Talking Europe: Recent Episodes
FRANCE 24 English
Politicians, activists and researchers debate the issues facing the EU and a 'guest of the week' offers their insight in a long-format interview that gets to the heart of the matter. Saturday at 1.15 pm.
We speak to the president of NATO's Parliamentary Assembly, just hours after Israel launched major strikes on Iran's military and nuclear sites. Marcos Perestrello is a Portuguese politician and a former secretary of state for national defence in Portugal. He calls for "de-escalation" in the Middle East and more nuclear diplomacy, while also making the case that Iran is a threat to the region and to global security, and that the development of a nuclear programme in Iran would be "an even bigger threat to global security".
The EU says science is the key to its future. But is it putting its money where its mouth is? Earlier this year, the French government agreed to cuts in the country's research budget and over the past year, science powerhouses such as Germany, Italy and the Netherlands have proposed or implemented cuts in their research sectors. Those working in universities and research centres say there is a stark gap between the way the EU is presenting itself as a magnet for global talent – the pitch that the French government and the European Commission made at their "Choose Europe for Science" conference in Paris in early May – and the reality.
We speak with the Co-Chair of The Left Group in the European Parliament, French MEP Manon Aubry. A noted advocate for transparency in the EU institutions, she was also a negotiator of the "Duty of Care Directive", which now faces calls for its abolition. Aubry says the directive is absolutely crucial for holding multinational corporations to account when it comes to labour and environmental abuses. She sees the EU Commission's "simplification" agenda as Trump-style deregulation.
Europe is trying to put itself at the forefront of the global ocean agenda, releasing its Ocean Pact ahead of a United Nations Oceans Conference in the French coastal city of Nice. More than 90 percent of EU marine waters are overexploited by industrial fishing, seabed mining and growing offshore infrastructure, according to Seas At Risk, an association of environmental organisations from across Europe. And yet, healthy oceans are the precondition for breathing healthy air, ensuring sustainable food supplies and securing energy independence – as more of our electricity is set to come from the sea.
Our guest's job did not exist until the current European Commission was formed. Now the college has a portfolio for "tech sovereignty, security and democracy" held by the Finnish Commissioner, Henna Virkkunen. We ask her what tech sovereignty means and how to boost it, amid an increasingly fraught tech relationship between the EU and the US administration of President Donald Trump. We also talk about the EU's overall strategy to increase innovation, research and the use of artificial intelligence.
These days, we are using cash less than we used to and relying more on private tech platforms, such as Apple Pay and Revolut, to manage our finances and make purchases. The EU wants to keep up with consumer behaviour in this ultra-digital age and ensure it does not lose control of its monetary system to private companies or big tech aligned with political powers that dislike the EU.
We speak to French EU Commissioner Stéphane Séjourné, a close associate of President Macron, and one of the Commission’s six Executive Vice-Presidents. He in in charge of a key portfolio: Prosperity and Industrial Strategy. Before his appointment to the post he was France’s foreign minister, an MEP, and leader of the centrist Renew group in the European Parliament. On May 21, Stéphane Séjourné presented a strategy for boosting the EU’s single market, something that he argues is critical for growth and prosperity in the European Union.
Many EU leaders were undoubtedly relieved when the result of the Romanian presidential election was announced on the night of May 18. Nicusor Dan, who had campaigned on a platform of pro-Western stability, defeated the firebrand populist and Eurosceptic George Simion. Indeed, Dan achieved a stunning reversal, after heavily losing the first round. But Simion still won more than five million votes, or around 46 percent, which highlighted a deep fracture in Romanian society.
We host Guillaume Klossa, a noted French thinker and writer on Europe, and the president of the EuropaNova think tank. He is also the chair of the "Conclave", a high-level reflection platform advising European leaders. Klossa has a strong interest in digital issues, and was advisor to former EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker in that capacity.
"Business as usual with Turkey cannot continue." That was the message MEPs sent when they voted on a report about Turkey's EU accession process on May 7 in Strasbourg. Amid a crackdown on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's political rivals as well as on protesters, MEPs said that EU membership talks with Turkey cannot be restarted in the current circumstances. At the same time, the European Union does not want to shut the door on Turkey completely, as Ankara remains a significant partner within NATO and its interests overlap with the EU's in Ukraine.
France and the EU Commission co-hosted a conference in Paris on May 5 entitled “Choose Europe for science”, with the stated goal of making the EU “a magnet for researchers”, according to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The EU is hoping to capitalise on the pressure that the Trump administration is putting on universities and some research facilities, to perhaps attract US scientists to Europe. But is this a pipe dream? And are there not too many barriers inside the EU to make it a truly global hub for innovation? We put those questions to our guest, Roxana Minzatu. She is one of the executive vice-presidents of the European Commission, and her wide portfolio includes social rights, skills, quality jobs, and preparedness.
"It is up to us to make the Franco-German engine stronger than ever" – those were the words of French President Emmanuel Macron, when he congratulated Friedrich Merz on becoming Chancellor of Germany.
Our guest is one of France's most prominent commentators on European affairs and global trade issues. Pascal Lamy is coordinator of the Jacques Delors Institutes - named after the visionary of European integration whom Lamy worked with closely in the 1980s and 1990s. Lamy was EU trade commissioner in the early 2000s, and he served two terms as director-general of the World Trade Organization from 2005 to 2013. He is also vice-president of the Paris Peace Forum and has numerous books to his name about Europe, geopolitics, geoeconomics and global governance.
The EU faces long and likely tortuous negotiations on its next big budget, as the current one runs out in 2027. Many say the bloc shouldn't have to choose between funding defence – the current big priority – and financing the green transition, the welfare state, development aid and so on. But even if these different areas are equally important, the reality is that there are tough choices ahead for the EU, as political factions emphasise their own priorities and member states defend their national interests.
We sit down with France's minister-delegate for Europe, Benjamin Haddad, to take stock of diplomacy around Ukraine and the US-EU standoff over trade tariffs. Haddad lived in the US and worked for top think tanks there, including the Atlantic Council and the Hudson Institute. He wrote a book entitled "Paradise Lost: Trump’s America and the end of European illusions" during the first Trump presidency. With that theme in mind, we also touch on European competitiveness, research and innovation.
Romania is about to re-run a high-stakes presidential election, fuelled by a political crisis that has engulfed the country for the last five months. At the end of November, the ultranationalist Calin Georgescu sent shockwaves through the EU by winning the first round of the vote. But the Constitutional Court annulled the result in December, because of allegations of electoral violations and manipulation through social media. Indeed, the role played by TikTok has come under intense scrutiny, with the European Commission now saying that it has grounds to suspect that the platform was in breach of its obligations under the EU's Digital Services Act.
We speak to the chair of the European Parliament's delegation for relations with the United States: Italian politician Brando Benifei. He recently led a group of MEPs to the US to meet members of the US Congress and other players in a bid to de-escalate the trade crisis between Washington and Brussels. He talks of the probability of a negotiated solution, and comments on the complicated political relationship between the US president and the EU – as evidenced by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's tightrope act when she was hosted by Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday.
A crackdown on demonstrators in Turkey, the detention of the mayor of Istanbul and a clampdown on pro-EU protesters in Georgia – there is currently no shortage of challenges to the Council of Europe from its own members. Europe's largest and oldest intergovernmental body – comprising 46 countries – has a relatively new boss: Alain Berset became secretary general in September 2024. We ask him if human rights are under attack, and what recourse he has when members flout the organisation's core principles and values. Before his current role, Berset was an elected minister in the government of Switzerland.
Our guest is someone who spends a lot of time thinking about Europe's place in the world, and how it should adapt to the new global order of Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. We speak to Dutch political theorist and historian Luuk van Middelaar, who heads the Brussels Institute for Geopolitics, about European defence, its strategic autonomy, artificial intelligence policy and of course the frayed relationship with Donald Trump in the light of the US president's trade war.
Trade, defence and Ukraine are not the only areas in which the EU is facing a massive challenge from the Trump administration. The US president's "America First" agenda is having a huge impact on the developing world. In March, it was announced that 83 percent of USAID programmes and contracts were being terminated. These programmes "don’t serve US interests", members of the Trump government say. But critics – including some MEPs in Brussels – say the de-funding is costing lives, for example when it comes to treatments for HIV.
It was not supposed to happen again. Two years ago, after the cash-for-favours scandal known as "Qatargate" rocked the European Parliament and sent shockwaves through the EU, reforms were introduced to improve transparency. But now, fresh allegations of bribery have hit the EU's legislature – purportedly to the benefit of China's tech giant Huawei, according to the Belgian prosecutor's office.
Strategic autonomy is a buzz phrase in Brussels, as the EU tries to ramp up its capabilities in key industrial sectors. Defence is of course a major focus for those efforts. But calls have grown for the bloc to boost its presence in space as well. Space is seeing weaponisation and hybrid warfare; indeed, the EU Commission says it is just as contested as land, sea, air or the cyber field. Europe does have some world-class systems such as Galileo or Copernicus, but when it comes to the space sector as a whole, it suffers from fragmentation and underinvestment, similar to the problems that have bedevilled its defence sector.
One of Ukraine's staunchest advocates in the EU and in NATO is Finland, which itself joined the Atlantic Alliance two years ago after decades of neutrality. We caught up with Finland’s President Alexander Stubb as he attended talks of the "coalition of the willing" hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris. Stubb gives us his perspective on European security and defence, NATO and of course the increasingly fractious relationship between the EU and the Trump administration, as the latter announces fresh tariffs on European imports.
The European Investment Bank has existed since the inception of the European Union in the 1950s, but despite its vital role as the EU's lending arm, it has not gained the media attention of institutions such as the European Commission or the European Parliament. That is now changing, however. The EIB is taking on a more high-profile role, financing projects in the fields of security and defence. This is a shift that our guest has referred to as a "seismic shock". Nadia Calviño is the president of the European Investment Bank, and the first woman and first Spaniard to lead the institution. She served as First Vice-President of the Spanish government and Minister of Economy, Trade and Enterprise until December 2023, in the cabinet of Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
Preparing to support Ukraine 'in all scenarios' – that’s how the head of the EU Council summarized the key takeaway from the final European summit of the year, ahead of Donald Trump’s potential return to the White House. We delve into the EU’s preparedness with Belgian Foreign Minister Bernard Quintin, who addresses the complex issue of possible European troop deployments in Ukraine, a topic discussed at the summit. Quintin also shares his hopes for a more democratic Syria after Bashar al-Assad’s ouster and outlines how the EU should support the country’s transition.
Things may look bleak for the European Union in the depths of winter, with challenges across the board: the threat of a trade war with the US, weakened political figures in Germany and France, European farmers menacing protests about the Mercosur deal, an uncertain outcome for the conflict in Ukraine, plus budgets being tightened for households and governments across the bloc. But despite or perhaps because of those threats, Europeans' sentiment is on the up: 51 percent of Europeans tend to trust the EU, the highest level since 2007; while 44 percent have a positive image of the bloc, a figure that's stayed more or less constant since 2010. Those figures are according to a recent Eurobarometer poll.
Talking Europe meets one of Spain’s most seasoned diplomats, and a close confidant of the Spanish prime minister. José Manuel Albares is Spain’s foreign minister, and a former ambassador to France. We discuss the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, war in the Middle East, Ukraine, the Mercosur free trade agreement – which Spain strongly champions – and migration.
Today, the EU’s Green Deal faces pressure from an atmosphere of economic crisis: car factories in Germany are set to close, farmers protesting about excessive environmental protection measures, soaring energy bills for households. But as the recent floods in Spain have shown, the issue of the climate crisis remains unavoidable for Europe’s leaders. Ursula von der Leyen herself promised in 2019 that the EU would be carbon neutral by 2050. In 2024, the Commission president says the next step of the Green Deal is the Clean Industrial Deal or how the EU can better support its industry and European competitiveness, all while striving for those environmental goals. The Political landscape of 2024 is very different to that of 2019 with populist parties seizing seats in the European parliament, often at the expense of Green MEPs.
Georgia is sinking deeper into crisis, as a pro-European protest movement is met with a severe police crackdown that has been condemned by EU officials. Our guest has been out in the streets every night, demonstrating against the ruling party’s decision to pause Georgia’s EU membership process, and in protest at the recent parliamentary election which the pro-European camp is convinced was rigged – a view backed up by the EU parliament and by the joint observation mission of several western organisations. Giorgi Baramidze is a former state minister for Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic Integration, and a former deputy prime minister of Georgia.
The war in Ukraine has entered what some officials say could be its most dangerous phase, with Kyiv now using Western-supplied missiles to strike deeper inside Russia, and Russia reported to be using North Korean troops in Ukraine. There is even talk in some Western capitals of sending troops to Ukraine – something that has been floated in the past by French president Emmanuel Macron. Meanwhile there is nervousness in Europe about what the incoming US president’s peace plan for Ukraine might entail – Donald Trump keeping his cards close to his chest. So what diplomatic and military role should the EU be playing?
Social media platforms play an increasingly important role in election campaigns, as the first round of the Romanian presidential election – in which a NATO-sceptic populist came out on top – amply demonstrates. Our guest is Mariya Gabriel, a former EU Commissioner for the Digital Economy and Innovation, who is well placed to discuss social media and disinformation, particularly in the context of southeastern Europe. We also talk to her about the new EU Commission's announcement of a "Competitiveness Compass" initiative, and the rolling political crisis in Gabriel's home country, Bulgaria.
A recent shootout over drug trafficking in France that degenerated into a massive fight between rival gangs, involving hundreds of people, prompted authorities to compare the French state to Mexico – the land of drug cartels. For Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, France's drug problem is "at a tipping point". But this is not just happening in France. The EU's law enforcement agency Europol says that several member states are experiencing unprecedented levels of drug-related violence.
The EU believes it has an offer than can effectively counter China worldwide – its Global Gateway Investment Strategy. Jutta Urpilainen, the outgoing European Commissioner for International Partnerships, is adamant that this strategy offers long-term human development and avoids the debt traps that Chinese investment in Africa has come with. "We don’t want to create new dependencies," she tells Talking Europe. We discuss the impact that Global Gateway has had since its inception in 2021, as well as the EU's apparent shift in focus towards migration and border security, and what that means for its international partnerships.
There is nervousness in Brussels about the incoming US administration. That is not just down to Donald Trump's plans for Ukraine, but also because of his pledge to slap tariffs on EU goods of at least 10 percent. Trump insists that the EU will have to "pay a big price" for not buying enough American exports. That could hit key industrial sectors hard, not least car manufacturing. And officials from the European Central Bank are now warning of the damage that US tariffs would do to economic growth in the eurozone. But is a trade war inevitable, or could the two sides negotiate an off-ramp? We put the question to two MEPs.
