Brussels Playbook Podcast

The European Parliament has wrapped up its current five-year term, and the election campaign now enters into a final five-week sprint. This episode features a three-way discussion about what betting companies, opinion pollsters and journalists can tell us about election campaigns and results, featuring Cornelius Hirsch, co-founder of Poll of Polls, now with POLITICO; Eleni Varvitsioti, Brussels correspondent for Greek newspaper Kathimerini and Matthew Shaddick, head of political betting at Ladbrokes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For or against the EU? It's the biggest European question of all — and we tackled it in a debate in front of an audience in Brussels this week as the EU election campaign gets into high gear. Hear highlights of the debate between Sandro Gozi, Italy's former Europe minister who is standing for Emmanuel Macron's party in the election, and Anders Vistisen, Danish MEP and member of the European Conservatives and Reformists group. EU Confidential host Ryan Heath plays referee in this heated contest.Find out which candidate compared Viktor Orbán to the unobtainable girl in high school and the migration crisis to the weather in Brussels. And if you haven't had a chance yet, check out our special episode from earlier this week, recorded in front of an audience in London at the Podcast Live event, featuring Emily Thornberry, Labour's shadow foreign secretary. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emily Thornberry, the U.K. Labour Party’s shadow foreign secretary, is our guest in this special edition of EU Confidential. The show was recorded on Sunday in London in front of an audience at Podcast Live, an event that brought together political podcasts from around the U.K. and beyond. In conversation with POLITICO’s Ryan Heath, Jack Blanchard and Annabelle Dickson, Thornberry calls for her party to support a new referendum on any Brexit deal agreed between Labour and the U.K. government. She explains why she thinks Britain should hold an inquiry into how Brexit was handled. She also speaks of her disgust at the latest anti-Semitism allegations to hit her party. And she tackles everything from Saudi Arabia to China on the foreign policy front. Find out whether she would ever own a Huawei phone and what she thinks is her biggest political mistake. The show closes with a panel discussion featuring regular EU Confidential panelist Lina Aburous and POLITICO’s EU editor, Andrew Gray. We haven’t had time to tidy up the audio as much as we usually do for our regular episodes but we wanted to get this one out to our listeners ASAP given how fast-moving the Brexit story is right now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are we headed for climate disaster, and is the EU the solution? That's the question we ask in the second episode of "EU Confidential Goes Green,” the occasional series in which we zoom in on climate and sustainability challenges. Six Members of the European Parliament from across the political spectrum and around the Continent debated the question, and others, at the recent POLITICO European Elections Great Debate. Ryan Heath hosted the debate, which took place on April 2 in Brussels, between Mark Demesmaeker, Fredrick Federley, Jo Leinen, Marisa Matias, Adina Vălean and Thomas Waitz. This episode features highlights from their discussion. This weekend EU Confidential goes to London, where you can see and hear the team in action: we’re live on-stage this Sunday, April 7 from 2:30 to 3:30 pm at the Podcast Live festival. Our special guest will be Emily Thornberry, the U.K. Labour Party's Shadow Foreign Secretary. You can buy tickets to our show for £12, or an all-day ticket for £30 to see up to a dozen of your favorite political podcasts. Just go to http://podcastlive.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The first of six special EU Confidential Goes Green episodes between March and September 2019.This episode is all about cities and features interviews with Amanda Eichel, executive director of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy and Anna König Jerlmyr, the mayor of Stockholm & president of EUROCITIES. The Swedish capital is growing fast but shrinking its emissions — by 58 percent since 1990 — at the same time.The podcast panel dives into the Yellow Jackets, talk of a Green Wave in European politics, and asks why Manfred Weber, the center-right candidate to be the next European Commission president, is missing from the climate debate. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Irish MEP Mairead McGuinness, vice president of the European Parliament from Ireland’s ruling Fine Gael party, talks Brexit, the Irish border and about her interest in throwing her hat in the ring to be president of the next European Parliament, if reelected in May. But back home in Ireland, just one in five elected representatives are women. There’s never been a woman prime minister, neither of the two biggest parties have ever been led by a woman, and while there have been women ministers, they haven’t occupied the big-ticket ministries of finance, foreign affairs and defense. Are things about to be shaken up in May’s elections, at the local and the European level? Following the political activism surrounding the repeal of Ireland’s constitutional abortion ban, POLITICO correspondent Naomi O’Leary talks to some of the women shaking up the Irish political landscape. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's a summit special this week. POLITICO’s Andrew Gray, Rym Momtaz and Florian Eder discussed the topic du jour, Brexit, as EU leaders gathered in Brussels. They also chewed over Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party being suspended from the European People’s Party and the Continent's liberals entering the EU election fray. Keeping in mind that some things are bigger than politics, it’s a week of reflection in Brussels, three years on from the March 22 terrorist attacks on the city’s Zaventem airport and Maalbeek metro station. We try to gain some perspective with Flemish Culture Minister Sven Gatz, whose new book “Molenbeek/Maalbeek: A Brussels Tale” delves into the stories of seven fictional individuals on March 22, 2016. The book is as much about this "lowest point in decades" as it is about Brussels, the city, which is full of people “living side-by-side but not together,” in the words of Gatz. We also check in again with polling guru Cornelius Hirsch of pollofpolls.eu about the challenges of accurate polling for the European election. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nick Pickles, Twitter’s senior policy strategist, is our main guest. He responds to heated criticism of Twitter’s handling of free expression, misogyny, disinformation and transparency.“Increasingly, problems have tech components, but often societal problems can’t be solved by technology alone,” he says.We also check in with polling guru Cornelius Hirsch, hashing out the details of what could happen if the U.K. votes in the European election.Our podcast panel discusses this week’s Syria conference in Brussels — and debates the tepid response from Germany’s Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer to Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance vision.And following up on a recent promise, we crunched the numbers to determine the balance between men and women featured on the podcast. Over the last year, 68 men were featured guests, compared to 44 women.Although it's not an exact science, we also had a shot at measuring total air time. Factoring in our podcast panelists Lina Aburous and Alva Finn, women accounted for 60 percent of speaking time. But when we added in an estimate for host Ryan Heath, total speaking time for women fell to 45.3 percent.It’s not perfect, but we reckon we're on the right track. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the first episode of our new mini-series on women, power and the EU election — a fortnightly spin-off podcast from POLITICO's EU Confidential.Our timing for episode one could hardly be better. EU leaders like Manfred Weber, Frans Timmermans and Margrethe Vestager are clamoring to demand gender parity in EU institutions.In this episode, POLITICO's Lili Bayer speaks with Belgian MEP Maria Arena about the current status of women in politics. At the rate we're going, it would take 107 years to overcome the gap in women’s political representation worldwide. And the situation in Europe isn't much better.We also hear a debate between some of Europe's youngest aspiring female election candidates, including Svenja Hahn, liberal MEP candidate from Germany, Tuulia Pitkänen, socialist MEP candidate from Finland, and Ana Lidia Pereira, who was selected as an MEP candidate this week for her center-right party in Portugal.Look out for our next next episode in a couple of weeks, when we'll feature women who are shaking up Irish politics. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week’s podcast features Amal Al Qubaisi, president of the United Arab Emirates' Federal National Council, making her perhaps the most senior female politician in the Arab world. We cover a lot of territory including the blockade against Qatar and why the UAE proclaimed 2019 to be the Year of Tolerance. We're also taking the opportunity of International Women's Day to launch a special new EU Confidential podcast mini-series called The XX Factor, on women, power and European election. Listen to the teaser here: https://soundcloud.com/ryanheatheu/the-xxfactor-teaser-a-special-eu-confidential-series In other election-related news, Cornelius Hirsch is joining us as a regular guest on the podcast. He's the co-founder of pollofpolls.eu, Europe's answer to FiveThirtyEight. POLITICO bought pollofpolls.eu last week, and we'll be integrating their charts and insights in the coming weeks. The podcast panel of Lina Aburous and Alva Finn discusses diversity on-stage, tackling the question of who gets to speak on panels. We'll also debate whether the European Parliament should be conducting polling about its own future members, when no other Parliament we can find does this sort of political research. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a week of geopolitical ping-pong we take a break to dive deeper into the politics of well-being and what it takes to be a great political communicator, with the 38-year-old prime minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, who joined Ryan Heath in front of a live audience at the POLITICO office in Brussels. In the podcast panel we discuss the dangers of dialogue with dictators, and what a public body should do when one of its staff stands trial for raping a junior colleague. Next week you can look forward to the first instalment of new regular feature: Ryan will be discussing European opinion polls with Cornelius Hirsch, the founder of pollofpolls.eu. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week’s podcast focuses on the Munich Security Conference, one of the big events on the global political calendar. It features two interviews from POLITICO’s chief Europe correspondent Matt Karnitschnig, who sat down with Rick Grenell, the outspoken U.S. ambassador to Berlin, and Slovakia’s veteran Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajčák. Grenell and Lajčák provided their divergent impressions of the conference and transatlantic relations. They also addressed the palpably divisive issues of the Iran nuclear deal and the general tone emanating from Washington, among other topics. We also spoke with POLITICO’s chief Brussels correspondent David Herszenhorn, one of our reporters who covered the event, to get an insider’s impression of this year’s “tense” conference. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

U.K. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt talks to POLITICO's Ryan Heath in this extra edition of our podcast.Hunt once took heavy fire from Brussels for making a comparison that invoked the EU and the Soviet Union. But he's been much more diplomatic lately in his dealings with the EU.In this exclusive interview in our Brussels office, he talks extensively about Brexit. “It’s massively in everyone’s interest to get back to stability,” Hunt says, adding that he hopes negotiations between London and Brussels will yield a revised deal “in the next few days.”A quick resolution is necessary, Hunt says, “for the sake of sanity of the population of Britain and indeed of Europe.”In addition to Brexit, Hunt discusses Huawei, Facebook, the Iran nuclear deal and more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week's feature interview is a 15-minute highlight reel from John McDonnell's already famous interview with POLITICO's London Playbook editor Jack Blanchard. In addition to discussing Brexit next steps and Labour's anti-Semitism challenges, the U.K. shadow chancellor landed himself in hot water by describing Britain's wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill as a "villain" for sending in the army to tackle a miners' strike in 1910. The question now: Did McDonnell successfully tackle a taboo, or simply prove that the current Labour opposition is unelectable? The podcast panel of Alva Finn, and POLITICO's new Paris correspondent Rym Momtaz, advise an anonymous MEP who wrote to POLITICO to say that the pressure of living and working in three cities (their home city, Brussels and Strasbourg) is tearing families apart. To continue the family theme, we also discuss Viktor Orbán's new policy in Hungary: exempting the mothers of four or more children from income tax. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we bring you the revenge of the geeks! Bellingcat is the world's most surprising and one of its most successful journalism ventures. Founder Eliot Higgins and senior investigator Christiaan Triebert explain what open source investigation is, and how they used it to get to the bottom of modern mysteries, including tracking down the Skripal poisoning suspect and identifying the people and weapons that took down the MH17 flight over Ukraine. We're joined by Dutch MEP Marietje Schaake who brought a new documentary — "Bellingcat: Truth in a post-truth world" — to Parliament this week. Listen to the end to find out how an 11 year-old's school project inspired Bellingcat's latest efforts ... in illegal wildlife trafficking. We also bring you snippets of U.S. Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland who visited POLITICO's office this morning after Donald Trump's State of the Union speech with messages about trade relations, China and EU bureaucracy. The podcast panel discusses a right-wing politician's conversion to Islam, the embarrassing splintering of the Yellow Jackets movement in France, and what special places in Brexit hell might look like. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Facebook's new global head of public affairs gives his first public interview since starting the job to Ryan Heath. Clegg addresses a growing number of Facebook controversies and outlines the company's plan to win back trust and contribute to democracy. The podcast panel debates Facebook's efforts, the latest developments in the Macedonia name dispute, and Margot Wallström's admission that she can't forgive the British government for Brexit Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

