MYTILINEOS: At Nea Karyes, where the country’s largest standalone energy storage facility was inaugurated, a 330 MW project developed by Metlen and the Karatzis Group, it was not only the batteries that were “synchronised” with the system. The views of Evangelos Mytilineos and Kyriakos Mitsotakis also came into alignment on two issues now dominating debate in Brussels.
The first is the energy transition, which requires a dose of realism. The head of Metlen put the issue in business terms. The unprecedented investment Europe needs for the transition, reindustrialisation and strategic autonomy “will not happen simply because targets have been set”. Businesses, he said, invest on the basis of the economic conditions they face.
The prime minister agreed and went a step further. The green transition, he said, “is not a sprint but a marathon”; fossil fuels will have a role in the interim, and Europe may need to “hit the brakes a little” to give industry and technology time to adapt. Otherwise, it will be the first to reach climate neutrality, having lost millions of jobs along the way.
The second issue is industry’s energy costs. Mr Mytilineos stressed that if Europe wants a strong industrial base, it must offer competitive and predictable energy, and that energy costs cannot be considered separately from production.
Mr Mitsotakis made support for European industry one of his three priorities for the forthcoming European Council. He also pointed to the comparison with energy costs in the US and China, which, he said, explains why European industry is in such a difficult position. He also noted that European industry is responsible for just 1.4% of global emissions.
The alignment was so close that the prime minister described the event as a “bridge” to the discussion he will have in Brussels...
PS: There was no shortage of pleasantries between the two yesterday. Evangelos Mytilineos told the prime minister that “he must be tired of coming to inaugurate our industrial facilities”, while Kyriakos Mitsotakis, for his part, said: “I hope, Evangelos, that we often meet at inaugurations of investments such as those delivered by the Metlen group.”
PIRAEUS: From next December, the bank will be a case study at Harvard University.
As the bank’s chief executive, Christos Megalou, revealed, its rescue and return to a growth trajectory after the capital increase in 2021 will be studied at Harvard.
It is a compelling story that merits analysis.
ANDROULAKIS: “Tsipras says PASOK entered a coalition with ND, but forgets that he did the same with the far right,” Nikos Androulakis said yesterday, recalling the alliance with Panos Kammenos.
“I don’t have party figures sitting on the government benches today,” was the pointed retort from Alexis Tsipras, referring to the many former (Simitis-era) PASOK figures whom Mr Mitsotakis appointed as ministers.
If nothing else, the column’s prediction that the “knives” would stay out until the polls close is being confirmed daily… whenever they open.
One interesting observation, however, from a “green” party figure is this: the issue is not only which parties entered coalitions with the Right in the past, but which of their figures want to do so again if ND comes first.
Who could they mean?
SYRIZA: Koumoundourou has said it and done it, putting in the firing line 14 MPs elected on the party’s ticket who left with an eye on ELAS, became independents and are refusing to give their seats back to their former party.
It did what everyone expected: it released a six-minute video featuring earlier statements by the independent MPs, when, as SYRIZA officials and MPs, they called on former comrades who had become independents before them — because Kasselakis was elected leader in 2023 and then expelled a year later — to… give their seats back to the party, because “seats are not personal spoils”.
The first statements featured were, naturally, those of former leader Socratis Famellos and former Koumoundourou number two Olga Gerovassili.
None of the figures in question has officially responded yet. But a curious argument has been heard from Ms Gerovassili’s circle: there is no SYRIZA left for her to give her seat back to, because Kasselakis’s people are not SYRIZA…
A “curious” argument, given that after Stefanos Kasselakis was ousted in autumn 2024, the party held congresses and fresh internal elections, which produced Famellos’s leadership and the line-up of its governing bodies, with the current independents among their members.
“Gerovassili seems to be making a leap in time, from autumn 2024 to autumn 2026, erasing the two years in between,” people from SYRIZA say.