In an exclusive interview, FRANCE 24 and Radio France International sit down with France's minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, who was appointed to the job in September. We discuss France's diplomatic initiatives in the Middle East, in Europe and in relation to Ukraine. Barrot addresses Donald Trump's dramatic return to power in the US and insists that US tariffs on Europe – which Trump has said he will impose – would be a "major error". Barrot says that, if Trump persists, France and Europe will defend their interests – their farmers and their industries – "with an iron will". Barrot also stresses that Europe now needs to accelerate the strategic autonomy agenda, in the face of the "global transformation that is happening now".
The EU likes to underline that enlargement towards the east is a security priority. And indeed, since the war in Ukraine started, accession negotiations have begun with several countries, most of them in the Balkans. But in a shock referendum result, barely over 50 percent of voters in Moldova said Yes to pro-EU constitutional changes. And in another shock for Brussels, Georgian Dream beat the staunchly pro-European opposition in the parliamentary election in Georgia; a vote whose integrity the EU has called into question.
For all the talk of "Trump-proofing" Europe, much remains to be done, and there are now only a few short months before the former president takes office again, following his dramatic comeback and resounding victory in the US election. We speak to Pierre Moscovici, who was European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs during the first Trump presidency. He identifies three major areas where the EU is likely to face headwinds – Ukraine, trade and climate action. Moscovici is now First President of the Court of Auditors, which is the highest body for auditing the use of public funds in France. In that capacity, he addresses the challenge of reducing France's huge public deficit.
Deadly floods in Spain and in central and eastern Europe, as well as devastating hurricanes in the US, are just some of the recent potent reminders of climate change. From November 11, world leaders are huddling in Azerbaijan's capital Baku for the COP29 climate conference, with the stated goal of stepping up climate action and offering more protection to those worst affected by this global emergency.
With the US election just around the corner, is the EU prepared for what might be coming? And what does “being prepared” mean, exactly, when it comes to Europe’s defence capabilities? These are some of the questions we put to veteran French diplomat Pierre Vimont, who was ambassador to Washington during the presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Vimont argues that the EU needs to develop much longer-term strategic thinking, whether on Ukraine and Russia, or China, or the Middle East, or the EU’s own near neighbourhood.
It's a ritual that happens every five years, and also a test for two of the EU’s key institutions. Once all the European Commission's new members have been designated, they go through confirmation hearings before the European Parliament. The parliament gets to flex its muscles vis-à-vis the EU executive and probe beyond the niceties of designates saying the right things about their commitment to European values. Getting through these grillings is not a foregone conclusion: last time, in 2019, three commissioner-designates were rejected. We ask our apnel of MEPs what they look for in a hearing, and if they see any of the current candidates as being particularly problematic.
We speak to one of the most seasoned players on the European stage, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic. During his eight years in office, he has experienced the latter stages of the 2015-16 migrant crisis, the Covid pandemic, and the impact of the war in Ukraine, as well as overseeing his country’s entry into the eurozone and the Schengen free-travel area. We discuss topical issues in the EU as well as in his region, particularly EU enlargement towards the Western Balkans.
Ask just about any EU leader who they want to win the US election on November 5, and you will hear a politically correct answer along the lines of “We will work with any US president to develop transatlantic ties”. However there is little doubt that many of them will be privately relieved if Vice-President Kamala Harris wins. She has drawn a clear line from her opponent, former president Donald Trump, on US engagement with the world and particularly on support for Ukraine. But it is not as if the current Biden-Harris administration has always been smooth for Europe: for example, the US Inflation Reduction Act and President Joe Biden’s AUKUS pact with the UK and Australia have created tensions. If Trump does indeed defeat Harris in November, could the EU still work out some sort of arrangement with him? We put this question to two MEPs.
As he nears the end of his term, Josep Borrell, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy, speaks to Talking Europe about the two crises that he has been most closely involved in: the Middle East and Ukraine. He recounts his efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and in Lebanon, and outlines possible ways to speed up EU assistance to Ukraine. His biggest regret over the past five years? Not being able to bring the EU's 27 member states to a common position on the Middle East. "It has been impossible to talk with a single voice because the positions are too different," he says.
European Union member states have narrowly backed import duties on Chinese-made electric cars, over what the EU considers to be unfair competition. Tariffs of up to 45 percent are set to be imposed from next month for five years. Chinese carmakers have criticised the EU's move, but are moving ahead with plans to expand in Europe and have so far not said that they will raise prices to cover the cost of the tariffs. However, the Chinese government says it is investigating some EU imports, such as pork or dairy products, from countries including Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany, as well as brandy and wine imports from France. That has sparked concerns of possible challenges at the World Trade Organization, and a worsening dispute between Brussels and Beijing. We delve into what's at stake with two MEPs.
In this episode we take a look at life, war and politics in Ukraine, through the eyes of its most celebrated writer. Andrey Kurkov rose to international fame with "Death and the Penguin" more than 20 years ago, but he has many other novels to his name, including "The Silver Bone", which has just been published in English. It's the first book in his new series, the Kyiv Mysteries. Kurkov is very active in promoting the literature and culture of his country around the world, and he was travelling around Europe as he recorded this interview.
France's debt has reached a record €3.228 trillion, amounting to 112 percent of GDP. That is well above the cap set by EU rules. Of course, France isn't the only member state to have racked up debt during the Covid pandemic and the energy crisis. Several countries have been reprimanded by the European Commission for breaking budget rules. But because the French economy is one of Europe's largest, France's EU partners are watching the situation nervously. So how and where should the country make savings? In this debate with two MEPs, we draw on the experiences of other countries, including the "frugal" Netherlands.
France's public debt is very much in the spotlight. The country's recently appointed prime minister, Michel Barnier, calls it a "sword of Damocles" hanging over future generations. Indeed, for many countries, paying interest on the national debt deprives them of investing in education, healthcare, research and so on. Similar debates are happening across the EU, as the European Commission asks member states to submit their debt reduction plans. We ask Jean-Claude Trichet, former president of the European Central Bank (ECB), for his read on the debt situation, and on prospects for an overall European recovery. We also touch on EU-China relations, as a tensions come to a head over the issue of China subsidising the electric vehicles that it exports to Europe.
It has been one year since Israel suffered its worst ever terrorist attack, with Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups killing more than 1,000 Israelis and taking more than 250 hostage. Israel's response has devastated Gaza, displacing most of the population and killing more than 41,000 people, according to Gaza health authorities. Meanwhile, Lebanon has been hit hard by the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, with Israel eviscerating the Hezbollah leadership, in response to which Iran launched a massive missile strike against Israel. The EU has recognised Israel’s right to defend itself, while also warning against an "uncontrollable regional escalation". But beyond such statements, and besides providing financial or humanitarian aid, what can the EU actually do? We discuss this with two MEPs.
Talking Europe sits down with one of the most high-profile EU Commission presidents of modern times, Jean-Claude Juncker, who was in office from 2014 to 2019. He shares his thoughts on Ursula von der Leyen's second European Commission and the challenges facing Europe, from migration to Ukraine and the Middle East. Juncker, who had plenty of one-on-one time with Vladimir Putin, says he is "deeply disappointed" by the Russian president, but that it is still important give peace a chance, with the aid of "skilful diplomats".
One in four adults in the EU have a disability, according to Eurostat. That's more than 100 million people. And while this summer's Paralympics no doubt drew attention to the issue in a visible way, the daily struggles of so many people remain largely invisible. Indeed, access to employment and healthcare is not equal, and neither is the risk of poverty and social exclusion. In the portfolios unveiled in Ursula von der Leyen's new European Commission, there is now no longer a specific mention of disabilities. We delve into the issue with two MEPs.
Programme prepared by Isabelle Romero, Luke Brown, Perrine Desplats and Elitsa Gadeva
The new French government faces many challenges, including questions about its democratic legitimacy, and a public debt which has worried France’s EU partners. We discuss the economic outlook with former Spanish foreign minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya, who is now dean of the Paris School of International Affairs. We also look at Ursula von der Leyen’s new line-up at the European Commission, and the current geopolitical challenges that the EU is facing including migration and the conflict in the Middle East.
Few EU presidencies have rocked the bloc as much as the current one, held by Hungary. European leaders, many MEPs, and EU Commissioners, were rattled by what Prime Minister Viktor Orban called his peace mission in July, which included a meeting with President Zelensky of Ukraine – but also with Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Donald Trump. And at the beginning of September, several European governments publicly questioned whether the Hungarian leadership respected European values. Meanwhile, a row continues to brew between Brussels and Budapest over the issue of migrants. We take stock of Hungary’s rotating presidency at its half-way point.
Socialist veteran Elio Di Rupo has an unusual CV. He was an MEP back in 1989; he then held many high-level jobs in Belgium, including that of prime minister from 2011 to 2014, before returning to the European Parliament in this new five-year mandate. We ask him how the role of an MEP has changed since his first stint at the European Parliament, and what his priorities are for this next term. We also touch on the latest migrant-related tensions in the EU and the political and economic challenges in Belgium, which, like France, is under surveillance from the European Commission over its public debt.
Ukraine is continuing its ground offensive in Russia's Kursk region, and pursuing drone attacks deep inside Russian territory – signaling a more assertive approach. At the same time, Russian forces have advanced in eastern Ukraine, piling pressure on the country's war effort. We ask how the EU should respond to this situation, and whether the limits imposed on Ukraine's use of Western long-range weapons should be lifted. Plus, as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz moots peace talks that would include Russia, we weigh in on the timing and meaning of his remarks.
The nomination of Michel Barnier, a veteran of both French and EU politics, to the post of French prime minister, is “a surprise and a delicate gamble” by French president Emmanuel Macron. That’s according to our guest in Talking Europe, economist and political analyst Jean Pisani-Ferry. He tells Armen Georgian that the new French government will not be able to avoid difficult decisions, especially when it comes to the country’s alarming budget deficit. “We can’t afford to navigate with a short-term perspective,” Pisani-Ferry says.
It hasn’t been smooth sailing this summer for Ursula von der Leyen, who was voted in as EU Commission president for a second term in July. She had asked national capitals to put forward two candidates for her new Commission, one female and one male, so that she could ensure full gender parity in her 27-member college. But some governments have flat-out ignored her request, as other factors are more important to them – renewing a trusted heavyweight who’s already in place, or respecting national party-political traditions or conventions. In addition to this challenge to her authority, von der Leyen will have a major political in-tray to manage once her commissioners are eventually confirmed this autumn. Indeed, she herself says that the decisions taken in this new five-year EU mandate will determine Europe’s place in the world for the next fifty years.
This week's guest on Talking Europe has a unique vantage point on both the world of politics and sports. Alexander Stubb, the president of Finland, has been an established and influential figure in European and global affairs for the past decade. He's also a keen sportsman, competing – and winning titles – in triathlon, even during his political career.
In the weeks before the EU elections of June 9, FRANCE 24's Europe team, and the channel's correspondents and reporters, reported from across the continent to shine a light on the issues preoccupying voters.
From defence and security to immigration, housing and the cost of living, the major topics of the last five-year European mandate remain serious challenges for the freshly elected European Parliament – and for Ursula von der Leyen, who was re-elected by MEPs in mid-July to serve another term as head of the European Commission.
Faced with an unconventional Hungarian rotating EU presidency, as well as uncertainty over US politics and the situation in Ukraine, the EU Council will have its hands full as well.
Reports by Clovis Casali, Johan Bodin and Luke Brown
Motion designs by Sophie Samaille
Produced by Perrine Desplats and Isabelle Romero
The EU Commission president has won a comfortable majority from MEPs for a second term, but the Left bloc remains resolutely opposed to Ursula von der Leyen. We speak to Manon Aubry, the co-president of the Left group, about why she voted against von der Leyen, while also discussing international issues such as Ukraine and Gaza. Aubry, a prominent member of the France Unbowed party, also tells FRANCE 24 that President Macron must “admit that he lost the (parliamentary) election” and appoint a prime minister from the left-wing alliance – the New Popular Front.
Ursula von der Leyen has been as confirmed the head of the European Commission for a second five-year term. She won a comfortable majority on July 18th, with 401 MEPs voting for her at the plenary session in Strasbourg – forty votes more than she needed to get her over the line. That is a stark contrast to 2019, when she scraped through with just nine votes. But the balancing act that she had pull off, in order to bring different political families together, does not stop now. Indeed, in the next mandate, she will have to navigate a difficult political landscape, not just vis-à-vis the European parliament, but in the EU as a whole. We discuss what comes next, and what her big challenges are likely to be.
Talking Europe speaks to the head of the centrist Renew group in the European Parliament, Valérie Hayer, who recently led the EU election campaign in France on behalf of President Macron’s political bloc. We dissect the all-important vote on July 18 on Ursula von der Leyen’s potential second term as EU Commission’s president, and what Renew’s expectations of her are. On the political deadlock in France, Hayer urges politicians to take a leaf out of the EU parliament’s book when it comes to building coalitions and finding compromise. Hayer is also very outspoken on what the Hungarian prime minister called his “peace mission” to Kyiv, Moscow, Beijing and Washington. Hayer says what Viktor Orban is doing is “completely unacceptable,” and that it cannot be done “in the name of Europe.”
“We have a real political problem here. We knew that his (rotating presidency of the EU) would be like no other,” Hayer says, adding, “With my group, I request that the heads of state and government take their legal and political responsibilities, and ask Orban to stop doing what he is doing in our name.” Would she be in favour of ending Orban’s rotating presidency before the six-month stint officially ends? “I think so,” Hayer replies. “We should find a political way for him not to hold that responsibility anymore. And if that’s not possible, for political or legal reasons, let’s see how we can manage him and challenge him.”
Concerning the secret ballot that will decide the political future of Ursula von der Leyen, Hayer says that her group has had a “very constructive exchange” with the EU Commission president. “We welcomed the decision to propose her as candidate for re-election. But this is not a blank cheque,” she states. “We requested two things. First, the priorities regarding competitiveness, rule of law, defence and security, and climate issues. And also, we want her and political family to be absolutely clear on not doing any deal with the far right in the European Parliament.”
Did she receive such a guarantee from von der Leyen? “She had a very clear answer,” Hayer says. “No deal with the European Conservatives and Reformists. No formalised deal with the ECR. She has discussions with some of them, but there is no deal, and that’s important.”
On the losses suffered by Renew and centrists in the June EU election, Hayer affirms, “I would have preferred to have more seats, and I fought for that. We have gained three members in the last few days and we are now at 77 members, and I will try to have more colleagues. But the important thing is that we are the bridge between the European People’s Party and the Socialists in the European parliament. No majority can be done without the bridge. So it means the right needs us and the left needs us too.”
Hayer also weighs in on the French parliamentary election, which was triggered by President Macron on the night of the European election when he lost heavily to the far-right National Rally. “The reality is that nobody won the election. No bloc has an absolute majority in the National Assembly. French politicians should look at what we do in the European parliament. That is not a practice at the national level. We don’t do coalitions in France – it’s not in our political culture. So French politicians should say, ‘look, we are all pro-European democrats; let’s speak together to try to find a way to work together’,” Hayer says.
