Greece bows to EU pressure, requires test for Russian tourists

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Before you start reading today’s edition of the Capitals, feel free to have a look at the article “Delta variant spread upsets EU plans for return to relative normality“.

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In today’s news from the Capitals:

ATHENS

Following criticism by Germany and France for being too lax with tourists and particularly for recognising Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, Greece has decided to require a PCR test for Russian tourists even if they are fully vaccinated with the Russian jab. More.

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EU PRESIDENCY

Portugal: Improve EU single market for post-pandemic recovery. Portuguese Economy Minister Pedro Siza Vieira has said that the European Union’s single market is still an “incomplete construction” with “barriers to be eliminated” but that steps to make it function better should be a foundation of the post-pandemic economic recovery. More.

BERLIN

Germans cancel holidays in Portugal. Hundreds of German holidaymakers have cancelled their holidays after the government announced that Portugal – which has a seen a surge in cases, with numbers reaching February levels – would be classified as a virus variant region starting Tuesday. More.

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PARIS

Outgoing presidents re-elected in French regionals. The outgoing presidents of the regions are to remain in office after 65.7% of voters did not show up to vote in the second round of the regional elections Sunday, an Ipsos/Sopra Steria estimate for France Télévisions reads. Read more.

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VIENNA

Is Austria facing its own Orbán moment? The opposition is accusing Chancellor Sebastian Kurz of rebuilding the country “along the lines of the authoritarian Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán” and media scientists are claiming this as being a “reason for concern.” But what is behind the allegations about vanishing media and judiciary independence in the Alpine republic? Read the full story. 

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LUXEMBOURG

PM Bettel tests positive for coronavirus. Luxembourg’s prime minister, Xavier Bettel, who just returned from an EU summit in Brussels last week, has tested positive for COVID-19 despite having received a first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Bettel will continue to work remotely as he remains in isolation for 10 days, his government said in a statement.

“The prime minister has mild symptoms, with fever and headache,” the statement added. Bettel first got a positive result after taking a self-test, which was later confirmed with a more reliable PCR test. (Anne Damiani | EURACTIV.fr)

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BRUSSELS

Belgians can request two free PCR tests for travel. Since the weekend residents of Belgium who have not yet had the opportunity to be fully vaccinated are allowed to request two free PCR tests for travel or to attend an event. Anyone who has not accepted their invitation to be vaccinated is therefore excluded. Some 72.5% of people aged 18 and over have received at least one dose of the vaccine, with 40.5% having received both doses.(Alexandra Brzozowski, EURACTIV.com)

UK AND IRELAND

LONDON

Britain could face food shortages due to lorry driver crisis. Britain could face gaps on supermarket shelves this summer because of a shortage of more than 100,000 heavy goods vehicle (HGV) drivers, caused by a combination of fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and Brexit, industry leaders have warned. More.

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DUBLIN

New DUP leader: Ireland needs to stop supporting NI Protocol. The newly elected leader of Northern Irelands Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Jeffery Donaldson launched a scathing attack on the Northern Ireland Protocol after his leadership bid received endorsement from the DUP electoral college on Saturday, the Irish Times reported. Read more.

NORDICS AND BALTICS

HELSINKI | OSLO

Fishing ban on River Teno hits locals and tourists alike. A joint decision by the Finnish and Norwegian governments to prohibit all fishing on the River Teno from May until December comes as a blow to the local population as well as the struggling tourism industry. Read more.

 EUROPE’S SOUTH

MADRID

PM Sanchez to meet Catalan regional president, open dialogue. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is set to meet Catalonia’s regional president and pro-independence leader Pere Aragonès in a bid to open a new era of political dialogue and solve the crisis between Madrid and the local government. Read the full story.

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ROME

Blinken: US-Italy relations important for ‘guaranteeing transatlantic security.’ US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Rome on Sunday for a three-day visit during which he will participate in the foreign ministers G20 in Matera scheduled for Tuesday. Read more.

VISEGRAD

WARSAW

Israel summons Polish ambassador over Holocaust law. Israel’s foreign ministry summoned the Polish ambassador, Marek Magierowski, on Sunday over a new law that Israelis fear would block compensation claims for World War II property seized by Nazi forces. Read more.

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PRAGUE 

Western Balkans to be a priority of Czech 2022 Council presidency. Czechia’s EU Council presidency will have the Western Balkans as one of its key priorities when it takes over the rotating presidency in July 2022, Foreign Minister Jakub Kulhánek told Czech News Agency (CTK), adding that it would be a success if a date for Serbia and Montenegro’s EU accession were announced during the presidency.  Read more.

Czech President Zeman calls transgender people ‘disgusting’. Czech President Miloš Zeman, commenting on a Hungarian law that bans LGBT material from schools, told a television interview on Sunday (27 June) that he finds transgender people “disgusting”. More.

