Rumors of banking marriages the Battle of the University for non-state universities the serious problems of electronic prescription the adventures of the Engineers Fund Trump and in the medium term

The (new) rumors of banking marriages When the column wrote a few weeks ago about the return scenarios of a strong business group in the systemic bank’s equity capital, through a merger, they relied on rumors that there had been contact with the foreign shareholder of the bank. Those who indulge in scriptology about the fate of systemic banks have been dealing in the last few days with another rumor concerning shareholder reclassifications in another institution housed at a distance of almost half a mile! Analysts focus on banks that have foreign strong shareholders, i.e. three out of four (since the National is excluded). At some point, they say, foreign shareholders should decide what to do. Will they increase their percentages further? Will they sell and leave? Then the procedures for mergers with smaller banks or for the entry of new investors from abroad or Greece will be initiated. United, telecoms and RES.A great deal of publicity was given yesterday (21/1) by the management of the United Group for the expansion of Renewable Energy (RES), initially in Bulgaria and later in other markets such as Greece. This is an expected move since the telecommunications companies controlled by United, such as Nova in Greece, already have high electricity consumption that will increase exponentially due to data centers. That is why they are now investing in RES so that, through intra-group bilateral agreements (PPAs) they can access cheap green energy. However, in Greece we are burning the progress of the sale process of Nova initiated by the British BC Partners, the main shareholder of the United Group. Everything shows that United will not be sold as a single group, but there will be a gradual sale of assets in packages. The Saudis have shown interest in Nova, which has also been confirmed in the recent visit of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. The St.E. battle for non-state universities The column has dealt several times with the interest shown by some, few are true, foreign groups to participate in non-state universities in Greece. First, it is true, the Cypriots who managed within two decades to create a new branch from scratch and attract thousands of foreign students every year to their private universities. The government, however, keeps the ball low because it knows that the law on the operation of ‘non-profit branches of foreign universities’, Law 5094 of 2024, will soon be placed under the discretion of the Council of State (STO). The Panhellenic Federation of Associations of Teaching Research Staff (POSDEP) and seven university professors have appealed to the Institute. In their appeal they argue that the provisions of the law come “in clear contrast to the absolute prohibition by the Constitution of other forms of legal persons outside the NPT to provide higher education”. The serious problems of electronic prescription It’s not going well with the new electronic prescription technology system, as it seems from the announcement made yesterday by the EDDIA, the state-run company managing it. The two contractors (OTE and Byte) delivered the project, but from the early hours problems began to occur. EDIKA executives appear extremely concerned with the time it will take to fully address the problems that have arisen. And it’s not the first of the new technology projects in the public sector to present problems or not delivered on time. Who can forget the well-known “SYZYXIS II” that has never been completed in its entirety and the Information Society SA (SCI) has counted tens of millions of euros as clauses to contractors and run to courts? Public officials reported a few days ago and the case of a project that had been awarded to a known company, which in turn gave it to a subcontractor who fled. So the company resumed the development of the system and it took two years more to deliver it like – like. IT projects are not an easy game in public. The adventures of the engineering fund The column has received a multitude of data about the works and days of TMEDE, the fund of engineers that will stay in history as the champion of loss due to the investments made in Bank of Attica before passing into the hands of today’s shareholders. It seems that some in the cashier want to support a very large corporate demand even though they know they will never collect it. In fact, in order to sustain this fabrika in the perennial they also go on to court struggles that, as we know, take decades to finalize. The example of the widow of the late contractor Spyros Cordalis, who had the listed European technique on the stock exchange, is cited. Although widow Cordala refused the inheritance in order not to be charged with debts that the late contractor had in TMEDE, her engineers’ fund charged the sky with stars as debts! Of course TMED lost the case in court. Why would they care that a family has been suffering for so many years? They managed to write on the fund’s assets debts of millions who knew they couldn’t collect! Towards a European Saving and Investment Union Speaking yesterday (21.1.25), the President of the Commission, German Ursula von der Leien at the Davos World Economic Forum is well known, but in the Greek public only passed its indirect opposition to Trump’s tariffs and that the EU is open to international cooperation and so on. But that’s not all he said. The column draws attention to other references to the most powerful politician at the moment in Europe (including, of course, Meloni). For example, that the EU’s main objectives were to strengthen the capital market union, reduce bureaucracy and ensure cheap and clean energy. The Commission, Von der Leien said, wants to create a European “saving and investment union”. In the EU there are savings of almost 1.4 trillion euros, significantly more than in the US. However, it is difficult for companies to mobilise this potential, as the capital market is fragmented and many funds migrate away and this is one of the biggest obstacles for start-ups and the development of a clean technology sector, she noted. It therefore announced many measures, including new European savings and investment products, additional incentives for risk capital and ‘a new impetus for normal investment flows’ across the Union. “We will mobilise more funds to boost the innovations Made in Europe and increase the willingness to take risks,” he noted. New European (less bureaucratic) framework for business activity Von der Leien also talked about reducing bureaucracy, as business in Europe needs to be easier. “We must act at all levels – at European level, at national and local level, for example, the Commission will “simplify significantly” the rules on sustainable financial instruments. The President of the Commission also promised greater standardisation of rules within the EU, for example in company law, insolvency law, labour law and tax law. “This will allow us to break the barriers that most times make rapid growth in our Union difficult. In future, companies will be able to choose the legislation under which they want to operate: either under one of the 27 national legal frameworks or under the planned new legal framework applicable throughout the EU,” she said. Trump, the Mid-term and pension spending Can Trump’s government programme touch directly (obviously) only US public spending and specifically those on social benefits, but indirectly also concern Greek public spending. Based on the forecasts of the Medium-term Financial-Structural Programme (which was developed on the basis of the new European Stability Pact), these expenditures should not increase more than EUR 3 billion per year from this year until 2028. This program, however, was formed on the basis of cases of development of the Greek economy of early autumn of 2024 and more than a month from the American elections, with a more likely scenario then appearing the victory of Kamala Harris Democrats rather than Donald Trump’s Republicans. The verification of the second scenario, of course, does not favour the development of the eurozone and, obviously, Greece. Therefore, it may not be desirable to achieve the government’s budgetary objectives and forecasts. And that is not enough (although the government claims that compliance with the Stability Pact also protects us from the ‘bad days’), but one must take into account another factor: The increases in Greece’s defence spending. These have been close to EUR 1 billion a year, while EUR 1 billion is forecast to increase pension spending and another EUR 1 billion to increase uniforms and lower taxes for the middle class. But can one say with certainty that the needs for defence spending will not change, e.g. if Trump’s line passes for 5% of GDP from each member country? If this happens, it can be said with certainty that the scope for other interventions, e.g. reductions in taxes or even expenditure on pensions, particularly on new ones, will not be ‘tied’.