Programme prepared by Sophie Samaille, Perrine Desplats, Isabelle Romero and Elitsa Gadeva
Talking Europe speaks to one of France’s most distinguished diplomats. Philippe Etienne, once dubbed “Macron’s diplomatic brain,” has been the French ambassador to Washington and Berlin as well as the permanent representative to the European Union. We ponder Donald Trump’s possible return to the White House – something that Etienne says could pose problems for Europe on trade, given Trump’s penchant for tariffs. We also discuss Hungary’s presidency of the EU; the EU’s defence and security agenda over the next few months; and the hopes for a smoother EU-UK relationship following the British general election.
The EU has long talked about unfair competition from China. After a nine-month probe, Brussels announced additional tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, establishing that those cars have benefited heavily from “unfair subsidies”, which pose a threat electric vehicle producers in Europe. Beijing has accused the EU of “naked protectionism” which it said will harm relations and undermine global efforts on climate change. Seeking to “de-risk” from China, the EU, is focused on boosting its own auto industries as it transitions to greener energies.
The European Greens lost a third of their seats in the EU elections earlier this month. Bas Eickhout, co-president of the group in the European Parliament, points out that the Greens actually increased their strength in some parts of the EU – but admits that their message did not cut through to a lot of voters. The Dutch MEP tells Armen Georgian that it's now crucial to build on the EU's Green Deal with an investment programme. "If we do not get a European programme, we will see national investment programmes, and then the Dutch will lose to the Germans. Rotterdam harbour will lose to Hamburg harbour," he says.
It's been almost exactly eight years since British voters decided to leave the European Union, although that decision did not become active until December 2020. Much of this last decade has been marked by a turbulent relationship between the UK's ruling Conservatives and the EU. The opposition Labour Party looks poised to win back power in the July 4 election, but are pro-Europeans' hopes of a much closer relationship misplaced? Our guests argue that Labour leader Keir Starmer’s room for manoeuvre would be very limited if he sticks with the current UK-EU agreement.
Our guest recently described the EU's action on cohesion – levelling up Europe's diverse regions – as "more than a policy: rather, a guiding principle to strengthen and unite Europe" in an op-ed. Elisa Ferreira has been the EU Commissioner in charge of Cohesion and Reforms since 2019. On Talking Europe, we discuss the outcome of the European elections, and whether new spending priorities – including on defence – could end up competing with cohesion funding needs. Despite her warnings on that, Ferreira remains optimistic. "I trust that we Europeans will be intelligent enough not to fragment Europe in such difficult times," she tells the programme. We also showcase a best-of our cohesion reports over the past year, filmed by Luke Brown and Johan Bodin.
In the end, the centre held. The far right's gains in this month's European elections, while historic, were not the continent-wide romp that some Europe-watchers had predicted. After the nail biting, the groups that set the agenda in the old European Parliament are not much different from those in the newly elected body. But nationalist conservative and hard-right parties do hold about a quarter of the seats in parliament, potentially giving them lots of sway on policies ranging from climate change to immigration to farm subsidies. If they were to coalesce in a grand coalition – a big if, given the far right's divisions – they could tear up the European playbook as we know it. We discuss what's at stake with two MEPs.
Pascal Lamy, a 77-year-old "globalist" Frenchman who has staked his decades-long career on the idea that more Europe is always better than less, has told FRANCE 24 he's hopeful that the solid gains by hard-right and Eurosceptic parties in the EU elections will spur Europe's 500 million citizens to build more bridges. Speaking to Douglas Herbert, Lamy also discussed the new political landscape in his native France, following President Emmanuel Macron's shock decision to call snap elections. He predicted that the most likely outcome is that France will have "an extreme-right government sometime in July".
Charles de Gaulle famously complained that governing a country with 246 kinds of cheese was all but impossible. Less known is what De Gaulle said just before that: "Only peril can bring the French together". President Emmanuel Macron had peril on his mind when he stunned his compatriots by calling a snap national election after the far right routed his pro-European party in Sunday's European elections. Macron is betting that faced with peril – the risk of being governed by the most extreme-right party since the Nazi-era Vichy government – French voters might put their grievances aside and unite against what he sees as a common threat. But will they? Douglas Herbert puts the question to Sandro Gozi, a French MEP from the centrist Renew Europe group in the European Parliament, and Thierry Mariani, a French MEP from the right-wing Identity and Democracy group, which includes Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally.
Polls have opened in the Netherlands, where four days of voting have kicked off across the EU in the 2024 election for the European Parliament. In our series of portraits of young voters in the EU, we talk to Dina, a 24-year-old actress from the Netherlands.
In pioneering Lithuania, the first all-women list in the country’s political history has been unveiled. The Lithuanian Greens are hoping that this list will help more women get elected to the European Parliament, where men still make up around 60% of the members. The candidates are also trying to draw attention to other gender issues, such as the pay gap.
In Poland, officials say the number of attempted illegal border crossings from Belarus has shot up. The ruling Civic Platform – which is in a tight election race with the former governing party, Law and Justice – says Belarus and Russia are using migrants as a tool of hybrid war against Poland, something Minsk and Moscow deny. We look at how the issue is playing out in the election campaign, and at the election opinion polls in Poland.
In Italy, the main political parties contesting the EU election have held their last major rallies, outlining very different visions of the European Union. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has denounced an “increasingly technocratic and undemocratic Europe" while her main opponent, Elly Schlein of the Democratic Party, has called for a “federal Europe now".
He's been seen campaigning on empty beer crates in pubs and playing table tennis. Talking Europe catches up with the lead candidate of the Party of The European Socialists (PES) and asks him what he has learned in this EU election campaign, away from the buttoned-up confines of the Berlaymont building in Brussels. We ask him if he will block the nomination of Ursula von der Leyen for a second term at the head of the European Commission if she goes for a tie-up between her centre-right EPP group and the hard right ECR. Schmit, who is currently also EU Commissioner for jobs and social rights, answers: "If Mrs. von der Leyen tries an arrangement with the extreme right, she will not be able to count on the support of the Socialists."
Five years after the fall of the so-called Islamic State caliphate in Iraq and Syria, the EU's anti-terrorism coordinator sees a more diffuse threat, coming from many different directions and spreading online. This is what Bartjan Wegter calls "mutant jihadism". With FRANCE 24's Armen Georgian, he discusses Afghanistan, IS-KP (Islamic State – Khorasan Province), and how the French authorities are trying to make the upcoming Olympic games secure – efforts that Wegter praises as "impressive". Wegter admits that more needs to be done to tackle what he calls "borderline content" online that might be inciting hatred and fuelling individuals' radicalisation. He also draws attention to new forms of terrorist financing such as cryptocurrencies – something that the EU and national authorities should keep a close eye on, he says.
Voters under 30 account for a sixth of Europe's electorate. That's an important group for political parties to win over during this EU election season. Young people are less likely to take part in European elections than older generations, which makes them a prize for parties that know how to clinch their votes. But those aged 18 to 30 aren’t just a demographic. Their choices are a bellwether of what the priorities of Europeans will look like in the future, for instance on climate change and energy independence. We discuss this with our guests.
A Polish prime minister saying he's ashamed of his Polish identity. A flood of migrants assaulting people on the streets of Bulgaria's capital. The grandmother of a top European official shaking hands with Adolf Hitler. All of these are fake stories; part of what European officials say is a surge in disinformation ahead of next month's European elections. Much of it comes from Russia, without love.
This week we take a closer look at the Green Transition in Europe - from the invaluable invertebrates in the soil beneath us, to the end of obsolete coal mines and the revolution in transport, our show investigates just how fast Europe is becoming greener - and how to ensure no-one is left behind in the race to decarbonise.
Another edition of our EU election series, on individual countries and regions in the EU: The Republic of Ireland is considered to be one of the most pro-EU member states, and the Eurobarometer poll that came out this spring bears that out: 67 percent of respondents said that the EU conjures up a positive image. But being pro-European does not necessarily mean supporting the traditional pro-EU parties in Ireland. Indeed, this election campaign has seen increased support for independent candidates. Is that trend related to the big social challenges that Ireland is facing - housing, and the cost of living?
With just a few weeks to go before EU elections, the far right in France is on track for a comfortable win, if the polls are correct. The National Rally only just beat France's ruling party, Renaissance, in the last EU elections in 2019. This time, a wide gap has opened between the two, potentially striking a serious political blow to President Emmanuel Macron and his idea of a more powerful Europe. The National Rally has struck a chord with its campaign about purchasing power, standards of living and crime in French cities. We take a closer look.
Programme prepared by Isabelle Romero, Sophie Samaille, Agnès Le Cossec and Perrine Desplats
It has been called an invisible epidemic. Every year, around 300,000 people in Europe die prematurely because of air pollution, according to the European Environment Agency. Those of us living in cities are particularly exposed to unsafe levels of fine particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide. The EU is trying to bring air quality closer to World Health Organization guidelines, but the political deal that has been struck includes a clause that will allow member states to delay action by up to 10 years, if specific conditions are met. So how meaningful is this new legislation? We put the question to two MEPs.
Programme prepared by Perrine Desplats, Isabelle Romero, Sophie Samaille and Agnès Le Cossec
Is the EU's single market failing? Faced with growing competition from China and the US, the bloc is falling behind. The union has been relying on the single market to guarantee the free movement of goods, capital, services and people for more than 30 years. But inertia is creeping in, and it’s time for a new single market, says our guest Enrico Letta, a former prime minister of Italy, president of the Jacques Delors institute and author of a high-level report on the single market's future. He has just presented the report to EU leaders, after hundreds of meetings in dozens of European cities, in which Letta tried to gauge where the market is delivering for people – and where it isn't.
Letta argues that too many people are not benefiting from the single market, which is "perceived as a great opportunity for big companies but less of an opportunity for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). That's why I put in the report many ideas to help SMEs. The most important of those is a simplification, to avoid having to change legal regime between different countries."
He elaborates: "The cosmopolitan part of our society is very happy with the single market. But there's a large part of society that is less mobile, and thinks that the market is not adapted to them."
The former Italian premier calls for a fifth freedom to be added to the single market, on top of the four founding ones – freedom of goods, services, capital and labour – which would be focused on enhancing research, innovation and education.
"The lack of innovation is one of the reasons why we are lagging behind the US and other parts of the world," Letta explains. "We need to scale up investments and innovation. We need to encourage the circular movement of researchers and scholars in Europe; not only going from east to west and from south to north, as is the case today. The fifth freedom would be a boost for the future of the single market."
Letta says he tried to inject a sense of urgency into his report. "We have to be very fast in introducing the big changes at the European level, at the single market level. Otherwise, inertia means decline for Europe," he says. He takes the example of energy, telecoms and finance.
"The main point is how to integrate the sectors where the single market wasn't integrated until now, because these three sectors – financial markets, energy and telecoms – are the main sectors in terms of competitiveness. And today we are lagging behind because we are not integrated. We are in reality 27 markets, and we are too small to compete with the Chinese and the Americans."
Letta admits that the political hurdles to more integration in those areas are "very big".
"First of all, because of the idea of national sovereignty, which everyone wants to defend," Letta explains. "But in reality, we have to have a European sovereignty on these topics. It's the only way to be economically secure. And the most important part is related to financial services, because today, everything that is finance is going to the US. We are too small; too fragmented and so less competitive. On the integration of the financial market, I propose to launch the Savings and Investments Union, as the only way to finance the green, digital and just transitions. That is the most important choice for the European Union in the coming years."
Programme prepared by Agnès Le Cossec, Paul Guianvarc'h, Perrine Desplats and Isabelle Romero
Georgia has erupted in protest once again, as the ruling Georgian Dream party pursues a "foreign agents" bill in parliament – something that has left a question mark hanging over the country’s European ambitions. The EU granted the ex-Soviet nation candidate status to join the bloc last December. We speak to Georgia's President Salomé Zourabichvili, who plans to veto the final draft of the law, but admits that parliament can still override her veto. That makes the October 26 election even more crucial for re-asserting the country’s European path, she says.
Zourabichvili explains that, contrary to what Georgia's ruling party says, the draft law is not equivalent to transparency legislation in Western countries. "It's an exact copy of the law that was passed by Russia and which allowed Russia to clamp down on nongovernmental organisations first and on the media next," she says. "And the Georgian authorities are pushing this law for the second time. Last year they declined to go forward with it, and now they are proposing the same law and their aim and objective is no different."
The Georgian president says she will veto the bill after it has gone through various readings. But she admits that the ruling party has the votes in parliament to ultimately overturn her veto. In that case, what is the answer? "The answer to this law, and to many other laws, and to the anti-European, anti-Western rhetoric coming from the governing party, will be in the elections," she states.
"We have elections on October 26 of this year. And now it's very clear that the elections will be a kind of referendum for or against Europe. What type of future do we want for Georgia? The Georgian population has been supporting the European path for years and years now, with 80 percent of all the opinion polls in favour. The granting of EU candidate status to Georgia has only reinforced the sense that we are now close to the next stage, and that is a stage that nobody here wants to see escaping us. Georgians will probably vote en masse next October. I'm very confident and I'm very hopeful."
Watch moreForeign agents law an attempt to 'suppress critical voices', Georgian president tells FRANCE 24
We also ask Zourabichvili about the speech given by Bidzina Ivanishvili – often called the éminence grise of Georgian politics – in Tbilisi on April 29. In it, he called Georgia and Ukraine "cannon fodder" for the "pro-war party" in NATO. "This anti-Western rhetoric is copied from the anti-Western rhetoric that you hear in Moscow," she says. "This invention of 'the party of war' that supposedly would push Georgia into war is something that has been used repeatedly by the ruling party. They're trying to push us into some form of neutrality. That seems to be the objective of the ruling party and of Mr. Ivanishvili. But that is not the wish of the vast majority of the Georgian population."
Zourabichvili reacts to calls from MEPs for the release of jailed former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili. They say the way he is being treated is a "litmus test of the Georgian government's commitment to European values".
"European MEPs are a bit disconnected from the Georgian reality," Zourabichvili responds. "Much of the population does not want to see a comeback of Mr. Saakashvili and of the authoritarian rule that characterised him. Nor do they want today's ruling party and its pro-Russian and pro-authoritarian character to remain in power. So that is a choice that is open to the Georgian people. They want something new, they want something democratic, and they want something European. And that's what we're going to see in the next elections."
Talking Europe sits down with one of the European Parliament’s most prominent veterans, Co-chair of the Greens Philippe Lamberts. The Belgian MEP has served in three legislatures since 2009 and says he has seen a big difference in both awareness and action on environmental issues in that time. Lamberts, who is stepping down from the EU Parliament, is characteristically outspoken on the bloc's Green Deal, the farming issue, investment in the EU economy and the various scandals that have rocked the European Parliament, such as Qatargate.
