PM Mitsotakis attending COP 29 in Azerbaijan
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 29) taking place in Baku, Azerbaijan on Wednesday.
https://www.amna.gr/en/article/862692/PM-Mitsotakis-attending-COP-29-in-Azerbaijan
SYRIZA central committee hit by 77 resignations
Following the resignation of four MPs from SYRIZA’s parliamentary party in recent days, 77 members of SYRIZA’s central committee have announced their departure from the 300-strong body and from the party itself.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/politics/1253352/syriza-central-committee-hit-by-76-resignations
Free surgeries to cut waiting times
Starting November 28, Greece will introduce a program of free afternoon surgeries aimed at reducing long waiting times for patients. Funded by the Recovery and Resilience Fund, this initiative is expected to benefit up to 37,000 patients who have been waiting for surgery for over four months, according to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/news/1253382/free-surgeries-to-cut-waiting-times
NBG €650M bond sees strong investor demand
National Bank of Greece (NBG) has successfully placed a 650-million-euro senior preferred bond in the international capital markets, offering a yield of 3.5%.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1253388/nbg-e650m-bond-sees-strong-investor-demand
ATHEX: Banks climb for eighth day in a row
The Greek bourse bucked the declining trend in the rest of the eurozone on Tuesday as it managed to recover after a negative start and attract enough buyers to return to positive territory for one more day, mainly thanks to the significant growth of three bank stocks: Alpha, National and Piraeus. This was the eighth consecutive session of growth for the banks index.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1253387/athex-banks-climb-for-eighth-day-in-a-row
KATHIMERINI: The criteria to enter the list for free surgery
TA NEA: Greek hydrocarbons exploration: Return to Kassos by the end of November
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: PM Mitsotakis will be our personal physician
RIZOSPASTIS: The dilemma is: is health a commodity or a social benefit?
KONTRA NEWS: Fresh objections by ruling party MPs regarding national sovereignty issues
DIMOKRATIA: Electricity prices spike
NAFTEMPORIKI: New scenery regarding “green” energy
DRIVING THE DAY
BRUSSELS LURCHES TOWARD BLOWUP OVER COMMISSIONERS: All26 European commissioners-designate have now faced their European Parliament grillings. That should mean Ursula von der Leyen’s new College is just waiting for MEPs’ final kiss of approval, right? Wrong.
Is VDL 2 in danger of imploding before it’s even begun? Instead of wrapping up last night after the six most senior commissioners got through their sessions, the process is dragging on into today — and who knows how much longer. There’s talk a final deal might not come together until Monday. And while the most likely landing zone is still that all commissioners pass, the risk of nuclear proliferation is real, and growing.
Pull your finger out: “We need to live in the real world and get a move on,” said one EU official involved in the hearings. “The U.S. people have given a carte blanche to Trump 2.0 as we fuck around.”
EPP is chilling: “We are doing politics, sometimes it takes a while,” EPP chief Manfred Weber told Playbook reporter Šejla Ahmatović at an event last night at the North Rhine-Westphalia representation to the EU, over beers after a panel discussion (more from the event in the Trump section below).
President in the House: On Tuesday, von der Leyen came to the Parliament for one-on-one chats with Socialist and liberal leaders — her second such visit during the hearings. And rumors are flying she could return today to bash skulls together. No one around von der Leyen would confirm the meeting last night, though.
Mutually assured destruction: The notion that a strong hearing performance can guarantee you a commissioner job is now almost laughable. Far from MEPs agonizing over policy commitments, the delay is political, with the Parliament’s left and rightwing forces holding each other to ransom as they seek to push their own candidates through the process undiminished.
Chicken Fitto on the grill: Raffaele Fitto, Italy’s hard-right executive vice president nominee, went through a bumpy session with Renew, Green and Socialist lawmakers repeatedly peppering him with questions about his role in Giorgia Meloni’s Italian government and accusing him of centralizing control of regional funding. Then the Socialists’ big-ticket nominee Teresa Ribera was dragged into a domestic Spanish debate as center-right and far-right MEPs attacked her over the handling of the deadly Valencia floods.
We had a deal! “We are appalled by the behavior of the EPP leadership,” said Giacomo Filibeck, the secretary-general of the Party of European Socialists, in a conversation with POLITICO’s Jacopo Barigazzi. “We had a deal in July with a clear perimeter of pro-Europe forces; now they are sabotaging it for the ill-placed interests of their Spanish members.”
