indictment, saying Chinese hackers with links to the national spy agency, the Ministry of State Security, targeted “every European Union member” of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), a coalition of lawmakers critical of Beijing.
**A message from TikTok: In the year since we first announced our €12 billion data security programme, Project Clover, a lot has happened. Our first European data centre is now online, cybersecurity firm NCC Group is in place as our independent security provider, and we have implemented additional access restrictions.**
Who’s been hit? Some 66lawmakers across EU member countries could be identified from IPAC’s website. (That’s not including members of the European Parliament, which insisted through a spokesperson that its own lawmakers weren’t targeted, “according to all elements of information currently available.”)
Why so quiet? The U.K. and U.S. acted on Monday, with London imposing sanctions and authorities in the States launching legal action. But on the Continent, the news that Chinese state-sponsored hackers stole millions of voters’ data and launched cyberattacks against lawmakers was met with collective near-silence.
BELGIAN MP COMES FORWARD: Samuel Cogolati, a Belgian Green MP and co-chair of IPAC, told Playbook he was one of those targeted back in 2021, the same year Beijing sanctioned him, alongside other EU lawmakers.
Two years later: The cyberattacks were only brought to Cogolati’s attention in 2023, via an email from the Centre for Cybersecurity Belgium. In the email, seen by Playbook, the Belgian body said the hackers were part of APT31, the same group now hit by Britain’s fresh sanctions.
“It is absolutely ridiculous to find out about all the other victims of Chinese cyberattacks in Belgium and across Europe through an indictment — issued by the U.S. DoJ,” Cogolati said.
Looking at you, leaders: Cogolati singled out Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo and Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib for failing to respond to his requests for follow-up actions.
LONDON CALLING: British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said the U.K. would “encourage other countries to do the same” after announcing sanctions on China, vowing to defend against countries that “threaten our values and our democracy.”
PERFECT TIMING — WILL HE MUMBLE A FEW WORDS? Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte — who is likely to be the next NATO chief — will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing today.
GLOBAL COALITION, MINUS EUROPE: Asked to comment on the revelations in the U.S. indictment, a spokesperson for the EU’s diplomatic service said there’s not much they could add to a (bland) statement issued Monday showing solidarity with London.
NOW READ THIS — AS EU POLLS NEAR, BIG TECH BEWARE: Big platforms must step up efforts to fight disinformation ahead of the EU election thanks to the Digital Services Act, the EU’s new content moderation law, the European Commission said Tuesday. Clothilde Goujard has the details.
Seeking protection: “We want to be sure that these European elections are adequately protected. It doesn’t mean that people won’t lie, it doesn’t mean foreign interference won’t happen, but we want it to be more protected than ever before,” said a Commission official.
UKRAINE
TOP MEPs IN KYIV: Seven top European Parliament lawmakers were on the way out of Ukraine overnight, after a trip during which they were forced to take shelter amid hypersonic missile attacks from Russia. They met Ukraine’s parliamentary Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk to discuss ammunition, agriculture and the path to EU membership.
Dialing in from Ukraine: Parliament foreign affairs committee Chair David McAllister said “we need to start accession negotiations without delay” once the two outstanding Commission recommendations — on judicial reforms and anti-corruption efforts — are fulfilled.
Reform yes, but not as a precondition: “We need to implement the necessary reforms in the European Union — in parallel — while negotiating a possible membership of new member states,” McAllister said. “I don’t believe that we should play the one argument against the other.”
On grain: Speaking next to him on the phone, Parliament trade committee Chair Bernd Lange called on EU governments to “look to figures and not to emotion” when debating what to do next on Ukrainian agrifood’s access. “If there are serious problems, of course we can use licensing models [and] concrete support to help European farmers,” Lange said, adding that the duty-free access for Ukraine would be “really crucial for stabilizing the economic development.”
BACK TO THE NEGOTIATING TABLE: The Belgian EU presidency is working to revise the Council’s position on granting Ukrainian products duty-free access for another year, four diplomats told my colleagues Camille Gijs and Bartosz Brzeziński. That follows a push — led by Poland and France — to impose further limits on Kyiv’s imports into the Union.
FROZEN ASSETS UPDATE: Ukraine is pushing for another €5 billion from the proceeds generated by frozen Russian assets, Gregorio Sorgi reports.