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BUDAPEST 

A constitutional coup is being planned, says Hungarian top court president. Two of Hungary’s top legal minds have warned of the dangers of attacks on the constitution and called for its defence at a conference on the country’s fundamental law, Telex reported. Read more.

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BRATISLAVA

Most Slovaks want to take part in a referendum on snap elections. More than 50% of Slovakia’s citizens would take part in a referendum on early parliamentary elections, a poll carried out by the focus agency for TV Markíza suggests. Read more.

NEWS FROM THE BALKANS

ZAGREB

Survey: Croatians trust journalists more than politicians. Croatians’ public’s confidence in journalists is lower than in priests, but higher than in judges, bankers and politicians, according to a survey conducted by the Investigative Journalism Laboratory (Jourlab) of the University of Zagreb Faculty of Political Science. Read more.

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SOFIA

Bulgaria to minimise capacity of largest coal-fired power plant. Bulgaria cannot afford to shut down its largest coal-fired power plant, Maritsa East 2, but will reduce its capacity to a minimum, Prime Minister Stefan Yanev has announced. Read more.

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BELGRADE 

NATO-Serbia cooperation stronger than meets the eye. Cooperation between NATO and Serbia is much stronger and better developed than it might seem in the eyes of the citizens of Serbia, the head of the alliance’s military liaison office, Tommaso Vitale, has said. Read more.

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SKOPJE

Half a million Sinovac vaccines arrive in North Macedonia. A shipment of 500,000 doses of the Chinese Sinovac vaccines arrived in North Macedonia on Sunday, which authorities hope will provide a boost to the sluggish vaccination campaign. The Sinovac vaccine is effective, safe to use and has been approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO), Health Minister Venko Filipče wrote on Facebook. The country also received another shipment of more than 100,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine via the Covax programme on Saturday. 

The country’s health authorities recorded only four new infections among the 155,600 cases of confirmed COVID-19 and 5,500 related deaths since the start of the pandemic. Nearly 25% of the country´s 2.1 million people have been vaccinated with at least one dose so far. (Željko Trkanjec | EURACTIV.hr)

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PRISTINA

Kosovo government approves revised budget. Kosovo’s government has approved a revised budget of €2.51 billion for 2021, Finance Minister Hekuran Murati confirmed. The aim of the revised budget is to help recovery of the economy, which has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“All indicators show a sensitive recovery, the budgetary revenues are satisfactory, and we are on the right path towards recovery,” Murati said. Defence Minister Armend Mehaj requested €4.6 million to purchase drones to develop intelligence capacities. (Željko Trkanjec | EURACTIV.hr)

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TIRANA | ANKARA

Albania to buy military drones from Turkey. Albania will purchase military drones for €8.2 million from Turkish company Baykar Defense,  exit.al reported. The defence ministry has been allocated this sum from the government budget amended on 22 June for this purpose. 

Earlier this month, Interior Minister Bledar Çuçi published a video of his meeting with company representatives, which included a factory tour. Albania in 2020 became the first purchaser of an anti-drone system developed by a Turkish defence firm – the National War Technologies Defense Systems Inc. (Željko Trkanjec | EURACTIV.hr)

Agenda:

• France:  The fourth edition of the “Choose France” summit to promote France’s economic attractiveness will take place Monday.
• Germany: Chancellor Angela Merkel receives the President of the European Central Bank, Lagarde in Berlin.
• Italy: Meeting of the anti-Daesh coalition with Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.
• Spain: Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez will meet Catalonia’s regional president and pro-independence leader Pere Aragonès Tuesday to boost relations between Madrid and Catalonia’s regional government.  
• Belgium: European Parliament holds a Western Balkans summit
• Poland: Inauguration of an association of local governments will take place in Poznań. The initiative is organised by the Warsaw mayor Rafał Trzaskowski. 
• Slovakia: Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Elisa Ferreira will visit Slovakia to discuss the role of Cohesion Policy in supporting the Horná Nitra coal region in the transition.  
• Croatia: Foreign and European Affairs Minister Gordan Grlić Radman to attend a meeting of Višegrad Group and Western Balkans foreign ministers. The Regional Centre of Excellence in Robotic Technology formally opens at the University of Zagreb Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture.
• Serbia: A panel discussion titled From Portugal to Slovenia: Toward a Post-Pandemic Future for Europe will take place Monday.

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[Edited by Sarantis Michalopoulos, Daniel Eck, Paula Kenny, Zoran Radosavljevic, Josie LeBlond]

Read more with Euractiv

Portugal: Improve EU single market for post-pandemic recovery

Portuguese Economy Minister Pedro Siza Vieira has said that the European Union's single market is still an "incomplete construction" with "barriers to be eliminated" but that steps to make it function better should be a foundation of the post-pandemic economic recovery.