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1. Greek PM in charm offensive aiming to ease primary surplus targets

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is planning a series of trips abroad toward the end of this month and next, hoping to convince Greece’s creditors of the recently elected government’s commitment to reforms and to lay the groundwork for reducing demanding primary surplus targets agreed under the country’s post-bailout agreement....

2. Substantive debate and ministers who listen

All of the participants on the Committee for Public Administration need to be applauded for the outcome. The former minister of administrative reform in the SYRIZA government, Mariliza Xenogiannakopoulou, publicly lauded the stance of State Minister George Gerapetritis, stressing that he showed a very creative and positive mood. ...

3. Foreclosure legislation unconstitutional

The latest piece of legislation on foreclosures which was approved last Friday is unconstitutional...

4. Trump’s yuan move makes a China deal much harder

The decision to label China a currency manipulator boxes in Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. The U.S. Treasury Department made the move after Beijing allowed the yuan to slide below the key level of 7 to the dollar. It’s the first such designation for the People’s Republic since 1994. The sudden escalation will make it harder for both sides to reach a trade truce...

5. Tangible rewards for alliance-building

Greece's military spending has shrunk dramatically as a result of the crisis, widening the defense gap with Turkey. Successive Greek governments have spent billions on armaments over the past few decades, yet there is very little to show for it in terms of a defense industry. After an ambitious start, state-owned firms such as the Hellenic Aerospace Industry (EAV) and others were gradually choked by mismanagement from political parties and unionism...

6. Lifeline as Parliament accepts President's referral

The House of Representatives has heeded warnings voting to accept the President's referral of legislation that would have made it difficult for banks to recover mortgaged non-performing exposures...

7. Officials spot loopholes in medical cannabis law

A number of provisions in the medical marijuana legislation were taken out prior to a vote, prompting officials to call for amendments to block doctors from prescribing cannabis without any limits...

8. Trump hits China with more tariffs, sharply escalating trade dispute

U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to impose a 10% tariff on $300 billion of Chinese imports from Sept. 1, sharply escalating a bruising trade war between the world’s largest economies and jolting financial markets. ...

9. Finance Committee seeks compromise on foreclosures

The House of Representatives Finance Committee meets on Friday to discuss proposals that would normalize the legislative framework on foreclosures...

10. Greece's Energean snaps up four new Israeli offshore licenses

Israel-focused Greek oil and gas group Energean was awarded four new Israeli offshore licenses in the so-called Exclusive Economic Zone, the company said on Wednesday...

11. Non-performing loans decline to €10.14 billion

Non-performing loans as defined by the European Banking Authority declined to €10.14 billion in March 2019, marking a reduction of €151 million compared to previous month. ...

12. Britain's LSE seals $27 billion Refinitiv deal to create data giant

London Stock Exchange has agreed to buy financial information business Refinitiv in a $27 billion deal, it said on Thursday, in a move to transform the British company into a market data and analytics giant. ...

13. S&P affirms Bank Of Cyprus ratings

Standard & Poor’s affirmed on Tuesday their `B+/B` long- and short-term issuer credit ratings on Bank of Cyprus Public Co. Ltd. (BoC), noting that the outlook is stable...

14. Greece approves cut on property tax, eases arrears payment

The Greek parliament approved an across-the-board reduction of a deeply unpopular property tax on Tuesday, fulfilling an election pledge of new prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis....

15. East Med an 'issue' for 82 million Turks, energy minister says

The Eastern Mediterranean is an issue for 82 million Turks, Turkey's Energy Minister Fatih Donmez has said, declaring that the country will not back down in its demands...

16. Dombrovskis: The EU leads the world in the battle against climate change

This year, millions of young people across the world joined an international movement for climate change. They demanded action instead of mere talk, marching to fix the planet before it is too late. ...

17. Foreclosures: Parliament rejects President's referral

The House of Representatives today rejected a presidential referral regarding a number of foreclosure legislation amendments. ...

18. Early signs of civility and consensus

Despite some natural degree of skirmishing and isolated criticism, rays of civility, consensus and cooperation are breaking out across the Greek political landscape. ...

19. Deadly mega-fires bring new challenge to Europe

The European Union describes wildfires as “a serious and increasing threat” across the continent....

20. Still surrounded 45 years later

We are living through a series Waterloo battles with the government pretending not to know about it and delusional politics obviously taking its toll...

21. US removes Turkey from F-35 program after Russian missile purchase

The United States said on Wednesday that it was removing Turkey from the F-35 fighter jet programme, a move long threatened and expected after Ankara began accepting delivery of an advanced Russian missile defence system last week. ...

22. Trump says 'not fair' that U.S. can't sell F-35s to Turkey

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday it is “not fair” to either Turkey or the United States that Washington cannot sell Ankara billions of dollars worth of F-35 fighter jets after it bought a Russian air defense system...

23. Talent shortages costing European private businesses €414 billion each year

European private businesses’ biggest challenge is the increasingly growing skills shortage that is preventing them from hiring the right talent for growth. A PwC survey across 31 European countries shines a spotlight on a wider, ongoing issue across the region. PwC estimates that the skills shortage is costing the region €414 billion annually in lost revenues - just from private businesses. That’s around 2.6%of European GDP and is more than the combined annual GDP of Greece and Portugal. ...

24. The extent of betrayal

Forty-five whole years later and the image of dead bodies stacked onto a semi-trailer dump cart with watermelons has stuck with me, tormenting me every single time that the hot Cypriot sun splits July in two...

25. New law criminalizes sex buyer behaviour

The House has passed a law criminalizing customers who pay for sex with trafficked women, while it rejected an amendment that would provide a legal recourse for defendants who use a plea of ignorance as their defence...

26. The new government, image and symbolism

The first indications from the new government are sending out all the right signals. Tuesday’s handover ceremonies at the ministries confirmed a return to normalcy, after a decade-long crisis that painfully divided the country. Both sides should be given credit for the civilized political discourse that prevailed during the change of guard. It is hoped that this spirit will continue during the debates that are expected to take place in Parliament, not only in the sense of a more sophisticated rhetoric, but also, hopefully, in the approval of some government bills by the new main opposition....

27. House debates 'sex buyer' legislation

Two proposals in parliament on the purchase of sexual services have taken politicians and the public by storm, with human trafficking and sexual abuse of minors in the backdrop...

28. US Congressional Delegation visits Cyprus

A 9-member bipartisan delegation of the U.S. House of Representatives, headed by Ted Deutch (D-FL), the Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Middle East, North Africa, and International Terrorism of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, visited Cyprus this weekend....

29. Deutsche Bank axes 18,000 jobs

30. The others were Merkel’s puppets, we were just naive

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras admitted to being naive enough to believe that his European counterparts, whose countries have loaned Greece billions of euros, would go easy on him...