As Spaniards get ready to elect 61 MEPs to the European Parliament in the June 9 elections, regional elections in Spain are sucking much of the political oxygen. The pro-independence EH Bildu coalition celebrated a historic result in the Basque vote on April 20. Many eyes are now turned to the Catalan regional election on May 12, while the Spanish government works on a controversial amnesty law for those involved in the failed 2017 secession attempt in Catalonia. We discuss how these issues are impacting the national conversation, as well as touching on the EU campaign themes in Spain – including the cost of living, healthcare and migration.
For months, Europe has been rocked by protests as farmers decry high costs and low prices, in addition to what they call unfair competition from Ukraine, and the constraints of environmental regulations. EU elites are worried that the farmers' movement will boost anti-establishment parties in the European elections this June. The EU Commission has put forward proposals to ease the burden on farmers, but environmental groups say this is a short-term political tactic that undermines elements of the EU's own Green Deal – and will ultimately lead to more climate chaos for everybody, including farmers. We unpick this with the EU's Agriculture Commissioner, Janusz Wojciechowski.
Talking Europe hosts former Spanish foreign minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya, who is now dean of one of the top international relations schools in the world – the Paris School of International Affairs. We delve into the EU election campaign, EU competitiveness, transatlantic relations and the fragile political situation in Spain amid rising tensions over the Catalan issue.
Talking Europe hosts the head of the largest political group in the European Parliament, the centre-right European People's Party. Manfred Weber, a prominent German CSU politician, is hoping that the June 9 EU elections will re-confirm the EPP's pre-eminent position, but he is cautious on the possibility of alliances with the hard-right ECR group. We also touch on the "Russiagate" and "Piepergate" controversies, the EPP's contentious plan to reform the EU's asylum system, as well as French President Emmanuel Macron's "unwise" – according to Weber – remarks about potentially sending French troops to Ukraine.
The Nordic model encompasses a strong welfare state, protection of workers through collective bargaining, good pension schemes and low levels of poverty. This system has gone hand-in-hand with a progressive approach to issues like gender equality and maternity or paternity leave. But the social model has come under pressure from the trends affecting Europe as a whole, such as Covid debt, inflation and the cost-of-living crisis, the demands of the green transition and – some would say – pressure from migration. We focus on the Nordic model as part of our series on groups of countries or regions within the EU.
Striking a balance between regulation and letting businesses grow is always a difficult thing for policymakers to do. But has the EU veered into over-regulation? Our guest argues that red tape in some areas is holding back EU-based companies, and is partly responsible for those firms losing ground to their competitors in other parts of the world. But he is adamant that finding a solution to this does not mean having to renege on the EU's key policy initiatives, such as the European Green Deal. Markus Beyrer is the director general of BusinessEurope, which represents national employers' associations and companies.
We dive into the heated EU election campaign in Romania, where the centrist Renew Europe bloc finds itself squeezed by a joint list of the government’s grand coalition on the one hand, and a resurgent far right on the other hand. We also look at Romania’s efforts to become a core member of the European family – something that has not happened yet, as the country was only partially admitted to the border-free Schengen travel area at the end of March.
The EU’s proposed defence reforms are not going to make a difference to Ukraine in the short term, warns Camille Grand, NATO's former assistant secretary general for defence investment. Both the European Defence Industrial Strategy (EDIS) and the European Defence Industry Programme (EDIP) "are going to be very useful in the longer term, provided that the money comes in 2028, which is more or less the cycle that the EU is announcing", Grand tells Talking Europe. He talks about Ukraine's ammunition shortage – a subject on which he put forward a 10-point plan at the European Council on Foreign Relations, where he is distinguished policy fellow. We also discuss how NATO has evolved since the start of the war, and the ways in which, according to Grand, NATO and the EU can – and should – work together more closely.
The war in Ukraine is well into its third year, and Russia’s advances on the battlefield have caused jitters across the EU, particularly in the countries bordering Russia that used to be part of the Soviet bloc. Security-related themes – not just military questions, but energy security too – are high on the agenda in the EU election campaign in the Baltic states. We discuss what's at stake with three MEPs.
Estonia's prime minister insists there is a crisis in European defence that needs to be solved now. Kaja Kallas tells Talking Europe that private funding for the acquisition of lethal weapons is blocked, which means the "vibrant" tech sector cannot be engaged. She also urges EU members to consider jointly raising capital on the markets to help Ukraine, which she says will be cheaper than doing so individually. We also discuss Russia putting Kallas on a "wanted" list over the removal or destruction of Soviet-era monuments in Estonia. By invoking Russian domestic laws that don't apply in Estonia, the Kremlin is signalling that "Estonia is not a real country", Kallas says.
Disinformation is a central concern for the EU, as it swings into full campaign mode for the European elections of June 6-9. There's no shortage of threats: from cyberattacks to fake news aimed at sowing confusion in the minds of EU citizens and voters. In this episode we look at the various disinformation techniques being used, as well as who the most vulnerable targets are, and what is being done to counter such attacks – not just by the European institutions, but also by non-governmental bodies and civil society.
Talking Europe interviews the chair of the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee, David McAllister. He believes the European Union has been too cautious for too long, and has not proactively defined and defended its interests in the world. He argues that one way to achieve that is to move to a fully-fledged Defence Union over the coming years. McAllister is a German Christian Democrat and a staunch supporter of European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, who is hoping to lead the Commission for a second five-year term.
The Legal Affairs committee (JURI) of the European Parliament has just voted to sue the European Commission for unfreezing billions of euros in funding for Hungary late last year. They say it's high time to protect European taxpayers' money from misuse. Meanwhile, Warsaw and the European Commission have unveiled an action plan that involves legal reforms in Poland and ending the EU's infringement procedures against the country, which date back to the previous conservative government. We discuss these issues with two MEPs.
In the spotlight this week in our whistle-stop debate series featuring each of the EU’s 27 member states ahead of June’s European elections: Italy. Europe’s third-biggest economic power has seen a growing rivalry between the right-wing Brothers of Italy party, led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and her even further right coalition partner, Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini, who heads the far-right League party. When Meloni led a hard-right coalition to power in October 2022 – becoming Italy’s first female premier – most headlines were about her party’s rise from neo-fascist roots, and her record of bashing the European Union and migrants. Since then, she has sought to fashion herself as a more mainstream conservative, working with fellow EU leaders, and staunchly supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russia. Today, Italy – and Meloni – are front and centre ahead of European elections in which right-wing parties are poised to see big gains.
Just days after French President Emmanuel Macron provoked a backlash among allies by declaring he could not rule out sending Western troops to Ukraine, a senior minister has doubled down on the message, saying Europe must thwart Vladimir Putin before he presses his military drive further into Europe. “Vladimir Putin will not stop in Ukraine, so this is the reason why we need to make him fail,” Jean-Noël Barrot, the newly appointed French Minister Delegate for Europe told FRANCE 24.
Alarmed by a recent series of maritime emergencies involving migrants trying to reach European shores, Europe's top ethics watchdog is calling on the EU’s authorities to open a public investigation into thousands of deaths in the Mediterranean Sea. European Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly demanded an independent commission of inquiry as part of a newly released report into the tragic capsizing and sinking of the Adriana migrant ship off the coast of Greece last June. She spoke to FRANCE 24's Douglas Herbert in Talking Europe.
The spectre of a second Donald Trump presidency is stalking America. Depending on whom you believe, the world’s biggest superpower is either sleepwalking into dictatorship, or everyone just needs to chill out. Eight months before the US presidential election, there are many unknowns. But America is rife with dystopian warnings that Trump's return would spell the last rites of American democracy. Europeans, meanwhile, are bracing for the impact of a President Trump "2.0". Trump's hints that he might pull the US out of NATO – or encourage Russia to attack allies who don't pay their fair share to the alliance – have led some to ask "is Europe ready?" So is it? Can Europe "Trump-proof" itself? And does it need to? We delve into these questions with two MEPs.
The man who might be back in the White House next year, Donald Trump, has caused huge alarm in Europe by saying that he might let Russia "do whatever the hell they want" against NATO allies that do not contribute enough to collective defence. Our guest says that Trump’s comments should galvanise Europe into strategic autonomy and energy independence. Teresa Ribera is Spain's minister for ecological transition, and a former secretary of state for climate change. She is a confidant of Spain's socialist prime minister, Pedro Sanchez.
With our eyes on this June's European elections, we hold the second debate in our series on countries or groups of EU countries. We look at three founding members of the European Economic Community in 1957, which became the European Union in 1993: Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, known as the Benelux states. They see themselves as frontrunners in European integration, having pioneered a customs union 80 years ago, which showed their neighbours the benefits of trading without tariffs. Benelux prime ministers hold yearly summits and there are numerous ministerial and parliamentary contacts. But while the three countries have given impetus to key EU issues, their record on tax and financial matters has been seen as mixed. We discuss this with three MEPs.
Horizon Europe is the EU’s key funding programme for research and innovation. Yet the EU has just agreed to cut the programme’s budget by €2.1 billion, as part of the re-negotiation of the EU’s long-term budget, and continuing aid to Ukraine. Paradoxically, the cut comes as the EU says it wants to boost its competitiveness in the world. “I cannot be happy about that,” Iliana Ivanova tells Talking Europe. The EU’s commissioner for innovation, research, culture, education and youth, speaks to Armen Georgian about the future of Horizon, as well as about efforts to boost educational performance, and to fight disinformation in the education system across the EU. Ivanova is about to visit London and Edinburgh as the UK joins Horizon Europe under a new deal, which she calls “a win for both sides.”
In the scope of our coverage of the European elections, we will broadcast a series of programs in which we will be taking a closer look at a specific country or group of member states to determine what issues voters care about. We start with the Eurozone's largest economy: Germany. With its strong industry, a population of 84 million and 96 seats at the European Parliament, the country is the leading political and economic force in the EU. But it is also facing a crisis: Germany is in recession as its GDP dropped 0.3 percent in 2023. In turn, fear has kicked in, with many voters blaming the EU for its regulations and the Afd far right party floating the idea of a “Dexit” and rising in the polls. Can the German economy recover? What impact does its shrinking economy have on the rest of the Union? And how does this situation affect votes?
After an extraordinary summit on Ukraine, the EU has voted unanimously for a €50 billion support package for Ukraine over the next four years. "It was a great result. If we look to the expectations, we were not even sure to reach [it] because of the possible veto from Hungary," the European Commissioner for Economy told FRANCE 24. Paolo Gentiloni added: "It is also a strong message for our partners in the US, because they are also discussing how to continue their support to Ukraine and the fact that the EU took this decision will help, I hope, all other partners to do their part of this international support." He concluded: "At the end of the day, the European Union is stronger than its own divisions."
Farmers have been blocking motorways and protesting across Europe – in France, Germany and Romania, and even in the European district of Brussels, where they have besieged institutions. Farmers say the EU is both imposing drastic environmental regulations and signing free trade deals with countries that do not abide by the same rules, which they see as unfair competition. Hard and far-right political forces in the EU seem to be capitalising on the discontent by calling for more protectionism and less norms. So what can the EU do for its farmers? We discuss the issue with two MEPs.
Talking Europe hosts Pascal Lamy, co-ordinator of the Jacques Delors institutes, and a distinguished former head of the World Trade Organization and former EU Trade Commissioner. We discuss great power competition in today's world; the EU’s influence when it comes to global trade and regulation; the critical importance of Africa to Europe; and climate adaptation in the light of Lamy’s role as a member of the Climate Overshoot Commission. On Brexit, an issue on which Lamy has been a prolific commentator, his advice to the British Labour party is: "keep the idea that you have divorced, for political reasons, but keep sleeping together with Europe, because that’s the way to address the economic problem."
Since 1999, turnout in elections to the European Parliament has reached 50 percent only once. But with so many critical transnational issues facing the people of Europe – energy, inflation, the green transition and the post-Covid economic recovery – could the 2024 election campaign energise voters and reverse the low turnout trend? Ahead of next June's polls, we put that question to two of the top experts on public opinion in France.
On July 12, the landmark Nature Restoration Law was adopted in a cliffhanger vote at the European Parliament. Our guest, prominent Finnish MEP Heidi Hautala – who's one the parliament's vice-presidents – says she is "relieved" that the EU parliament now has a position to negotiate with the member states. She applauds the law as "step towards combating climate change", and decries what she calls the use of "fake news and disinformation" by far-right as well as right-wing parties on the nature restoration issue. Hautala also praises the EU parliament's recent approval of the corporate due diligence directive, saying "companies must unlearn old bad habits".
As tourism in Europe recovers from the lean years of the Covid-19 pandemic, the continent is once again confronted with what the European Parliament has termed "overtourism"; visitor numbers that can impact landscapes, seascapes, air and water quality, as well as the living conditions of local residents. Overtourism can cause economic inequality and even social exclusion. Our guests hail from two of the EU's most popular tourist destinations: Croatia and Spain. They discuss the economic benefits of tourism, as well as efforts to make it more sustainable.
Political groups in the European Parliament are on manoeuvres ahead of a key vote on the EU’s proposed Nature Restoration Law on July 12. The draft legislation is seen as key to restoring millions of hectares of degraded land across Europe, but it has already been rejected by three parliamentary committees. Our guest, Utrecht University scientist Andre Faaij, argues that the stalling of the law is a "tragedy", as what it "wants to achieve is very important for future food production", as well as for reforestation. Faaij addresses the many potential benefits of restoring damaged habitats, including responsible production of biofuels that could be crucial to Europe's energy transition and its quest for energy independence.
Europe is the fastest-warming continent in the world, according to a report by the World Meteorological Organization and the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service. Last summer was Europe's hottest on record, with thousands of excess deaths linked to heatwaves. The extremely dry conditions have major implications for agriculture and the supply of water. But authorities across the bloc are learning from the various crises, and they’ve updated their plans to fight one of the most immediate risks this summer: wildfires. In this show we take a look at those plans, and consider what other climate-related disasters EU countries should be anticipating – and in which areas they might work more closely together.
Talking Europe discusses European security with Gitanas Nausėda, the president of Lithuania. Ahead of next month's NATO summit in Vilnius, Nausėda urges a collective response to likely Wagner troop movements in Belarus. He also highlights the deployment of a permanent "full-fledged German brigade" in Lithuania and promotes a gradual approach towards European strategic autonomy.
Talking Europe interviews Jutta Urpilainen, the EU Commissioner for International Partnerships, who is in charge of overseeing official development assistance. She announces exclusively on FRANCE 24 a fresh €66 million package for Niger, to be spent on education. Urpilainen stresses that development aid is part of geopolitical competition, and that it would be a "huge mistake" for Europe and the West to turn their back on the Global South. We also discuss climate financing, corruption in recipient countries, conditionality of aid and the post-Cotonou agreement with African, Caribbean and Pacific states.