Not a peep out of veeps: MEPs also hit pause on the fates of the other wannabe executive vice presidents: Kaja Kallas, Henna Virkkunen, Stéphane Séjourné and Roxana Mînzatu. And don’t forget, Viktor Orbán’s pick Olivér Várhelyi is still awaiting a verdict on his extra answers to MEPs, as talk swirls about him having to forfeit sensitive parts of his policy brief.
EPP saber-rattling: The EPP, in the Spanish media, telegraphed it would delay the evaluation process until next week so that Ribera could attend the Spanish parliament on Wednesday. The Socialists pushed against that furiously last night.
War of words: Maltese Socialist MEP Alex Agius Saliba told Playbook there was a deal between pro-EU groups to evaluate all vice presidents except Fitto this week. “Now Manfred Weber to appease ECR and far right wants to postpone,” Agius Saliba said. “We remain open for contact with the pro-European groups to reach an agreement any time,” an EPP official told my colleague Max Griera, adding that the date for the evaluation meetings is “not yet decided.”
Just Transition, already: Mînzatu told Max after her hearing that though the political complexities are at their “maximum height,” she’s ready to get going. “My hope is that it will be cleared, decided, voted, as soon as possible, because if you ask me, I’ve been nominated Sept. 2 … It’s been a lot of time already.”
WEIRDEST AND WILDEST MOMENTS FROM OUR LIVE BLOGS: Séjourné whipped out a lithium-rich rock to make a point about critical raw materials … far-right MEP Juan Carlos Girauta Vidal told Mînzatu “you are just a quota” … EPP’s Markus Ferber asked Ribera about potential conflicts of interest … Ribera said “I am not Frans Timmermans” … Fitto said “There’s only one Fitto” … Patriots MEP Silvia Sardone talked about a “Taliban” Green Deal …
Plus: Green Rasmus Andresen waved some cookies around … an MEP was caught on camera vaping in the Ribera hearing … EPPer Andreas Schwab proposed mid-hearing coffee breaks … Kallas quoted Plato … S&D MEP Aurore Lalucq threatened to hammer colleagues who spoke too much … and Virkkunen said “an act is not the answer to everything” while discussing the EU’s Chips Act, Digital Services Act, Cloud and AI Development Act and possible Quantum Act.
Missed all this drama? We’ve got you covered in this cheat guide, written by our newsroom’s top journalists. And here are our takeaways from the hearings of Ribera … Virkkunen … Fitto … Séjourné … Kallas.
TRUMP LATEST
MORE SURPRISES IN TEAM TRUMP: Trump announced that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will be the joint heads of a new government efficiency department named after a meme (kinda). Musk will head up the Department of Government Efficiency, which Trump is calling “DOGE” for short. The president-elect said on his Truth Social platform that it will be the “Manhattan Project of our time.” What could possibly go wrong?
Government by meme: Musk is the most eye-catching of the appointments Trump has made to his top team in the week since winning reelection, and the tech billionaire was making jokes about it on X this morning. The price of cryptocurrency Dogecoin, a so-called memecoin, surged by 20 percent in the hour after Musk’s appointment.
The catch is DOGE isn’t really a government agency. Trump said Musk and Ramaswamy will work externally to give the White House’s budgetary body “advice and guidance.” Trump said the pair will “pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies.”
A reminder … Musk has been talking lots about slashing costs of government, including many civil service layoffs. He also retweeted his own comments about the need to cut America’s military budget as it’s “not sustainable.” Something which doesn’t exactly gel with the current geopolitical climate or with Trump’s victory speech assurance that “we want a strong and powerful military.”
PETE WHO? Trump also announced he was appointing a Fox News host as U.S. defense secretary. TV personality, author and National Guard officer Pete Hegseth has been chosen to lead the Pentagon. If you’re wondering who this guy is, you’re not alone, my Stateside colleagues report.
A bit of a step up: Trump said on Truth Social that Hegseth has “been a host at Fox News for eight years, where he used that platform to fight for our military and veterans.” Hegseth has no Pentagon or government experience, but will now play a major part in coordinating America’s response to wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.
But Ukraine is reassured: It could’ve been much worse, reckon Kyiv’s backers, who are very cautiously optimistic that Trump’s first national security nominees are bad news for Russia, ny Stateside colleagues report.
OTHER APPOINTEES: Trump also overnight officially announced Mike Waltz as his national security adviser … Kristi Noem as homeland security chief … John Ratcliffe as the director of the CIA … William McGinley as White House counsel … Steven Witkoff as his envoy to the Middle East … and Mike Huckabee as ambassador to Israel. Full list of appointees here.