They add: “Perhaps because the new development in those two years is the founding of Tsipras’s party, Ms Gerovassili and other independent MPs are looking for a compromise: to join the new party while keeping their seats and whatever they bring with them for as long as possible.”
Of course, they are all passing the ball to Alexis, calling on him to take a position on… having it both ways, with the gendarme (ELAS) and the policeman (their seat).
PS: Koumoundourou’s video is titled “a short film with great moral value”, and ends with the names of the “14”: Socratis Famellos, Giannis Sarakiotis, Dionysis Kalamatianos, Kostas Barkas, Olga Gerovassili, Haris Mamoulakis, Miltos Zambaras, Andreas Panagiotopoulos, Kalliopi Vetta, Giorgos Gavrilos, Marina Kontotoli, Alexandros Meikopoulos, Popi Tsapanidou, Giorgos Psychogios.
SYRIZA II: One name is missing from Koumoundourou’s video: that of MP Giota Poulu, who was elected on the SYRIZA ticket, became an independent and followed Mr Kasselakis until she left him last spring.
Her absence “probably” has to do with discussions between her and senior SYRIZA figures about her returning to the party.
The name of Theodora Tzakri is also missing. She has long been following the route SYRIZA-Kasselakis-PASOK and is not involved in discussions within the left.
By contrast, the video’s “14” include fellow independent Giannis Sarakiotis, who left SYRIZA after Kasselakis was ousted but is now discussing joining ELAS — and has a serious chance of doing so.
A targeted call-out, then.
GSI: The Greece-Cyprus electricity interconnector cable is nearing a crucial test with Turkey. As reported, a formal application for a works permit has been submitted to the Shipping Ministry for the French-flagged vessel “ABEILLE MARENGO”.
The development paves the way for cable-laying work to begin exclusively within national territorial waters, according to the application.
Once the vessel has been authorised, an application will be submitted for the formal start of work, and the company will issue the necessary NAVTEX notices — perhaps in late October.
The French vessel is expected to operate with Coast Guard craft and Navy ships maintaining a discreet presence.
VORIDIS: Makis Voridis admits that a party led by Samaras would be an obstacle to ND winning an outright majority. “Without a doubt,” he replied when asked during an interview with ERT.
The former minister described the distance that has emerged between them as particularly regrettable, noting that he had served in the Samaras government and as parliamentary spokesman for ND.
“He is someone with whom we have served and worked together, and shared values and a common direction,” he said.
He is among the governing party figures who have adopted a measured tone towards the former prime minister, who is nevertheless said to have made his final decisions.
It looks like a civil war is looming…
SCULPTURES: “If you compromise and agree to share the Parthenon Sculptures, we can find a solution,” says the director of the British Museum, responding to Greece’s straightforward demand for the stolen sculptures to be returned to their homeland and reunited.
“If we are to reach an agreement, we will need some form of arrangement under which the sculptures are displayed both in London and in Athens, in two different contexts — one in the context of the history of ancient Greece and ancient Athens, and the other at the British Museum in the context of the history of all civilisations,” George Osborne said (to Kathimerini).
It is worth recalling that Kyriakos Mitsotakis has made clear that “Greece cannot accept any agreement that would require it to recognise the British Museum’s ownership of the sculptures, or a plan that would mean we were ‘borrowing’ parts of our own monument”.
GEK TERNA: The group has announced the establishment of a Euro Medium Term Note Programme, paving the way for it to issue a eurobond whenever it sees fit.
The programme allows it to raise up to €1bn through bonds to be listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. Market sources, however, say the group is preparing a €500mn issue, potentially as soon as next week.
With this move, GEK TERNA is preparing to join the “select group” of Greek names that have tapped the eurobond market, including PPC, Metlen and the systemic banks.
Now we wait to see exactly when it pulls the trigger.
THESSALONIKI FAIR: Aktor appears determined to land the redevelopment project at the Thessaloniki International Fair. In the tender, worth about €200mn and attracting six bidders, the group led by Alexandros Exarchou submitted the highest discount, setting the bar at 31%.
