A plethora of reports appear in the German press regarding the election of Kyriakos Pierakakis to the presidency of the Eurogroup. Read the related report from DW
Pierakakis comes from a country that experienced a serious debt crisis and went through difficult years under European aid programs. The current Greek Minister of Finance assumes the office roughly ten years after the possibility of the country exiting the euro was discussed, writes ntv.
Graduate of Harvard and MIT, Pierakakis is considered the architect of digital reforms and effective bureaucracy reduction in Greece. He has also received European recognition for managing the COVID-19 vaccination campaign.
Stern highlights reactions from prominent political officials regarding Pierakakis election: Referring to the Greek debt crisis, European Council President Ant?nio Costa wrote on X that the country has come a long way and that Pierakakis election constitutes an important recognition of this progress. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis spoke of a day of pride for the country.
As noted by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Pierakakis is the first Greek to lead the Eurogroup. At the same time, according to the German newspaper, the election of the Greek minister can also be seen as a reward for the decisive reform and fiscal consolidation policies of the Mitsotakis government in recent years.
BILD on Migration: This is How the Greeks Deceive Us!
In a report with the provocative title This is How the Greeks Deceive Us! regarding migration, BILD writes:
Greece exploits the Schengen Agreement on free movement in the EU to direct refugees it does not wish to Germany. [ ] The data is clear: only for 2024 the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) recorded 24,800 cases of people applying for asylum in Germany for the first time, who had already been granted protection status in Greece. Security sources indicate that the Greek authorities simply turn a blind eye.
In 2025, the inflow of migrants who had already applied for asylum in Greece also remains uninterrupted, continues BILD, citing data from the Federal Police and BAMF for the period from January 1 to November 30, 2025, when around 14,500 such cases were recorded. Approximately 5,000 of them came by air, the rest by bus, train, or traffickers from Greece. At the same time, numbers are down compared to 2024, which security sources attribute to strict border measures and significantly increased trafficker fees.
In a report on Greece-Germany agreements on migration, Berliner Zeitung states that the two countries reached a large-scale bilateral agreement. The German government appears ready to withdraw all pending return cases under the Dublin Regulation. These are procedures for which Greece would normally be responsible for asylum seekers who then traveled irregularly to Germany. This was confirmed in statements by the Greek Minister of Migration, Plevris.
No clarification is provided on the exact number of cases covered by this understanding. According to German authorities, in the first half of 2025 Germany attempted to return 3,554 people to Greece. However, only 20 returns were carried out.
According to Greek government sources, the German government thus recognizes the burden on Greece at the EUs external borders. At the same time, Berlins move is interpreted as a sign of European solidarity.
The German Ministry of the Interior did not deny the reports. A ministry spokesperson stated that Germany will contribute under the new joint European asylum system, including by taking into account old secondary migration casesi.e., cases of protection seekers who continued their journey within the EU. Beyond Greece, a similar agreement has also been reached with Italy, concludes BZ.
Source: Deutsche Welle
Giorgos Passas