ANOTHER RESHUFFLE: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy yanked his outspoken security council boss and appointed a spy chief in his stead — Veronika Melkozerova has the story.
SWEDEN’S GLOOMY ASSESSMENT: Speaking to Playbook, Sweden’s Ambassador to NATO Axel Wernhoff said Europe will have to live with the Russian threats for many, many years to come. “At this stage, we have no illusions about Russia. The NATO Strategic Concept defines Russia very clearly as the obvious military threat. I think we will have to live with this for decades,” Wernhoff said.
Presence in the Baltic: Wernhoff reaffirmed Sweden’s plan to station troops in Latvia, as part of the NATO presence there. Sweden plans to begin the operation from November onward, with troops rotating with Denmark’s, while some missions such as minesweeping could start earlier.
EU’S UNIVERSITY REFORM
COMMISSION PLOTS PATH TO EU UNI DEGREE: Students could in future earn a European degree that would be awarded by a group of universities, according to a European Commission proposal that will be announced today. Pieter Haeck brings us the preview …
The goal … “is to make European higher education even more competitive and interconnected,” the EU’s Innovation Commissioner Iliana Ivanova will say today. The proposal aims to create cross-border bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programs, according to a summary sent by the Commission to universities on Monday and seen by Playbook. The degree would automatically be recognized EU-wide.
Not there yet: The Commission doesn’t want to rush into this, partly because education is mainly a competence of EU member countries and universities care deeply about their autonomy.
Brace for impact: The proposal suggests universities could set up “a European legal entity” to award such European degrees — which exposes it to criticism that it aims to create super-universities, beyond national borders.
**It’s election year – and we’ve done our homework so you can get the most out of it. POLITICO’s Media Solutions team has cracked the code on brand policy communications during a pivotal year for global democracies. Spoiler alert: our informed audience tells us brands are needed more than ever in shaping post-election policy. Read more here.**
ORBÁN’S HEADACHE
IT’S ALWAYS THE EX: When former Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga abruptly resigned in February, PM Viktor Orbán lost a key protégé who had been slated to lead his Fidesz party’s list in the European Parliament election. But as Varga has gone underground, her ex-husband Péter Magyar has emerged as the real thorn in the side for Orbán, reports my colleague Suzanne Lynch.
Tape leak: Magyar has become an increasingly vocal critic of the Orbán regime since the scandal-infused resignations of Varga and former Hungarian President Katalin Novák. On Tuesday, he made his boldest move yet, publishing a tape which he alleged shows Varga knew that Orbán’s Cabinet minister, Antal Rogán, tampered with documents related to the Völner-Schadl case — a corruption saga involving a former state secretary in the justice ministry when Varga was minister who was charged with taking bribes.
Varga responds: Varga, who said in February that she was retiring from public life, issued a statement on social media Tuesday saying she was “appalled” by Magyar’s release of the tape, accusing him of blackmail and domestic violence.
Joining the opposition: The unlikely emergence of Magyar as an Orbán nemesis comes as the Hungarian opposition has failed to dent Fidesz’s iron grip on politics. But as Hungarian opposition MEP Katalin Cseh told POLITICO, it marks the first real instance of a member of the Fidesz inner circle going rogue. Read Suzanne’s full story.
Meanwhile, in Budapest: Thousands of protestors gathered near parliament on Tuesday demanding Orbán’s resignation.
IN OTHER NEWS
BIG ON THE BIG THINGS: A staff mutiny over the quality of olive oil served at European Central Bank canteens in Frankfurt was narrowly avoided after in-house caterers acquiesced to demands to bring back extra virgin options, POLITICO’s Ben Munster reports.
MACRON’S EU ELECTION GAME PLAN: Amid plummeting poll ratings, Emmanuel Macron and his party have an uphill battle ahead of the June EU election to claw back support. And their answer to the National Rally’s relentless rise is to punch back hard at the far right, write Clea Caulcutt and Sarah Paillou.
WHAT IS ISIS-K? Writing for POLITICO, Ashley Jackson, who has spent the past year interviewing ISIS-K fighters and commanders in Afghanistan and Pakistan, has a primer on the group that claimed last week’s deadly terror attack at a Moscow concert hall.
MIDDLE EAST LATEST: Israel has agreed to provide security for the temporary pier the U.S. military is planning to build in Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid, officials told my Stateside colleagues.