Sources say the second-highest discount, 28.5%, was offered by METKA, followed by the MESOGEOS–TRITON consortium at 17%. AVAX submitted a bid with a 14% discount, TERNA with 11% and EKTER with 7.4%.
It remains to be seen who will ultimately cross the finish line. For now, however, Aktor has shown it wants the project — and its discount makes that clear.
EUROBANK: International operations accounted for 46.5% of the group’s adjusted net profits in the first half of 2026. With Cyprus and Bulgaria already strong sources of earnings, attention is turning to the next step.
The bank has already opened a representative office in Mumbai, creating a new channel for business ties between India, Greece and Cyprus. It is also stepping up its contacts with investment and business bodies in the United Arab Emirates.
Next Thursday, October 22, Athens will host Investopia Mediterranean, with a line-up that is hard to overlook: Kyriakos Pierrakakis; the UAE’s Minister of Economy and Tourism, Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri; Arshad Ghafur, President for Middle East & North Africa at Bank of America; and Emmanuel Givanakis, head of the financial regulator at the Abu Dhabi Global Market.
Representing Eurobank, CEO Fokion Karavias will speak with Financial Times journalist Eleni Varvitsiotis, while Kostas Vasiliou, deputy CEO and head of CIB, will join a panel on international financing alongside executives from Bank of America and the First Abu Dhabi Bank, the UAE’s largest bank.
With a line-up like this in Athens, it is only natural that interest is not confined to the official discussions…
ECONOMY: Now that talk of raising productivity — and, consequently, wages — has become fashionable, we thought we would revisit a study carried out some time ago by the Hellenic Observatory at the London School of Economics (LSE).
It sheds light on one of the most uncomfortable truths about the Greek economy: despite constant rhetoric about changing the country’s economic model, Greece remains a… “café economy”.
The term was coined by the four Greek researchers who authored the study, two of whom also work at Greece’s KEPE.
It refers to the remarkable expansion of the accommodation and food services sector, at the expense of productivity across the economy as a whole.
The figures are revealing.
From 2009 to 2023, employment in the sector rose by 87%, while its real value added increased by just 11%!
Of the roughly 740,000 jobs created in the Greek economy between 2013 and 2023, 320,000, or 43%, were in this sector.
Yet productivity per worker in the sector fell by about 41%, while productivity across the Greek economy as a whole stood about 16% below its 2009 level — and remains lower today.
The researchers estimate that about a third of the overall decline in productivity is linked to the expansion of this sector and the fall in its own productivity.
This does not mean tourism is useless or dangerous. Quite the opposite. The study’s authors recognise its crucial contribution to employment and the balance of payments.
But their study explains how an economy can create jobs and register growth without becoming correspondingly more productive and prosperous.
ECONOMY II: To be fair, this shift did not begin under the Mitsotakis government. It accelerated during the years of the economic crisis and bailout programmes, with the researchers arguing that the collapse in demand and the sharp fall in real wages were key factors in the decline in productivity.
Why? Because cheap labour discourages investment in modernisation, which raises productivity.
The pressing question, however, is what exactly has been done to change this course. Judging by what the president of SEV, Spiros Theodoropoulos, says publicly — urging both his members and the government to act — not much of consequence.
The easy business option remains opening yet another café or eatery. The same is true of a large share of foreign investment, which goes into tourism and real estate rather than higher-value productive activities.
And here we arrive at the most serious contradiction in the government’s narrative. On the one hand, we hear constantly about an investment boom, digital transformation, innovation and productive restructuring.
On the other, the real economy continues to face a serious productivity problem, while the Recovery Fund and other European funds have yet to show that they can decisively change the structure of production.
This picture is not, of course, the result of government choices alone. It also reflects an economic environment that often rewards making money from property more than taking productive risks.
The question now facing the government as elections approach is how successful a growth model can be considered when it creates jobs but fails to raise sufficiently the value produced by each worker and their pay.