Name talks at crucial juncture Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias’s intention to brief party leaders next week on the progress of talks over the name of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia with his FYROM counterpart is seen by analysts as an indication that developments are on the way. http://www.ekathimerini.com/227226/article/ekathimerini/news/name-talks-at-crucial-juncture Detention of two Greek soldiers extended as acrimony lingers As a Turkish court rejected an objection submitted by the lawyers of the two Greek soldiers currently in Edirne Prison against a decision to extend their detention, the rancorous verbal standoff between the two sides continued Thursday, with Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos responding to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s recent “Greater Turkey” comments, saying Ankara should not forget that the Ottoman Empire was defeated in the Greek War of Independence. IMF spox refers to stepped up work over Greek debt relief An IMF spokesman on Thursday expressed a slightly more positive outlook over the prospect of the Fund continuing in the Greek program, while noting that technical work on the debt relief issue has accelerated. http://www.naftemporiki.gr/story/1336419/imf-spox-refers-to-stepped-up-work-over-greek-debt-relief Stournaras: Clear post-program plan is needed Central banker Yannis Stournaras returned to the issue of the post-program support framework for Greece during a speech on Thursday, but avoided the term “precautionary credit line,” which has generated strong reactions from the government. BoG: NPEs post noteworthy reduction in Q4 2017 The Bank of Greece on Thursday said non-performing exposures (NPEs) affecting the domestic credit sector reached 95.7 billion euros up until the end December 2017, down by 4.8 percent and 10 percent compared with the end of September 2017 and December 2016, respectively. http://www.naftemporiki.gr/story/1336354/bog-npes-post-noteworthy-reduction-in-q4-2017 Specter of football ‘Grexit’ again re-appears The head of FIFA’s monitoring committee for Greek professional football has recommended the suspension of the country’s crisis-bedeviled league from international participation, a prospect that means that Greece’s football federation (EPO) has a brief “window of opportunity” to enforce measures demanded by FIFA. http://www.naftemporiki.gr/story/1336331/specter-of-football-grexit-again-re-appears ATHEX: Stocks take dive in March The Greek stock market ended the first quarter of the year with the benchmark down 2.73 percent since the beginning of 2018 and the banks index having fallen 10.41 percent in the same period, after yet another session of losses for most stocks on Thursday. The bourse will remain closed on Friday and on Monday due to Easter holidays in most Western markets, and will reopen on Tuesday, April 3. http://www.ekathimerini.com/227225/article/ekathimerini/business/athex-stocks-take-dive-in-march |
KATHIMERINI: After the uproar the government’s candidate for the position of the Unified Social Security fund (EFKA) resigned
ETHNOS: Total disaster [for Greek football]. Football Grexit danger is now visible.
TA NEA: FinMin Tsakalotos openly disagrees with the PM’s choices
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: New Democracy leader Mitsotakis: Too small for great challenges
AVGI: New Democracy leader Mitsotakis is absent [from the discussion on crucial national issues]
RIZOSPASTIS: Struggle for collective labor agreements
KONTRA NEWS: Frauds, kickbacks, guns and fixed football games
DIMOKRATIA: The list of shame! Tax-fines for rich people erased
NAFTEMPORIKI: Reduction of NPLs accelerated
GOOD GOOD FRIDAY MORNING. Brace for impact as China drops a major Easter surprise: Chinese space station Tiangong-1 is kaputt and expected to make its uncontrolled re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere this weekend. This could happen any time between Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon and anywhere between the 43rd parallel North and the 43rd parallel South, according to the European Space Agency’s latest forecast — basically anywhere, roughly, from Marseille to Rio de Janeiro. Confused? ESA has an FAQ here (and a rocket science blog here.) According to the agency, there’s not much to worry about: You’re likelier to be hit by lightning twice in the same year than by a piece of the burning space station hurtling to Earth. Stay safe — and take a look at the spectacular pictures taken by Bonn-based space watchers Fraunhofer FHR Institute. NOT OVER IT: The European Parliament has more to say about the Commission’s new Secretary-General Martin Selmayr — 61 more things, to be exact, according to a draft list of written inquiries obtained by Playbook. It’s unedited (and the copy could do with some translation into English and a little smoothing-out), but the substance is there and perhaps even more intriguing in its rawness: MEPs are unhappy with the outcome of Tuesday’s hearing, and have no intention of hiding it. Key quotes: “Did the European Commission arrange a ‘fake procedure?’”; “Would M. Oettinger say that in the interest of the service … the European Commission could decide whatever it wants?” MEPs speak of a “farce” and say Selmayr leaked “confidential information” to Germany’s Der Spiegel, calling for him to be sanctioned. Their presumption of occupying the moral high ground makes the battle no less interesting to watch. OUTER (EU) SPACEMADE IN THE EU 27: Brexit is real to this wine gum producer. WILL THEY DO IT? More seriously, I’ve asked Brussels people of all stripes and political colors whether they think the Brits will in fact leave the European Union on March 29, 2019. A very few say “yes and good riddance,” glad at the prospect of being rid of eternal troublemakers. Some say yes more sadly. Others are indifferent to the whole thing but say they do believe Brexit will happen, given both sides already put in considerable work to sort things out. But the bottom line seems even clearer here than anywhere else: The Brits are leaving. Only Council President Donald Tusk still says Brexit is reversible — but whether he believes that the process can really be undone or just wants to avoid the EU being blamed if negotiations go wrong is another question. A master plan: One year from today, the