Talking Europe devotes a special programme to levelling up – efforts to reduce inequalities and disparities in the European Union. Featuring extracts from our own reporting from around the continent, we take a comprehensive view of the EU's cohesion policy with Elisa Ferreira, the Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms. She insists that levelling up "has really worked", but says that "this does not mean that everything is perfect". She also urges member states to reflect on the political cost of the continuing imbalances between European regions.
Talking Europe devotes a special programme to levelling up – efforts to reduce inequalities and disparities in the European Union. Featuring extracts from our own reporting from around the continent, we take a comprehensive view of the EU's cohesion policy with Elisa Ferreira, the Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms. She insists that levelling up "has really worked", but says that "this does not mean that everything is perfect". She also urges member states to reflect on the political cost of the continuing imbalances between European regions.
Talking Europe interviews the head of the Council of Europe, the continent's human rights watchdog. A former Croatian minister of foreign and European affairs, Marija Pejcinovic Buric was elected to lead the Council of Europe in 2019. The organisation started out with just 10 nations in 1949, and now numbers 46, including the European Union member states and other countries that are outside the EU.
Since the start of the Syrian crisis in 2011, the European Union has been the largest donor of humanitarian, stabilisation and resilience assistance to Syrians, with another conference known as Brussels VII – aimed at supporting Syria and the region – held on June 14 and 15 in the Belgian capital. But the recent rehabilitation of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad by regional players has arguably complicated the EU's task.
Talking Europe catches up with Spain’s foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, as Madrid prepares to take over the rotating presidency of the European Union on July 1, 2023. We discuss the poor showing by the ruling Socialist party in May’s regional and municipal elections, in which both the right and the far right made gains. And we get into Spain’s priorities for its EU presidency, including making the EU’s Stability and Growth Pact more flexible, reforming the EU’s electricity market and sending a strong political signal to Latin American countries. On the question of Gibraltar – a British overseas territory that sits on the southern tip of the Iberian peninsula –Albares says that Spain is ready for a post-Brexit deal with the UK.
Talking Europe hosts Bujar Osmani, the foreign minister of North Macedonia, which launched EU accession talks nearly a year ago – although it has been in the EU’s waiting room for far longer than that. Currently a screening process of North Macedonia’s legislation is under way, and Osmani urges the opening of talks with the EU on key topics. He warns that North Macedonian society has become wary of “making concessions while there are no deliverables”.
Talking Europe interviews the boss of the largest and oldest group in the European Parliament, the centre-right European People's Party. Manfred Weber is a veteran of the EU assembly, having first been elected nearly twenty years ago, and he is an important player in German politics, in the conservative Christian Social Union. He missed out on the job of EU Commission president in 2019, but does not seem to have given up on that ambition. We start the discussion with the European elections scheduled for June 2024, which could shake up the bloc's political scene.
Talking Europe hosts two MEPs who are diametrically opposed on the question of EU military assistance to Ukraine. "The European Union is not a military union. It is a peace union. It should be an honest broker, a mediator between Russia and Ukraine," argues Slovak MEP Katarina Roth Nevedalova. "I'm not against individual member states supplying weapons to Ukraine, but this should not be a common EU position," she adds. Belgian MEP Assita Kanko counters: "If I was Bambi, unarmed, why would I negotiate peace with a lion? I would see peace, but the lion would only see a meal." Kanko continues: "Neutrality is not very far from complicity."
The European Union sees Romania as one of its frontline states when it comes to the war in Ukraine. The country of 19 million people, a member of both the EU and NATO, has a land and sea border with Ukraine of more than 600 kilometres. It has been a transit hub for weapons supplies to Kyiv. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have passed through Romania, and more than 130,000 have been granted temporary protection in the country, according to the UN. Talking Europe interviews Viktor Negrescu, a Romanian politician from the Social Democratic Party. He is a Member of the European Parliament and he was Minister Delegate for European Affairs in the government of Romania between 2017 and 2018.
The European Union has been caught off guard by a food fight. Last month, when Poland unilaterally announced it was shutting its borders to imports of Ukrainian grain, it came as a shock to policymakers in both Kyiv and Brussels. Farmers in the eastern EU member complained that a food glut was driving prices down, hitting their livelihoods. Several Central European states followed suit, imposing their own bans. In one fell swoop, the EU's policy of giving Ukraine's farmers tariff-free access to EU markets was at risk of unravelling. That has not happened – yet. A deal involving compensation to Poland's farmers has lifted the blockade and, for now, Ukraine's grain is crossing into Poland.
The watchdogs of EU democracy will have to be "much louder in the future" if they hope to see off a mounting threat from homegrown populists and autocrats who are chipping away at Europe's founding commitments to free speech and the rule of law, a top EU official has warned. "We have to make sure, wherever democracy is under threat, [where there is] shrinking space of civil society, then we have to raise our voices," Oliver Röpke, the newly elected president of the European Economic and Social Committee, an advisory body within the European Union, told FRANCE 24.
Just months after a devastating earthquake, and with millions suffering from an economy in dire straits, Turkish voters are deciding who should lead the pivotal NATO ally at the crossroads between Asia, Europe and the Middle East. The outcome will reshape the political landscape in Turkey and beyond. For some, the choice is simple: between Recep Tayyip Erdogan, an empire-obsessed strongman who sneers at the democratic values Europe cherishes; and Kemal Kilicdaroglu, a white-knight rival who vows to undo the damage and rescue Turkey's teetering relations with the EU. Others warn that such a depiction is far too simplistic, saying the devil is not in the details, but the entire picture.
Talking Europe interviews Rastislav Káčer, Slovakia's straight-talking minister for foreign and European affairs. Slovakia became the first NATO country to deliver warplanes to Ukraine, and Káčer discusses what difference that delivery could make, as well as Slovakia's plans to double its ammunition production. He also talks about his country's moves towards energy independence – Slovakia's nuclear industry, in particular, is still closely tied to Russia – and about Slovakia's sometimes complicated relationship with Viktor Orbán, the prime minister of neighbouring Hungary.
Europe has been mulling an EU-wide food labelling system, ostensibly in order to help people make healthier choices. Nutrition information is standard on the back or side of food packaging, of course. But now there are efforts to put labels on the front of items.
Talking Europe interviews João Gomes Cravinho, Portugal’s top diplomat. He discusses whether Portugal’s ally, Brazil, could have a role to play in talks between Ukraine and Russia one day – this after the president of Brazil, which has not imposed sanctions on Russia, nor sent ammunition to Kyiv, called for a negotiated settlement. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva recently visited Portugal as part of a European diplomatic tour. Cravinho also talks about EU and NATO support to Ukraine, as well as Portugal’s relations with China in the light of how Lisbon approaches the questions of both Macau and Taiwan.
The fallout continues from Emmanuel Macron's remarks about China and the US. On his way back from a state visit to China, the French president said that Europe should not be a "follower" of either Washington or Beijing, or get caught up in any escalation. Despite the resulting backlash on both sides of the Atlantic, he stood by the comments, saying on a later trip to the Netherlands that being a US ally doesn't mean being a "vassal".
After grappling with the consequences of the driest summer in several hundred years, Europe has also had to deal with a winter drought this year. Various European governments are warning of critical water shortages, as low rainfall leaves rivers depleted. This April, the Italian government tabled a "drought" decree in response to the water crisis. Meanwhile, the French government recently launched a plan to save water, after pitched battles were fought in a field between security forces and environmental protesters. So how can European authorities manage this precious resource in a smarter way over the coming years? We put the question to two MEPs.
Talking Europe interviews Irene Tinagli, who chairs the European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, and is a prominent member of Italy's Democratic Party (PD). She calls for the completion of the EU's Banking Union to protect people's deposits, and for an EU budget that is up to the challenges the bloc faces today. We also touch on the post-Covid national Recovery and Resilience Plans, especially Italy's plan, and on the Italian government's decision to declare a state of emergency as a significant influx of migrants arrives on Italian shores.
"A challenge that European democracies are totally unprepared for." That was the reaction of one MEP to images that recently went viral on social media. The pictures, generated by artificial intelligence, purported to show French President Emmanuel Macron collecting rubbish, and former US president Donald Trump being arrested. In both cases the context was real – a rubbish collectors strike in France; the indictment of Donald Trump – but the images were not.
The Dutch coalition government survived a no-confidence vote on April 5. But its problems are far from over – with pressure from the farmers' movement causing tensions inside the coalition. The pro-farmers' BBB party made a breakthrough in the provincial elections in March, rattling the political establishment. Farmers are calling for a review of the government's policy on reducing nitrogen emissions, saying the cuts could ruin their livelihoods. Talking Europe speaks to the Dutch Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Sigrid Kaag about the latest turmoil, but also about the upcoming state visit to the Netherlands by French President Emmanuel Macron.
The European Union likes to see itself as a world leader on climate change, trumpeting its commitments on decarbonisation, critical green technologies and biodiversity. But when it comes to marine ecosystems, how does the bloc measure up? EU ministers insist they are following scientific advice and protecting fish stocks. But they have also agreed to increase the catch limits on certain fish for 2023 – again, following scientific advice, they say.
A right to die with dignity, or a slippery slope to legalised murder? Debates over assisted dying have been going on in Europe for a long time, but they seem to have intensified, with France, Belgium, Portugal and Ireland all recently re-considering their legislation, or at least launching consultations on the subject.
Talking Europe speaks to the European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, Nicolas Schmit. With anger growing in France about the government's push to increase the retirement age from 62 to 64, and the EU facing an ongoing cost-of-living crisis, his portfolio is very much in the spotlight – including recommendations to encourage a Minimum Income for all.
Hydrogen accounts for less than two percent of the EU's energy production. It’s been used in various industries for some time, but those processes have relied on natural gas, leading to CO2 emissions. The EU's ambition is to turn hydrogen from a polluting niche market to a clean mass market. Renewable hydrogen is seen as crucial for Europe to meet its international climate commitments, and to limit its dependence on natural gas providers, be that Russia or other countries. But how does this complex transformation happen in practice? We discuss the issue with two MEPs.
Talking Europe speaks to European Commission Vice-President Margaritis Schinas, whose wide-ranging portfolio covers migration and asylum, security issues, education and what the EU calls "promoting the European Way of Life", among other things. We focus on migration and the EU's efforts to rectify what Schinas calls a historic failure to build a cohesive asylum and migration policy.
It was like an estranged couple agreeing to give themselves another chance. Announcing the "Windsor Framework" in late February, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen were emphatic that the UK and the EU are allies, trading partners and friends. The deal on Northern Ireland seemingly puts an end to years of tensions, following Britain's decision to leave the European Union in June 2016. But how can the remaining obstacles be overcome? And is re-joining the EU a realistic option one day for Britain and for the bloc?
Sweden is using its presidency of the EU Council to keep European countries mobilised in their support for Ukraine, and to try to enforce the current sanctions on Russia more effectively. Sweden's EU Affairs Minister Jessika Roswall speaks to Talking Europe about those issues, as well as Sweden's application to join NATO, and Stockholm's other priorities in its EU presidency, which is now two months into its six-month stint.
The news of another migrant drama off the coast of Italy on February 26 has prompted familiar expressions of shock by EU leaders, as well as familiar calls for the EU to rethink its approach to migration and asylum. Dozens of people are thought to have died in the Mediterranean this year, not just near Italy, but off the coasts of Libya and Tunisia too.
Before February 24, 2022, few could have imagined that Ukraine would be awarded candidate status to join the EU in the space of just a few months. But the war on Ukraine has transformed the relationship between Kyiv and Brussels, evident not just in the various bilateral visits at the highest level, but also in the reforms that the Ukrainian government is undertaking. Ukraine’s ambassador to the EU, Vsevolod Chentsov, assesses the current state of affairs and outlines the steps ahead.
Talking Europe hosts one the EU's most hawkish voices on Russia, Urmas Paet, who was Estonia’s foreign minister from 2005 to 2014. He is now an MEP and vice-president of the foreign affairs committee in the European Parliament. Paet outlines his hopes for a stronger EU defence capability and for more transparency on frozen Russian assets, as well as accountability for alleged war crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine.
Europe is becoming more aware of itself as an economic and trading power – that’s the message from France’s secretary of state for European affairs, Laurence Boone. She talks about the new tools the EU has given itself to take on unfair competition, especially from Chinese companies, but she also downplays the warnings of a possible conflict with the United States over subsidies. Boone also outlines the latest moves when it comes to sanctions on Russia and EU support for Ukraine and Moldova.
Ukraine is burning through ammunition faster than the West can resupply it. That was the stark backdrop to the meeting of the so-called Ramstein group of Ukraine’s allies in Brussels on February 14. The huge challenge for Kyiv is not just to secure weapons such as fighter jets, but to keep munitions flowing to those arms that have already been delivered. NATO’s chief has admitted that this has now become a grinding war of attrition.
In this special travelogue, FRANCE 24's Caroline de Camaret and Luke Brown follow EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell step by step through the EU-Ukraine summit that happened last week in Kyiv. Our team accompanies him on the train, on the plane, in meetings and on a visit to a mine clearance operation. Borrell analyses his relations with his European and Ukrainian counterparts as well as the EU's support for the war and shares his geopolitical vision. We discover European diplomacy in action on the ground and behind the scenes, all the while collecting impressions of the trip.
Iran has long been one of the world's most prolific executioners. But it seems to have taken the death penalty to a new level recently, with dozens of people executed in the last few weeks, according to the Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights. The UN has denounced what it calls state-sanctioned killing, while campaigners say capital punishment has been weaponised to intimidate those who have been protesting since of the death of Mahsa Amini. She died following her arrest last September, after allegedly violating the Islamic Republic's dress code for women. The EU's response has included sanctions and a strongly-worded resolution in the European Parliament. But what more should the bloc be doing?
Talking Europe hosts Mark Gitenstein, the US ambassador to the EU and a close confidant of President Joe Biden since the 1970s. Gitenstein took up his position in Brussels a year ago, and it proved to be a baptism of fire, with the war in Ukraine starting just a few weeks into his job. We ask him about transatlantic cooperation on Ukraine and the recent tensions between Brussels and Washington in the light of the US Inflation Reduction Act, which the EU fears will put European companies at a competitive disadvantage.
For months, European leaders have sought a united response to the US Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA. That plan, announced by the White House last year, favours American-made climate technology through subsidies and tax credits. But EU chiefs say the policy discriminates against Washington's closest partner, Europe. The panelists in this debate agree that that the IRA poses a major challenge to the European economy, but disagree on the way forward. "We need a major subsidy programme to re-industrialise Europe," says MEP Martin Schirdewan. But MEP Christophe Hansen counters: "Fighting subsidies with subsidies is the wrong way. It will play big EU countries off against small ones, and damage the internal market, which is turning 30 years old," he says.