THE TARIFFS ARE GOING TO BE YUGE: Meanwhile, Trump is preparing the ground for new tariffs that will dwarf anything in his first term, our POLITICO U.S. colleague Gavin Bade reports. That includes a “universal” tariff of up to 20 percent on any goods entering the U.S. and at least 60 percent on Chinese imports.
Brits also worried: Trump called himself “Mr. Brexit” — but could he now be about to wreck it with his trade policies? Jon Stone has more.
Europe shrugs: The reaction to Trump’s shenanigans in EU capitals has been less fiery outrage and more muted resignation, report Seb Starcevic and Nahal Toosi.
LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE — EU-U.S. RELATIONS CAN’T GET “ANY WORSE” — at least according to former Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, whose term in Brussels coincided with Trump’s first administration.
Gulp: At the event we mentioned above at the North Rhine-Westphalia representation in Brussels last night, Juncker was asked whether the transatlantic relationship could get worse during Trump’s second term.
“I can’t really answer that question because I can’t imagine it getting any worse,” Juncker said, as the audience laughed (nervously?). U.S. presidents typically become more friendly to Europe in their second terms, Juncker said — but added he didn’t think that would be the case with Trump.
GERMANY
ELECTION DATE — FEB. 23: The next German election will be held Feb. 23, following the collapse of Olaf Scholz’s government coalition last week. That’s about seven months early, my Berlin Playbook colleague Hans von der Burchard reports.
Key dates for your diary: Scholz will put up a no-confidence vote in Germany’s parliament on Dec. 16 (a few days ahead of a crucial European Council summit on Dec. 19-20), which he is all but certain to lose, triggering a dissolution of the Bundestag within 21 days and triggering an election.
Olaf’s Lame Duck Era: Scholz will remain in power as a caretaker chancellor until a new government is formed. In the meantime, his government is likely going to try to rush through some last-minute reforms.
KRAH HEADS FOR THE EXIT: Far-right MEP Maximilian Krah will likely run for a seat in the German federal parliament in the constituency of Saxony, a well-placed source told Playbook. He is currently a non-attached MEP, having been excluded from the AfD’s new grouping, Europe of Sovereign Nations.
DRILL BABY, DRILL
COP TAKEAWAY: KEEP USING OIL AND GAS? Azerbaijan’s PresidentIlham Aliyev used his opening speech at the COP climate talks in Baku on Tuesday to praise oil and gas as “a gift of God” and insist “countries should not be blamed for having them.”
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had a similar message. “We must continue advancing the green transition while also maintaining our use of natural gas, oil and nuclear energy,” Orbán said in his speech Tuesday, adding: “We cannot sacrifice our industry or agriculture in this process,” and “we cannot impose unrealistic quotas or burdensome rules on farmers and companies.”
U.S. goes AWOL: The Biden administration had intended to unveil a multinational call for “ambitious” efforts to cut emissions at this COP — but quietly abandoned that effort after Trump’s election win, Karl Mathiesen, Zia Weise and Sara Schonhardt report.
Which all makes for a pretty grim start to the world’s premier climate change summit. Make sure you’re subscribed to Global Playbook for Suzanne Lynch’s daily updates.
IN OTHER NEWS
BRACE FOR MORE FARMERS’ PROTESTS: Two hundred Walloon farmers riding 30 tractors are planning to camp out in front of the European Parliament on Place du Luxembourg in protest against the EU-Mercosur deal today, my colleague Alessandro Ford reports. Police are warning about traffic disruptions and road closures around the Schuman roundabout.
What they’re protesting: The Commission and Mercosur countries aim to conclude their long-running negotiations at a summit of the Latin American bloc early next month, people familiar with the discussions told Camille Gijs and Giorgio Leali.
AUSTRIA LATEST: The liberal Neos party will join Austria’s coalition talks, Chancellor Karl Nehammer said Tuesday, as he attempts to form a government without the far-right Freedom Party (FPO), which came first in the September election. Reuters write-up here.
MELONI’S WAR ON JUDGES: The Italian prime minister is taking on the judiciary, writes Elena Giordano.
EU COURT TO RULE ON WAR SLOGAN: A ruling from the EU’s General Court is expected today regarding a trademark dispute over Kyiv’s slogan “Russian warship, go f*** yourself.” The phrase, uttered by a Ukrainian soldier in response to a Russian warship during the invasion, has become a symbol of Ukraine’s resilience. However, EU officials contend it does not meet trademark requirements.
ZELENSKYY TO ADDRESS EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will address MEPs by video link on Nov. 19, when the European Parliament marks 1,000 days since Russia’s full-scale invasion, Parliament President Roberta Metsola announced on X on Tuesday. (Zelenskyy is also expected to address world leaders at COP in Baku.)