U.K. will have left the EU — unless Remainers get their way after all. POLITICO’s Charlie Cooper took a look at Best for Britain, the campaign group best positioned to lead the last-ditch battle to stop Brexit. Their best bet is not to preach to the 48 percent — but to break “the echo chamber of anguished Europhiles,” Charlie writes. “If they can successfully reach out to ‘soft Leavers’ and convert them to their cause, they believe the Brexit juggernaut can be stopped before the point of no return.” ‘Swiss nightmare’: The European Parliament’s Brexit Coordinator, Guy Verhofstadt, talks to EU Confidential’s executive producer, Andrew Gray, about the biggest Brexit challenges and how the Parliament is dealing with them. Verhofstadt says he has a plan to avoid a “Swiss nightmare” of too many post-Brexit agreements with the U.K. and warns the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland may still prove the toughest issue to solve. The podcast also takes a peek into Brussels’ British expat community, who channeled their Brexit-related heartbreak and anguish into skits and songs on stage at the Brussels Press Revue. Listen to the latest episode here. IRELAND’S SCARS: On Good Friday 20 years ago, a 35-page document put an end to decades of violence in Ireland. But not all wounds have healed, and Brexit threatens to tear them open again if the process rips up a key element of the peace — the invisible border — that was made possible by the EU membership of both Ireland and Britain. “True reconciliation looks further away than ever,” Peter Geoghegan reports for POLITICO from Belfast. POWER POLITICSRUSSIAN COUNTER-NARRATIVE: Most EU countries didn’t attend a briefing by the Russian embassy in Moscow earlier this week. But a handful — those that didn’t expel diplomats or take measures against Moscow for the Salisbury nerve agent attack, incidentally — did. POLITICO’s Giulia Paravicini got the lowdown on who went and what they were told. Here’s her scoop. Feeling better: Yulia Skripal is “improving rapidly and is no longer in a critical condition,” doctors treating the 33-year-old daughter of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal said Thursday. Russia hits back: Moscow has ordered the expulsion of 60 U.S. diplomats and the closure of the U.S. consulate in St. Petersburg, in what officials say is only the first step of a tit-for-tat retaliation. The U.S. ambassador to Russia, Jon Huntsman, was summoned to the Russian foreign ministry on Thursday where he was informed of the expulsions and told the U.S. must surrender the consulate building in St. Petersburg by March 31. POLITICO’s David Herszenhorn has the story. BRITISH SOFT POWER: The U.K. is showing renewed interest in the Western Balkans and has launched itself — or its iconic broadcaster, rather — into a soft-power struggle to win over public opinion with the reopening of its Serbian language service in Belgrade this week. It’s been seven years since it closed shop in the Serbian capital, where pro-Russian media have since taken over. Influence is fluid in this part of the world. Not wild about it: President Aleksandar Vučić, who has to be reminded that a critical press is something one has to live with — and can survive — in a democracy, one of his EU interlocutors told me. The people of Serbia need to know “this is not objective information, but information that is in the interest of one kingdom,” the Serbian president said. Valerie Hopkins has the story. POLICY FEUDSBERLIN’S BALANCING ACT: Germany played its role in the EU’s show of solidarity with the U.K., expelling four Russian diplomats this week. And newly appointed Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has taken his first emancipatory steps away from his Social Democratic party’s historical closeness to Moscow. But Berlin still has energy interests to protect, it seems: German authorities have given Russia’s energy giant Gazprom the green light to build the Nord Stream 2 pipeline through its waters in the Baltic Sea. POLITICO’s Anca Gurzu took a closer look. A BAN ON KILLER ROBOTS: Next month, governments will meet for the fifth time in Geneva to discuss how to regulate — or potentially ban — autonomous deadly weapons powered by artificial intelligence, or “killer robots” in the words of their critics. Some countries — including the United States, Russia and China — strictly oppose a ban, while others, primarily developing countries, are eager to implement strong regulation as soon as possible. To bridge this gap, Europe’s two heavyweights France and Germany are pushing a compromise, along with the argument that it’s hard to ban something that doesn’t really exist yet. But their suggestion is prompting backlash among watchdog groups that believe Europe should be leading the charge for a ban. POLITICO’s Artificial Intelligence Correspondent Janosch Delcker has the story. HOW TO LOSE TRADE WARS AND ALIENATE PEOPLE: Europeans aren’t worried about the immediate effects of a trade war with the U.S. but rather the spiralling of countermeasures that could end up hitting both economies and impact the EU’s ongoing economic recovery, writes POLITICO’s Pierre Briançon. “If we’re talking just about the steel and bourbon war, the impact will be limited; Europeans don’t drink Mint Juleps anyway,” according to a French finance ministry official. “The worry is both the possible domino effect, and the risk of escalation.” DULY NOTED: L’Europe En Marche claims it has no plans to cooperate with Italy’s 5Star Movement: “No contact has ever been established at any level,” the party tweeted, citing Playbook’s note on similar denials from the Italian side. Strangely, the tweet has since been deleted. IT’S A DATE: North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in will meet April 27. Kids, don’t try this at home, but it looks like testing nuclear weapons can win you new friends in Washington, bring old friends closer together and get you to the negotiating table with that neighbor you’ve been threatening to make extinct. Kim is also expected to meet with U.S. president Donald Trump, but a date hasn’t yet been set. ICYMI: Trump, by the way, said he might like to “hold up” a newly updated trade agreement with South Korea in order to strike a nuclear deal with its northern neighbor. “We’re moving along very nicely with North Korea,” he said. “We’ll see what happens.” |