Emily O'Reilly, who heads the EU Ombudsman, says she has been stonewalled by the European Commission when asking for information in relation to the "Pfizergate" affair. At the core of this controversy is an exchange of text messages between the EU Commission chief and the CEO of Pfizer in the run-up to a major contract signed between the EU and the pharmaceutical company for a Covid-19 vaccine. O'Reilly says this is a very important issue of citizens' trust in the EU. She also weighs in on the various transparency reform plans in the wake of the Qatargate bribery scandal that continues to ripple across the European Parliament.
Faced with an ageing population and holes in public finances, many European countries are grappling with reform of their pension systems. In this programme, we compare and contrast the situations in two EU member states, Denmark and Romania, and debate what constitutes a fair system of pension contributions. Ultimately, the discussion revolves around an age-old question: who should pay more, and who should pay less?
Talking Europe interviews Marc Angel, who was elected a vice-president of the European Parliament on January 18 to succeed Eva Kaili, the MEP at the heart of the Qatargate corruption scandal. Angel, a Socialists and Democrats MEP from Luxembourg, has strong words for authorities in both Morocco and Iran, as the EU Parliament ups the ante over freedoms in both countries. He discusses the EU Parliament's vote on January 19 to condemn Morocco – the first such move by the institution in 25 years.
A 14-point plan to improve transparency and close loopholes has been put forward by the head of the European Parliament in the wake of Qatargate, the bribery scandal that continues to rock the institution. Meanwhile, the Parliament's group of Socialists and Democrats, who have been particularly impacted by the scandal, have proposed their own 15-point plan to raise standards of conduct. In this show, we try to pick apart these various plans and ask what is really likely to change.
Talking Europe hosts the Croatian prime minister, who steered his country into the eurozone and the Schengen free travel area at the start of this year. Andrej Plenkovic talks about the symbolic and practical aspects of these two moves, and discusses his government's plans to continue helping Ukraine – despite the Croatian parliament's recent rejection of a proposal to join an EU military mission in support of Kyiv.
"The bird is freed," tech billionaire Elon Musk wrote upon acquiring Twitter in October of last year. EU Commissioner Thierry Breton shot back: "In Europe, the bird will fly by our rules." That early exchange exposed two starkly different views of social media: a haven of free speech, as Musk would have it; or a place where freedom goes hand in hand with protecting users from illegal content – the EU's approach.
Talking Europe speaks to a leading voice on the democratisation of the European Union. Alberto Alemanno is a professor of EU law and a founding member of The Good Lobby, an organisation that aims to boost civil society's ability to carry out advocacy, and to make corporate political influence more accountable. We discuss the implications of the Qatargate scandal that has rocked the European Parliament over the last few weeks. Alemanno also gives us a heads-up on the incoming Swedish presidency of the EU, as well as some of the European trends to look out for in 2023.
As the purported bribery scandal known as "Qatargate" rocks the European Parliament, FRANCE 24 speaks to prominent MEP Daniel Freund, who, until 2019, led Transparency International's work on the integrity of the EU institutions. He then took up his mandate as an EU parliamentarian for the Group of the Greens. Freund argues that the Parliament needs an independent body to provide oversight, because precedent shows that "self-control does not work". His remarks come amid revelations that Qatar allegedly bribed EU lawmakers in a bid to influence policy – something the Emirate, which is currently hosting the FIFA World Cup, strenuously denies.
"Increasing Europe’s strategic autonomy" was one of the key themes at a recent conference in Paris, bringing together the European Space Agency’s 22 member countries. But for all the talk of being a leader in space, is Europe ready to walk the walk? Our guests discuss Europe's options for strengthening its launch capabilities, its plans for a space-based secure communication system and even the possibility of a European space law.
Recent discussions in Europe about a gas price cap are said to have been tough, heated and even ugly. The European Commission has put a proposal on the table, but EU member states are finding it difficult to reach a compromise among themselves – despite giving their political support to a gas price cap in late October. Meanwhile, in what's been described as a modest achievement, the EU has agreed on a price cap on Russian oil imports. But gas has become the bloc's bête noire this winter, as the war in Ukraine and resulting energy crisis grind on, and as the EU tries to avoid a split that would benefit the Kremlin. We discuss what's at stake with two MEPs.
Talking Europe speaks to Eamon Ryan, the leader of the Irish Green Party and minister for the Environment, Climate, Communications and Transport in the current coalition government in Dublin. We caught up with him after he attended a signing ceremony for the Celtic Interconnector, a project that will link the electricity grids of Ireland and France for the first time. Due to come into service in late 2026 or early 2027, the cable will provide power in both directions. Ryan says the project is part of a "new industrial revolution" that will connect European countries and ultimately reduce their energy dependence on Russia and the Middle East.
European Parliament President Roberta Metsola is urging the EU to send a strong signal to the Western Balkans at an upcoming summit in Albania on December 6. "Young people from those countries are hungry for the EU," she says, and the EU "should not turn away from them". But as several of those countries sat in the waiting room for years, disillusionment set in. This summer, Albania and North Macedonia did start accession talks, but questions remain as to whether enlargement really is a priority for the EU. We discuss what's at stake with two MEPs.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto doesn't rule out vetoing a ninth package of sanctions against Russia over its war on Ukraine – a package that is currently being prepared by the EU, along with a proposed price cap on Russian oil. "We want peace, not another [sanctions] package," he says. "We are a direct neighbour of Ukraine. The impact of the war on us is immediate and severe," he asserts. Szijjarto defends his country's close energy ties with Moscow and responds to the EU's continuing accusations of corruption. The day after this interview was recorded, the EU Commission president announced that she would recommend the freezing of payments to Hungary under the EU pandemic recovery fund as well as under regular EU cohesion funds, because of rule of law concerns in Hungary.
It's one emergency the EU didn’t need. Already dealing with a war on its doorstep, an energy crisis and rising inflation, the handling of the Ocean Viking – a ship carrying migrants rescued in the Mediterranean – starkly showed the limits of European solidarity. The EU Commission has put forward a plan of action, as well as proposing a new Pact on Migration and Asylum. The latter involves a solidarity mechanism that could be legally binding on EU member states in certain situations. But would more European solidarity simply encourage more migrants to come to Europe? That's a key bone of contention in our debate between two MEPs.
Talking Europe speaks to a veteran of the European and Italian political scenes, former EU Commissioner and former Italian foreign minister Emma Bonino. She shares her thoughts on the bitter dispute between Rome and Paris over the fate of the migrants on the Ocean Viking rescue ship, and says an EU migration policy won't happen without EU treaty change. "If we don't overcome national vetoes, be it on Covid, be it on energy, be it on migrants, we won't have European solutions. We will just keep dreaming of European solutions," she tells Armen Georgian. Bonino also touches on women's rights and what she has called the "reactionary social agenda" of the new coalition governing Italy.
The Gulf nation of Qatar is hosting the FIFA World Cup, even as human rights groups document the colossal loss of life among migrant labourers working on the country's massive construction programme. Moreover, Qatar's attitude to same-sex relationships has prompted calls for the Emirate to be shunned. As a protest, several French cities are banning so-called fan zones, meaning the public won’t be able to watch World Cup matches on giant screens. But there's no question of the French team – which won the football tournament four years ago – boycotting Qatar 2022. We discuss the issues at stake with two MEPs.
The European Commission’s energy supremo, Estonian Kadri Simson, recently visited Ukraine to discuss what can be done to help energy infrastructure damaged in Russian missile attacks. She details plans to transfer specialised machinery and devices to Ukraine through a dedicated fund. The Commissioner also updates us on the negotiations among EU member states on a possible price cap on gas imports – a potential response to Europe's energy crisis.
The European Commission’s energy supremo, Estonian Kadri Simson, recently visited Ukraine to discuss what can be done to help energy infrastructure damaged in Russian missile attacks. She details plans to transfer specialised machinery and devices to Ukraine through a dedicated fund. The Commissioner also updates us on the negotiations among EU member states on a possible price cap on gas imports – a potential response to Europe's energy crisis.
Armen Georgian's panel of MEPs debates whether the EU's climate goals at Sharm el-Sheikh are ambitious enough, and whether the EU is stepping up when it comes to climate finance and loss and damage for poorer countries. The panelists also ponder how the EU might make its own energy policy more efficient and cohesive.
Armen Georgian's panel of MEPs debates whether the EU's climate goals at Sharm el-Sheikh are ambitious enough, and whether the EU is stepping up when it comes to climate finance and loss and damage for poorer countries. The panelists also ponder how the EU might make its own energy policy more efficient and cohesive.
As world powers prepare to begin crucial climate talks at the COP27 summit in Egypt, we speak to Chiara Martinelli, director of the Climate Action Network Europe, which describes itself as Europe's leading NGO coalition fighting dangerous climate change. Martinelli says the EU should, in Sharm-el-Sheikh, agree to upgrade its previous commitment to cut carbon emissions by 55 percent and now target a 65 percent reduction in emissions. "This would send an important signal to the other negotiating parties that Europe is doing its fair share globally, and that it is committed to containing the global temperature rise within 1.5 °C," she tells Armen Georgian.
As world powers prepare to begin crucial climate talks at the COP27 summit in Egypt, we speak to Chiara Martinelli, director of the Climate Action Network Europe, which describes itself as Europe's leading NGO coalition fighting dangerous climate change. Martinelli says the EU should, in Sharm-el-Sheikh, agree to upgrade its previous commitment to cut carbon emissions by 55 percent and now target a 65 percent reduction in emissions. "This would send an important signal to the other negotiating parties that Europe is doing its fair share globally, and that it is committed to containing the global temperature rise within 1.5 °C," she tells Armen Georgian.
Where do you get your news and how independent do you think it is? The age of everybody reading a newspaper is long gone, but consumption of news media is high and has a big impact on us and our societies. Reporters without Borders recently documented how social and political tensions are fuelled by social media and new opinion media in countries, including France. It also says that suppression of independent media is contributing to a sharp polarisation in so-called illiberal democracies, citing Poland as one example. The European Commission recently presented groundbreaking proposals for new laws that aim to protect editorial independence, boost transparency on media ownership and strengthen independent media regulation. We discuss them with two MEPs.
Where do you get your news and how independent do you think it is? The age of everybody reading a newspaper is long gone, but consumption of news media is high and has a big impact on us and our societies. Reporters without Borders recently documented how social and political tensions are fuelled by social media and new opinion media in countries, including France. It also says that suppression of independent media is contributing to a sharp polarisation in so-called illiberal democracies, citing Poland as one example. The European Commission recently presented groundbreaking proposals for new laws that aim to protect editorial independence, boost transparency on media ownership and strengthen independent media regulation. We discuss them with two MEPs.
Speaking to FRANCE 24, Vera Jourova, a Vice-President of the European Commission, strongly condemned what Russia says are evacuations of civilians in the Kherson province of southern Ukraine. "I come from Czechoslovakia and this is the old playbook," she told Catherine Nicholson. "The Soviet military invasion of 1968 was presented as brotherly help." Jourova went on to outline efforts to help journalists in Ukraine and to support media freedoms inside the EU. She also reviewed the latest talks between the EU and Poland on the thorny issue of rule of law – a standoff that could in theory lead to Poland losing some of its EU funding.
Catherine Nicholson interviews Stefano Sannino, the head of the EU's global network of 144 ambassadors and heads of delegation. The Secretary General of the European External Action Service addresses the West's concerns about the latest joint Russian-Belarusian military activities, warning that further EU sanctions against Minsk could be on the way. He also discusses the growing Russia-Iran military partnership, and touches on the EU's relations with China and the UK.
A wave of missile attacks the likes of which had not been seen in months: Russian missiles rained down on cities across Ukraine this week, including in Lviv, Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, and many others. The attacks follow the explosions on the Kerch bridge that links Russia to the illegally annexed Crimean peninsula. In our debate at the European Parliament in Brussels, we discuss whether this marks an escalation by Vladimir Putin.
In an exclusive interview with FRANCE 24 following Russia’s recent missile attacks on Ukraine, Lithuania’s Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said the reason civilians are being targeted is because Russia is “losing on the battleground”, and want to “create panic and exert pressure on Ukrainian society - and us”.
As the Scottish government pushes on with its bid to hold a referendum on leaving the United Kingdom, with a hearing scheduled at the British Supreme Court on October 11 and 12, Scotland's Cabinet Secretary for External Affairs Angus Robertson has told FRANCE 24 that his government is "not giving up". "We want friends in Europe to understand that we are in favour of a legal, constitutional route to independence. When it comes to that stage, we look forward to working with European nations," he explained.
It was the report that China hoped would never see the light of day. Just minutes before her mandate ended, the office of now-former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet published its long-overdue assessment of human rights in China's Xinjiang region. It contained damning findings of mass arbitrary detention of Uighur minority people, forced labour, torture, sexual and gender-based violence, as well as other atrocities which could legally be considered crimes against humanity. This chimes with the position of the European Parliament, which had already overwhelmingly voted to recognise the Chinese government's treatment of the Uighurs as such. But where does the EU go from here? We put the question to two MEPs.
"Serious damage" caused by "substantial explosions – not done by an amateur". That's the assessment of the EU’s Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni after gas leaks were discovered in the Nord Stream pipelines between Russia and Germany earlier this week. The former Italian prime minister tells FRANCE 24 that currently there is insufficient evidence regarding who may have been responsible, and that the priority is to strengthen the security of the Nord Stream, Baltic and other pipelines and energy infrastructure in Europe.
"Serious damage" caused by "substantial explosions – not done by an amateur". That's the assessment of the EU’s Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni after gas leaks were discovered in the Nord Stream pipelines between Russia and Germany earlier this week. The former Italian prime minister tells FRANCE 24 that currently there is insufficient evidence regarding who may have been responsible, and that the priority is to strengthen the security of the Nord Stream, Baltic and other pipelines and energy infrastructure in Europe.
"Serious damage" caused by "substantial explosions – not done by an amateur". That's the assessment of the EU’s Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni after gas leaks were discovered in the Nord Stream pipelines between Russia and Germany earlier this week. The former Italian prime minister tells FRANCE 24 that currently there is insufficient evidence regarding who may have been responsible, and that the priority is to strengthen the security of the Nord Stream, Baltic and other pipelines and energy infrastructure in Europe.
As Vladimir Putin annexes four Ukrainian provinces, representing 15 percent of Ukraine's territory, the Czech Republic's Minister for European Affairs Mikulas Bek told FRANCE 24 that this is "totally unacceptable… the EU cannot step down from our support for Ukraine". After former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev declared earlier this week that Russia had the right to defend itself with nuclear weapons, Bek responded that if that did happen, "it would mean a total change in modern history, and would have heavy consequences even for present allies of Russia or neutral countries, which would be forced to take a position".
