Preserving this Greek carve-out sends precisely the wrong signal. It tells companies that sufficiently valuable commercial interests may eventually secure exemptions. It tells member states that delaying agreement can produce favourable outcomes. And it tells Moscow that Europe’s political unity remains negotiable when influential industries are affected.
The battle over this 21st sanctions round lays bare a new fault line in Europe’s Russia policy, with Greece and Austria securing sensitive carve-outs.
As the conservative government bleeds popularity, Tsipras is testing whether a hybrid message of radical left economics and “patriotism” can redraw Greece’s political map before next year’s election.
Stun grenades have no place in the policing of protests. The right to freedom of peaceful assembly in Greece is being blatantly violated both in law and in practice.
Most will see the maritime bill as legal codification of regional assertiveness, but it’s also a lot more: A way of legitimising Turkey’s geopolitical revisionism.
Sierra Leone, Senegal, Zambia and Qatar have better press freedoms when compared to both Greece and Cyprus.
Despite years of evidence and verified reports by a senior official within the EU’s border agency Frontex, the European Commission still won’t acknowledge that Greece pushes back migrants, which is illegal under EU law.
Operating under the supervision of three Greek officers, the Afghan unit robbed, stabbed, threatened rape, and beat 61 newly-arrived migrants in 2023, says the report.
Like much recent EU migration legislation, the proposal was presented without a comprehensive fundamental rights impact assessment. Sixteen UN experts have already raised concerns about its compatibility with international law. Yet EU institutions are rushing the file through the legislative process.
This week’s fatal collision between a Greek coast guard vessel and a migrant boat off the island of Chios has once again brought European maritime enforcement practices under scrutiny, raising questions about accountability and balance between border control and the protection of human life at sea.