As Vladimir Putin annexes four Ukrainian provinces, representing 15 percent of Ukraine's territory, the Czech Republic's Minister for European Affairs Mikulas Bek told FRANCE 24 that this is "totally unacceptable… the EU cannot step down from our support for Ukraine". After former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev declared earlier this week that Russia had the right to defend itself with nuclear weapons, Bek responded that if that did happen, "it would mean a total change in modern history, and would have heavy consequences even for present allies of Russia or neutral countries, which would be forced to take a position".
As Vladimir Putin annexes four Ukrainian provinces, representing 15 percent of Ukraine's territory, the Czech Republic's Minister for European Affairs Mikulas Bek told FRANCE 24 that this is "totally unacceptable… the EU cannot step down from our support for Ukraine". After former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev declared earlier this week that Russia had the right to defend itself with nuclear weapons, Bek responded that if that did happen, "it would mean a total change in modern history, and would have heavy consequences even for present allies of Russia or neutral countries, which would be forced to take a position".
In the week when Russian President Vladimir Putin launched referendums in Russian-held parts of Ukraine and made a thinly veiled threat to use nuclear weapons against the West, Talking Europe speaks to the European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell.
In the week when Russian President Vladimir Putin launched referendums in Russian-held parts of Ukraine and made a thinly veiled threat to use nuclear weapons against the West, Talking Europe speaks to the European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell.
In the week when Russian President Vladimir Putin launched referendums in Russian-held parts of Ukraine and made a thinly veiled threat to use nuclear weapons against the West, Talking Europe speaks to the European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell.
Earlier this week, the United Nations General Assembly opened with a warning from the UN Secretary General that we are in a "suicidal war against nature". The European Union’s leaders have made it clear that they want the bloc to be a champion for climate. But given these words by Antonio Guterres, we ask whether that is really the case. Our guest is German MEP Peter Liese, who is leading intra-EU negotiations on the EU's carbon emissions trading scheme for the European Parliament.
Earlier this week, the United Nations General Assembly opened with a warning from the UN Secretary General that we are in a "suicidal war against nature". The European Union’s leaders have made it clear that they want the bloc to be a champion for climate. But given these words by Antonio Guterres, we ask whether that is really the case. Our guest is German MEP Peter Liese, who is leading intra-EU negotiations on the EU's carbon emissions trading scheme for the European Parliament.
Earlier this week, the United Nations General Assembly opened with a warning from the UN Secretary General that we are in a "suicidal war against nature". The European Union’s leaders have made it clear that they want the bloc to be a champion for climate. But given these words by Antonio Guterres, we ask whether that is really the case. Our guest is German MEP Peter Liese, who is leading intra-EU negotiations on the EU's carbon emissions trading scheme for the European Parliament.
As households and businesses face rising energy bills, the EU's Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights is stressing the importance of supporting small and medium-sized businesses all over Europe. "A lot of households and household incomes depend on the survival of SMEs. That's why it's important to support businesses and particularly SMEs," Nicolas Schmit told FRANCE 24's Armen Georgian. Schmit also discussed the latest developments on minimum wages and the regulation of platforms such as Uber Eats and Deliveroo.
As households and businesses face rising energy bills, the EU's Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights is stressing the importance of supporting small and medium-sized businesses all over Europe. "A lot of households and household incomes depend on the survival of SMEs. That's why it's important to support businesses and particularly SMEs," Nicolas Schmit told FRANCE 24's Armen Georgian. Schmit also discussed the latest developments on minimum wages and the regulation of platforms such as Uber Eats and Deliveroo.
As households and businesses face rising energy bills, the EU's Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights is stressing the importance of supporting small and medium-sized businesses all over Europe. "A lot of households and household incomes depend on the survival of SMEs. That's why it's important to support businesses and particularly SMEs," Nicolas Schmit told FRANCE 24's Armen Georgian. Schmit also discussed the latest developments on minimum wages and the regulation of platforms such as Uber Eats and Deliveroo.
In a much-awaited speech this week, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen focused on the acute problems facing the Union: the war in Ukraine, energy prices and the challenge from autocracies. But some of the MEPs in the audience said the solutions she proposed are vague. We debrief von der Leyen's annual address with two MEPs.
In a much-awaited speech this week, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen focused on the acute problems facing the Union: the war in Ukraine, energy prices and the challenge from autocracies. But some of the MEPs in the audience said the solutions she proposed are vague. We debrief von der Leyen's annual address with two MEPs.
In a much-awaited speech this week, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen focused on the acute problems facing the Union: the war in Ukraine, energy prices and the challenge from autocracies. But some of the MEPs in the audience said the solutions she proposed are vague. We debrief von der Leyen's annual address with two MEPs.
France's Secretary of State for European Affairs Laurence Boone has outlined to FRANCE 24 the sacrifices necessary to continue putting pressure on Moscow, saying "it is a war against Russia for democracy, for freedom and supporting Ukraine. We are not asking horrible things. To put the temperature at 19 degrees, that has always been the unspoken rule."
France's Secretary of State for European Affairs Laurence Boone has outlined to FRANCE 24 the sacrifices necessary to continue putting pressure on Moscow, saying "it is a war against Russia for democracy, for freedom and supporting Ukraine. We are not asking horrible things. To put the temperature at 19 degrees, that has always been the unspoken rule."
France's Secretary of State for European Affairs Laurence Boone has outlined to FRANCE 24 the sacrifices necessary to continue putting pressure on Moscow, saying "it is a war against Russia for democracy, for freedom and supporting Ukraine. We are not asking horrible things. To put the temperature at 19 degrees, that has always been the unspoken rule."
Inflation is a word that viewers are likely now hearing almost every day. It's the term we use to talk about the cost of things that most of us regularly buy, like food and clothes, electricity bills, and the materials and resources used by businesses. Wherever you're watching, it’s almost certain you've noticed these prices rising – your home and vehicle fuel costs, or certain foodstuffs like wheat, flour and sunflower oil that have been particularly impacted by shortages due to Western sanctions on Russia. In late August, French President Emmanuel Macron said it was time to accept "the end of abundance".
Inflation is a word that viewers are likely now hearing almost every day. It's the term we use to talk about the cost of things that most of us regularly buy, like food and clothes, electricity bills, and the materials and resources used by businesses. Wherever you're watching, it’s almost certain you've noticed these prices rising – your home and vehicle fuel costs, or certain foodstuffs like wheat, flour and sunflower oil that have been particularly impacted by shortages due to Western sanctions on Russia. In late August, French President Emmanuel Macron said it was time to accept "the end of abundance".
Inflation is a word that viewers are likely now hearing almost every day. It's the term we use to talk about the cost of things that most of us regularly buy, like food and clothes, electricity bills, and the materials and resources used by businesses. Wherever you're watching, it’s almost certain you've noticed these prices rising – your home and vehicle fuel costs, or certain foodstuffs like wheat, flour and sunflower oil that have been particularly impacted by shortages due to Western sanctions on Russia. In late August, French President Emmanuel Macron said it was time to accept "the end of abundance".
Ireland's foreign minister has told France 24 that Dublin sees the United Kingdom's search for a new prime minister as "an opportunity for a fresh start" in the two countries' relations. This Friday, the European Commission launched new legal action against the government of Boris Johnson — this, as it pushes on with moves to unilaterally breach part of the Brexit treaty relating to Northern Ireland.
The ruling by a majority of judges in the United States’ Supreme Court to overturn the right to a legal abortion across the entire country has also sent shockwaves through Europe.
In our programme we examine abortion rights around the EU and look at how the situation might evolve.
France 24’s Europe team invites you to look back on the most recent parliamentary season (which started in September 2021) and some of the key European decision-makers we’ve been scrutinising, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
In a tumultuous week for British politics, European Union lawmakers are continuing to appeal for Westminster to resume post-Brexit talks. Leading German-British MEP David McAllister is chair of the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs, and closely involved in Brexit-related issues on the EU side. He told FRANCE 24 that he “very much regrets” moves by the British government under outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson to unilaterally breach parts of the post-Brexit deal relating to Northern Ireland. “This protocol was mutually agreed and painstakingly negotiated over many months, and in the end ratified by both sides."
Across Europe, people are being hit by increased food, fuel and electricity bills. Even before the war in Ukraine started, the price of energy was rising. European leaders insist they will not waver in their support to Ukraine. They admit that helping Kyiv will come at a cost to European consumers. But what sort of cost, and potentially for how long? Arancha Gonzalez Laya has had top jobs in the field of international trade at the European Commission, the World Trade Organization, and at the United Nations. She also served as Spain's foreign minister from 2020 to 2021, a period marked by a diplomatic crisis with Morocco. She is now the Dean of the school of politics and international studies at Sciences Po university in Paris – and the first woman to lead that school. She spoke to FRANCE 24 about the economic challenges facing Europe.
France is handing over the baton of the Presidency of the Council of the European Union to the Czech Republic. It’s a rotating role that every EU member state holds in turn for six months – meaning that with 27 member states, it only comes around once every 13 and a half years.
At the most recent EU leaders’ summit last week, much of the talk was focused on the future of the European Union, particularly its potential enlargement. Varying degrees of assurances on possible membership were given to Ukraine, Moldova and to a different degree, the Western Balkans states. EU leaders gave less attention to the future of the bloc as sketched out by citizens during a year-long process called the Conference on the Future of Europe.
This week on Talking Europe we take a look at some of the other countries, aside from Ukraine, that are knocking on the EU's door to join the bloc. EU leaders held a summit on Thursday with the Western Balkan states to discuss their accession process. For Albania, that started back in 2008 and still hasn't advanced to the negotiations stage. Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama spoke to FRANCE 24’s Luke Brown on the sidelines of the EU-Western Balkans leaders' meeting in Brussels.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine four months ago, the cost of living crisis has become a global issue. Prices have gone up around the world. In Europe, the countries that use the euro saw an average of 8.1 percent inflation in May. Pressure on prices, combined with stuttering economic growth, has sparked fears of a recession. These concerns could still come into play regarding the EU's response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In this programme, we're joined by two MEPs to discuss how the EU should balance sanctions against Russia with the risk of recession.
Amid a growing food crisis sparked by disrupted grain exports from Ukraine and Russia, the EU's ambassador to Ukraine Matti Maasikas told FRANCE 24 that exports by land more than doubled between April and May, from 600,000 tonnes to 1.5 million tonnes.
Austria's Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg speaks to FRANCE 24 about the latest comments by the Russian president that his country needs to "take back" lands that were once claimed by Russia – saying that Vladimir Putin "will probably never stop" denying the existence of Ukraine.
In the week that EU leaders agreed on a sixth round of sanctions against Russia, Polish Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Pawel Jablonski speaks to FRANCE 24 about the effect he hopes the measures will have on the Russian economy, his disappointment at the Hungarian government's stance regarding sanctions and the latest developments in Poland's rule of law dispute with the European Commission.
"When there is war again on our continent, you cannot be neutral." Those were the words of Denmark's prime minister after her country voted by a two-thirds majority to end the Danish opt-out from EU defence and security policy. As Vladimir Putin continues his bloody war against Ukraine, Denmark is not alone in the European Union in making historic moves regarding European defence capacities. We take a closer look with three MEPs.
This week's episode of Talking Europe takes a bird's-eye view of current events in Europe, with Luuk Van Middelaar, a Dutch historian and political theorist and a professor of EU law at Leiden University. Speaking to Armen Georgian, the historian addresses the EU's approach to the major crises of the past decade, as well as the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Imagine using an EU-wide app to pay your bills, to access your local government services or to upload a medical file or a driving licence. You would log in with a unique, life-long ID number. To some, this might sound convenient – much like travelling smoothly across borders with a digital Covid-19 certificate. To others, it's the stuff of Orwellian nightmares – a step towards mass surveillance and control. Either way, plans for an EU digital identity are coalescing, with a "common toolbox" expected this September. We debate the issues at stake with two MEPs.
Finland’s Europe minister has told FRANCE 24 her country is appealing to NATO members to "swiftly" accept Finland's application to join the military alliance. Tytti Tuppurainen acknowledged that her country is in a "security grey zone" and asserted that she is confident that opposition from Turkey can be overcome.
The war in Ukraine has forced a major rethink of European security, with further enlargement of both NATO and the EU now on the table. Kyiv has asked for a fast-track procedure for EU membership. Moldova and Georgia have also applied. The EU has made it clear that Ukraine belongs to the European family. However, admitting several more nations would be highly challenging. And even before the war, the EU was already negotiating with candidate countries Albania, the Republic of North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey. We discuss how far the EU should grow, and how fast that process should be, with two MEPs.
Hungary's government is "holding European Union decision makers hostage" by refusing to join an EU-wide embargo on Russian oil, according to Lithuania's foreign minister. This comes as EU leaders continue their efforts to gather support for a sixth sanctions package on Russia from all 27 EU member states. The government of PM Viktor Orban has claimed that an import ban on Russian oil would ruin the Hungarian economy. Lithuania's Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis tells FRANCE 24 that "Europe is weaker" as a result, and that he is "still hoping Budapest will be responsible in their decisions".
As the British government indicates it is preparing to deviate from the Northern Ireland Protocol – a key part of the Brexit deal – the European Commissioner overseeing EU-UK relations tells FRANCE 24 he is "appealing to the UK government to come back to the negotiating table". Maros Sefcovic spoke to our Europe editor Catherine Nicholson.
Germany has been in focus this week after lawmakers in the Bundestag on Thursday overwhelmingly backed a decision to send heavy weapons to Ukraine. Meanwhile, as Russia cut off gas supplies to EU member states Poland and Bulgaria over their refusal to pay for the fuel in roubles, Germany remains heavily reliant on Russian gas imports – more so than the EU average. We speak to Parliamentary State Secretary at the Ministry for Economy and Climate, Franziska Brantner, a German MP with the Green Party.
It was a French election, to elect a French president. But Emmanuel Macron took to the stage below the quintessentially French Eiffel Tower on April 24 for his victory speech to the sound of the European anthem, Beethoven's "Ode to Joy". He told his supporters that their fellow electors had chosen "a more independent France and a stronger Europe". Many of them waved EU flags, as well as the French tricolore. So what does the re-election of "Monsieur Europe" mean for the Union and France's place in it? We speak to MEPs from the two European political groups represented by Emmanuel Macron and his rival Marine Le Pen.
In this programme, we unpack the first round of France's presidential election, which left incumbent Emmanuel Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen in the running for the most powerful job in France. Our guest is Jacques Rupnik, Research Professor at the Centre for International Studies at Paris's Sciences Po university.
The past few days have delivered more reports of atrocities committed by the Russian military in Ukraine: women and girls raped, civilians locked up and shot, plus reports of chemical weapons being deployed in Mariupol. Calls continue for more to be done to stop Russian President Vladimir Putin. In the EU, leaders have condemned the Kremlin, decrying the attacks as "war crimes". But opinions are divided on how to stop the atrocities happening. Should EU countries sanction Russian oil and gas, worth billions to Moscow each week? Or could this end up causing more economic harm to Europeans than Russians, amid a cost of living spike? We debate the issue with two MEPs.
Over the past eight months, the Conference on the Future of Europe has aimed to give a voice to 800 citizens from the 27 EU member states. The goal of this unprecedented endeavour was to see concrete progress on the climate, employment, health and even diplomacy. A third of the participants were under 25 years old. Throughout the event in Strasbourg, FRANCE 24 closely followed four of the young panellists: an Italian anthropology student, a French high school student, a Slovakian doctoral student and a young Swedish woman concerned about the environment. What are their expectations in terms of migration, the environment, health or the climate? Why did they get involved? Our reporters have been finding out.
The EU is coming to the end of a major experiment in public debate: the Conference on the Future of Europe, an eight-month-long event in which the EU invited its 450 million citizens to share their thoughts on how the bloc might reorient itself to face new challenges. What – if anything – has the conference achieved? Will true change come about? We discuss this with three guests who took part in the Conference itself.
Amid supermarket food rationing, a truck drivers' strike over petrol prices and rising inflation in Spain, the country's economy minister tells FRANCE 24 that it's "essential" for Madrid to be allowed to take measures to bring electricity prices down. "We're working with the Commission to have an authorisation to decouple our energy market and thus stop this price increase […] It doesn't make sense that Spanish and Portuguese citizens do not benefit from the fact that we have for instance at least 50 percent of our generation from renewables. This is very cheap and clean energy and our citizens should benefit from these low prices," Nadia Calviño explains.
As a recent poll shows that six in 10 Swedish people support joining NATO alongside neighbour Finland, leading Swedish MEP Tomas Tobé tells FRANCE 24 why he backs ending two centuries of military neutrality in Sweden. "It is clear that Sweden needs to build security together with others. It is clear that Putin's aggression will not stop with Ukraine. We will have to take responsible decisions for Sweden. For me it is clear that we need the security that NATO membership will provide. I do not think that we should be neutral against Putin. The time for Sweden to be neutral is long past. It's important now that Sweden together with Finland make the decision to join NATO."
One month after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, FRANCE 24 speaks to Slovakian Prime Minister Eduard Heger, as his country takes in tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees and prepares to host a NATO battlegroup for the first time.
In an exclusive interview with FRANCE 24, the EU's Anti-Racism Coordinator Michaela Moua described a "large portion of Europeans who experience racism and discrimination in their daily lives, who do not have the same life opportunities" and for whom discrimination "affects their well-being, also often times their personal safety". She went on to explain that the EU Anti-racism Action Plan aims to "ensure that all Europeans are able to live lives free of racism and discrimination".
"It cannot be that an autocrat attacks a sovereign country which has the right to the integrity of its territory." That's the firm response directed at Russia from the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. Speaking exclusively to FRANCE 24 about the war in Ukraine, the EU leader added that "democracy is standing up against autocracy and therefore we stand as one".
As people all around Europe feel the cost of living rise and see their bank balance ever more squeezed amid energy price rises, we're looking into proposals for ensuring meaningful minimum wages are paid to everyone around the European Union. Some 21 of the 27 EU member states have a national minimum wage, though they vary wildly: from under €500 a month in Bulgaria to over €2,000 a month in Luxembourg. In late 2021, members of the European Parliament’s employment committee backed a new draft law on minimum wages. We discuss this with two members of that committee.
A week after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed off on his country's formal application to join the European Union, EU leaders have pledged to "strengthen bonds" and "deepen the partnership" between Ukraine and the bloc. This falls short of the promise to speed up the candidacy procedure that some had been calling for. But Croatia's prime minister told FRANCE 24 that the 27 member states have sent a "strong political signal". Andrej Plenkovic spoke to our Europe Editor Catherine Nicholson during this week's EU summit in Versailles.
Just over two weeks on from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Catherine Nicholson is joined by Polish MEP Roza Thun und Hohenstein and German MEP Helmut Scholz to discuss the European response to the crisis. The reception of refugees in the EU is a pressing issue; earlier this week the bloc's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell announced €100 million for immediate humanitarian help. MEP Scholz calls for a "clear answer" from the EU on how to help people in need, while questioning the militarisation of the response. To what extent should Europe help the Ukrainian military against the Russian army? And how can escalation be avoided as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky continues to plead for more help?
"We are not at war with the Russian people; we don't want the Russian people to suffer." So says the head of the European Parliament's Security and Defence subcommittee Nathalie Loiseau, as the EU looks poised to impose fresh sanctions in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. "It seems that Vladimir Putin is also at war with his own people," the top French MEP told FRANCE 24.
This week, there was a major show of support from across the political spectrum for the Ukrainian state and victims of the Russian invasion. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke via video link to Members of the European Parliament, asking them to keep up that backing and help his country accelerate down a path towards joining the EU. In this programme we're joined by two MEPs to discuss the EU's involvement in this fast-moving crisis.
After French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France and its European partners are to begin a military withdrawal from Mali after more than nine years fighting a jihadist insurgency, FRANCE 24 speaks to Belgium's prime minister. Alexander De Croo calls the French-led pullout "unfortunate" and insists it is "important to not break any ties with Mali. We are very concerned about the political developments, but the moment you break ties, we don't have any influence anymore. It's important for the Sahel region to get stabilised."
As Russian military movements close to the Ukrainian border continue to be a major global concern, the President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola tells FRANCE 24 she is doubtful about Moscow's claims that its troops are moving away from the frontier. The top EU lawmaker reaffirms that "if the escalation occurs, the European Parliament would align with other institutions to ensure concrete, swift and effective action".
Just over a year after Brexit became a practical reality, the Northern Ireland Assembly is in crisis after its First Minister resigned in protest at the Northern Ireland Protocol of the Brexit deal. Ireland's Europe Minister Thomas Byrne tells FRANCE 24 the departure of Paul Givan "has caused deep difficulties within the government system in Northern Ireland", and that the situation is "very very worrying". Byrne asserts that the Northern Ireland Protocol is "potentially the best of both worlds" for businesses there, and that despite calls from Unionist politicians, "the Protocol is staying".
On February 17 and 18, the EU is inviting African Union heads of state to Brussels for a summit. In this debate at the European Parliament, we lift the lid on Europe’s relationship with its African partners and ask what the EU-AU summit might achieve. Major areas of focus at the event will include development, visas and education exchanges, as well as the particularly pressing questions of security and migration. This all comes against a backdrop of postcolonial relationships and contemporary rivalries for influence in Africa with the likes of China, Russia and Turkey. French President Emmanuel Macron says it's a chance to found an "economic new deal and finance Africa", adding that the two continents' relationship has become, in his words, "a little tired".
With concern still high over a potential war between Russia and Ukraine, NATO's deputy secretary general spoke to FRANCE 24. Mircea Geoana told our Europe editor Catherine Nicholson: "NATO will not get involved militarily in Ukraine – we support Ukraine in many other ways, individual allies support Ukraine. And in order to deter Russia from doing that ... is to really demonstrate to the leadership in the Kremlin that in a cost-benefit analysis, an additional military intervention in Ukraine is a net loss for Russia."
"Everything is on the table" regarding new EU sanctions on Russia - but "de-escalation through diplomacy" remains the bloc's priority in the Ukraine crisis. So says EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders in an in-depth interview with FRANCE 24's Europe Editor Catherine Nicholson. The former Belgian foreign minister said the European Commission is preparing measures that could include individual sanctions on "people involved in the possible aggression – such as freezing their assets or a travel ban", as well as what he described as "concrete economic sanctions: transfer of technologies from Europe and in co-ordination with the United States; energy; and maybe financial services".
2022 is not yet one month old, but already around a thousand people have made "irregular" crossings from France to the United Kingdom – putting a spotlight back onto the issue of migration between the European Union and its former member state. Margaritis Schinas is European Commission Vice-President, and the Commissioner in charge of migration and asylum issues. He tells FRANCE 24 he wants "clarity" from the UK over how it wishes to proceed in tackling the issue of thousands of people risking their lives each year to cross the English Channel.
In a week when France has been at the forefront of EU news thanks to heated exchanges between President Macron and Members of the European Parliament, we speak to leading French MEP from the president's political group, Fabienne Keller. The former Strasbourg mayor tells FRANCE 24 Emmanuel Macron is "determined" to make progress on key issues including rule of law in the EU, and argues that he should be re-elected as French leader, saying "he needs five more years to finish the job".
As EU ally Ukraine reels from a massive cyberattack on government websites, the EU Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth tells FRANCE 24 that this kind of attack should not come as a surprise. "We should not be surprised but we have to be ready to act. That means more co-ordination and more joint actions between member states," Mariya Gabriel said.
In just a few weeks' time, Covid permitting, the Winter Olympics will open in Beijing. A celebration of sporting exploits it may well be, but the event will also be taking place amid a charged political atmosphere. Lithuania was the first EU member state to join the US, UK and Australia in declaring it would stage a diplomatic boycott of the Games, citing human rights concerns in China. The EU's overall relationship with China is the subject of this debate between two MEPs.
The Omicron variant of Covid-19 has brought a "tidal wave" of new cases, according to the WHO. France has seen record numbers of positive cases – as have several other EU states. This week, President Emmanuel Macron said he wanted to "piss off" the unvaccinated, limiting their access to certain social spaces like restaurants and cinemas as a means of convincing more of them to get their jabs. Meanwhile, more and more EU member states seem to be moving towards making vaccination mandatory. Austria is set to become the first EU country to make the jabs obligatory, as of February – with the measure valid until 2024.
As French President Emmanuel Macron says he wants to "piss off" the unvaccinated people in his country to push them into getting Covid-19 vaccines, the head of the European Parliament’s Human Rights Committee tells FRANCE 24 that while she is unconvinced by the phrasing, "it's really important to have a higher rate of vaccination in Europe and elsewhere, to guarantee that we don't go back to lockdowns".
With Europe still grappling with Covid-19, Talking Europe speaks to Christa Schweng, President of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC).
Around the world, people have had to change how they work because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Some of those changes look set to become permanent. What could all this mean for European employers, employees and work-life balance? We take a closer look with two MEPs.
France and its President Emmanuel Macron are gearing up for their moment at the centre stage of European politics. The French president gave a major speech this week outlining his priorities, as France takes over the Presidency of the European Council for six months from January to June of 2022.
This week has seen a new chancellor take the helm in Germany: Olaf Scholz is leading a never-tried-before coalition of his own Social Democrats, as well as the Greens and pro-business Liberals. They come to office promising to get a hold on Covid-19, keep the economy stable – and bring some liberal changes to the EU's biggest economy, including the legalisation of recreational cannabis.
FRANCE 24 spoke to the EU's Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton about several issues, including the threat of the omicron Covid-19 variant worldwide; the possibility of easing intellectual property rules on vaccines to get more doses out to lower-income countries; and the state of relations between the European Union and the United Kingdom.
He's a relative political novice, but Péter Márki-Zay believes he can unseat one of Europe's longest-serving leaders: Viktor Orban. For the first time ever, all of Hungary's opposition parties have united to choose one candidate for the spring 2022 election via a primary. Márki-Zay, the mayor of Hódmezővásárhely (population 44,000), emerged as the winner in the second round run-off. He tells FRANCE 24 why he is standing and how he would lead Hungary.
As Covid-19 infections rise around the EU and some member states impose new restrictions, FRANCE 24 speaks to Greece’s Tourism Minister about the continent’s next steps. We also discuss irregular migration on the European Union's external borders - including those of France and of Greece.
They’re calling it the "weaponisation of human beings". Thousands of people – mainly from the Middle East – have been sold travel packages to Belarus, a non-EU state, and told that from there, they will be able to get into the European Union.
Estonia's recently-elected president is urging caution over the situation at Belarus's borders with the European Union. Thousands of migrants hoping to enter the EU and claim asylum there, mainly from the Middle East, are camped at the borders. Asked by FRANCE 24 how dangerous he judges the tensions to be, Alar Karis said: "I think it's a threat. It's a border of the EU and of a NATO state. We should be very careful and cautious about what's going on […] Of course the sad thing is that there are innocent people in between that they are using as a shield."
Cancer is an illness which in various forms claimed the lives of more than a million people across the EU in 2020. The European Commission projects that cancer cases will increase by more than 20 percent by the year 2035, unless quick and decisive action is taken. The Commission has launched a wide-ranging "Beating Cancer" strategy, which we discuss in this programme with two Members of the European Parliament who are also medical doctors.
Lithuania's foreign minister has defended his country's newly-imposed state of emergency on and around its border with Belarus, amid an increasing number of irregular migrants trying to cross – and has accused the Belarusian president of orchestrating "instrumentalised migration" and participating in "trafficking". Gabrielius Landsbergis told FRANCE 24's Catherine Nicholson that Lithuanian border officials need "more legal instruments to really secure the border", which runs for approximately 700 kilometres.
Since August, a new British ambassador to France has been in post. Menna Rawlings has taken up the job at a time when the two countries have butted heads over various issues, from migration to Northern Ireland to fishing, while still bound together on other international issues – including the COP26 climate summit and as permanent members of the UN Security Council. Speaking to FRANCE 24 in a week when around 1,000 undocumented migrants crossed from France to England in small boats in a single day, she defended British border policy and spoke out about the ongoing disputes over the Northern Ireland Protocol.
France and Germany's relationship "will be stronger" under the new coalition government in Berlin than it was under Angela Merkel, and the next German government will be "deeply European". That's the view of former German Social Democratic Party (SPD) leader Martin Schulz.
Here in northern Europe we've had some very odd weather events in the last few months, including torrential rainfall and deadly floods – which scientists say are a direct consequence of climate change. It's something to focus the mind as leaders and negotiators meet in Glasgow at the United Nations climate summit known as COP26.
It's a government that has repeatedly found itself at odds with the European Parliament, Commission and other member states. Now Hungary is facing a delay in receiving approximately €7 billion from the EU's Covid-19 recovery fund. Hungary's Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó sits down with FRANCE 24's Catherine Nicholson to discuss those clashes and some of the issues behind them.
With more than 75 percent of EU adults vaccinated against Covid-19, the conversation is increasingly turning to the low rate of vaccination in low-income countries. After the US recently called on World Trade Organization members to temporarily lift intellectual property rights on Covid-19 vaccines, the European Commissioner for Health Stella Kyriakides told FRANCE 24: "All options are on the table – but the European Union has never put an export ban on the vaccines, and we encourage all the partners that are producing vaccines to continue as we have from day one, and to share vaccines with the rest of the world."