POLITICO's Ryan Heath brings you two podcasts in one from the World Economic Forum — our final daily Davos Confidential show also doubles as your regular weekly EU Confidential. (Check out the other Davos Confidential shows wherever you found this podcast.)Ryan talks to Dutch Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra about Brexit, what worries him about the EU and why people should vote in May's European Parliament election.Ryan also speaks to Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of GLAAD, an organization working to accelerate LGBTQ acceptance, including at the WEF.Back in Brussels, POLITICO's EU editor Andrew Gray reviews the week's news with panelists Lina Aburous, Alva Finn and Carmen Paun. They discuss POLITICO's report that veteran MEP Elmark Brok netted surpluses from charges to constituents who visited him at the European Parliament; Donald Tusk raining on Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel's parade as they signed the Treaty of Aachen; Brexiteer James Dyson's decision to move his company HQ to Singapore; and the prospect of Brexiting Britain taking part in May's European Parliament election. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kumi Naidoo, secretary-general of Amnesty International, talks to POLITICO's Ryan Heath in our latest pop-up podcast from the World Economic Forum.Ryan also sums up his impressions of the WEF so far and talks to World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Wellcome Trust boss Jeremy Farrar about global efforts to improve mental health. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the former Danish prime minister and current head of Save the Children International, is our main guest in today’s pop-up podcast from the World Economic Forum.Speaking before an audience at a live taping of the podcast in Davos, Thorning-Schmidt talks to POLITICO's Ryan Heath about everything from children’s rights to Brexit to her own future.Also today, Ryan chats to Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the world wide web, about abuse of the internet and what the tech community can do about it.To get more from the POLITICO team at the WEF, sign up for the daily Davos Playbook, the essential mid-morning briefing: www.politico.eu/davos-playbook-registration/And keep up with the news in Davos as it happens on POLITICO’s live blog:https://www.politico.eu/article/davos-world-economic-forum-live-blog/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

POLITICO’s Ryan Heath is back with another series of daily podcasts from the World Economic Forum. In our first episode of the 2019 edition, Ryan asks Huffpost international director Louise Roug if all the chatter about tackling inequality will amount to anything more than Davos-speak. Ex-Formula One driver Nico Rosberg tells us about the mobility revolution that drove him to Davos. And Ryan asks FTI Consulting’s data guru Dan Healy if big companies across the G20 are really ready to face 21st century challenges such as climate change and cyber crime. To get more from the POLITICO team at the WEF, sign up for the daily Davos Playbook, the essential mid-morning briefing: https://www.politico.eu/davos-playbook-registration/ And keep up with the news in Davos as it happens on POLITICO’s live blog from 8AM CET Tuesday 22nd January: https://www.politico.eu/article/davos-world-economic-forum-live-blog/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the winds of right-wing populism sweep through the world's biggest democracies, from India to the United States, and Brazil to the European Union, and the United Kingdom continues to tear itself apart, we take a step back in this week's podcast to consider Churchill and Europe. Our feature interview is with the young Dutch historian Felix Klos, who was born the year the European Union was created, 1992 . As the author of Churchill on Europe, and a prospective member of the European Parliament, Klos is not your average 26-year-old. Klos speaks of Churchill as the ugly duckling of the EU's founding family, but its most crucial member. "If there's anything that we can pinpoint to Churchill's legacy it's this: it's being able to analyze the problem then coming up with a solution that works and then having the courage to tell the people that you represent something they don't like to hear." The podcast panel debate 2019 European election data points showing how divided Europe is. You can see them on page 20 of the e-version of this week's POLITICO print edition. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Netflix plans 153 original shows in Europe in 2019, worrying local broadcasters and delighting consumers. That level of ambition also leaves the company burning through billions in cash. The week's featured guest is David Hyman, general counsel at Netflix.The podcast panel of Lina Aburous and Alva Finn discusses the European Commission's efforts to brand 2019 as being about delivery, destiny and democracy, and we remember the highs and lows of the "father of the house" of the European Parliament, Elmar Brok, dumped this week by his party after 38 years. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gayle Smith, a former journalist and now campaigner against extreme poverty, is our main guest. In our podcast panel, Alva Finn and Lina Aburous discuss the U.K. policy of making victims of forced marriages pay for their own flights home if they are rescued by the British government. And we make our political predictions for 2019. Smith, CEO and president of the ONE campaigning group, tells host Ryan Heath that after 20 years highlighting the effects of genocide and war, she couldn’t resist the chance to prevent one. So began stints in the Clinton and Obama administrations, before her role at ONE, which brought her to Brussels to argue for EU investments that would keep 33 million children in school during the bloc's 2021-2027 budget period. How does Smith harness the mega-celebrity of ONE founder, Irish rocker Bono? “He brings his fame into the world and people may be excited to meet Bono the rock star, but by the time he leaves the room they feel like, well, that’s Bono the smart activist.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and Chinese artist Ai Weiwei are our main guests, interviewed live on stage by POLITICO's Ryan Heath.Also, panelists Alva Finn and Lina Aburous join Ryan to look back on 2018 and bestow EU Confidential's prestigious Tajani awards on those who have made an outstanding contribution to the political year.EU Confidential takes a brief festive break next week but we'll be back in the New Year.Best seasonal wishes to all our listeners — thanks for all your support and feedback in 2018! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Double-header this week: socialist candidate for European Commission president Frans Timmermans and the European Commissioner for sport, education and culture, Tibor Navracsics. The panel debates Britain's mid-life crisis a.k.a Brexit Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We talk to Carlos Moedas, European Commissioner for innovation, research and science, about his passion for zero-emission cities, artificial intelligence and blockchain. The panel debates the Yellow Jackets eco-tax protest movement in France, and Denmark’s plan to send migrant criminals to an isolated island. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We return to the theme of diversity in Brussels, a year after POLITICO’s Brussels So White article series, which looked at racial diversity and related themes in the EU’s de facto capital. The interview guests are two high-ranking lobbyists and public relations strategists, Lisa Ross and Gurpreet Brar from Edelman, who speak about their personal experiences of Brussels as people of color. Ross told us that “it is really important to not flip the dominance. I sent off a team to do a multimillion-dollar pitch. They were all women. And as we were preparing, I worried 'oh my God, we've got an all-female team' because isn't that the same as having an all-male team? Isn't that the same as having an all-white team?” Brar said: “My identity is extremely complex. I grew up in a household of Indian parents, ate Indian food. I listened to Bollywood music. I watch Ru Paul’s drag race and I was a gay man that was trying to deal with my sexuality growing up in a very, very impoverished area of Birmingham (U.K.). So my identity is not one single layer. It's like almost like an onion” He added: “I am British, but I am also European. I'm really not going anywhere. We're still going to have to live in this environment together, so how do we then make sure that we are living positively?” In the panel we discuss how Hillary Clinton’s entry into Europe’s migration debate backfired and the emergence of a conservative wing in European civil society. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Greens are riding high as they gather in Berlin this weekend for their co-candidates for European Commission president in 2019. A string of national and regional electoral successes in Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg are the reason for the positive mood. But the Greens are also only a tiny force in much of the EU. This episode features Ska Keller, Bas Eickhout and Petra Sutter: the three candidates competing for the Green nomination. They pitch to you why it’s time to go green, what they’re doing to change the status quo in Europe, and what they’ll do if, as seems likely, they poll in the single digits across Europe and miss out on the top job. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rose Gottemoeller, NATO's deputy-secretary general, is our main guest this week. She's the highest-ranking female official in the history of the military alliance — or, as Gottemoeller herself puts it, "the first deputy secretary-general of NATO who happens to be a woman.” Gottemoeller talks about Russia’s turn from the west, and how attitudes to women have changed in the national security world since she began her career in the 1970s — and what needs to happen to change them further. Our Brussels Brains Trust of Lina Aburous and Alva Finn debate the big stories of the week — Theresa May's fight for political survival after sealing a Brexit deal, and Angela Merkel's speech to the European Parliament outlining her vision for the EU. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our main guest is Bill Browder, once the largest foreign investor in Russia but now a fierce critic of Vladimir Putin. He’s the driving force behind the Magnitsky Act — legislation designed to impose severe financial and travel sanctions on human rights abusers. Browder tells our chief Brussels correspondent, David Herszenhorn, the story behind the act and how he’s trying to bring it into the EU. Also this week, the European People’s Party chose Manfred Weber as its lead candidate for the European Parliament election. But how much of a contest was it? Weber looked to have it wrapped up from the start. Our Brussels Brains Trust debates the best way to pick political candidates. We also chew over what the U.S. midterms mean for Europe — and how worried Europe should be about Russian interference in elections. With Ryan Heath getting married (again — same husband, different continent!), news editor Andrew Gray fills in as host. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With Europe's eyes glued to Berlin this week as the effects of Angela Merkel's partial retirement are digested, this podcast episode looks at what happens now that she has more time to devote to EU-level challenges and reforms, but less political capital to spend on them. And what of Europe's increasingly fragmenting political center? A different European party runs each of the five biggest EU countries. The biggest party, the EPP, runs only one of the 12 biggest countries — Germany. Our interview guest this week is the left-wing Swedish MEP Malin Björk, one of the key players in Brussels on the EU’s controversial and sometimes unenforced refugee policies. She made the issue her priority because “it's a matter of life and death ... what kind of continent are we going to be?” In general, Björk doesn’t like the direction the EU is headed in, and she isn’t afraid to say so. She supports a 50-50 Parliament in terms of gender and in 2014 encouraged others on board a plane to refuse to buckle their seatbelts after she realized a fellow passenger was set to be deported to Iran. Our podcast panel picks the words they think sum up Merkel's legacy and savors this photo of European political grandees: https://twitter.com/ManfredWeber/status/1055842523736915968. Can you spot the poodle? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

First up Justine Maillot from the Surfrider Foundation, a group of activists pushing for healthy oceans from the bottom-up. Then we speak to Davide Magnana who is trying to build an industry based on wave and tidal power, and Werner Hoyer, president of the European Investment Bank: the man Europe turns to when it doesn't have enough money to solve a pressing problem. Finally, European commissioner Karmenu Vella speaks of oceans as “a goldmine we instead treat like a landfill.” Our podcast panel this week discusses the cultural reasons why our public debates seem to be careening out of control. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bill Gates — billionaire tech founder turned philanthropist — is the main guest on this week's podcasts. We focus on why Europe is an aid superpower, what support Africa needs to cope with its exploding population, and why there's reason to believe the world is getting better. The podcast panel compares the world views of Gates and the nationalists winning support across Europe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a wide-ranging interview Weber says Brussels is a "black box" that is disconnected from most Europeans (though he leads its biggest party in the European Parliament). His campaign pitch puts a premium on changing how the job of European Commission president is done: “When there are fires in Sweden or in Portugal and people dying in Greece, I think a commission president must be there to show up, to be present with the concerns of the people," Weber said. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alexander Stubb lays out his pitch for the European Commission presidency in this week's episode. Stubb is competing with Manfred Weber to be the European Peoples Party's candidate for the post in 2019. Stubb is leaning on his experience as a former prime minister and on a sharp expression of values. Nordic moderate, pragmatic and "a true European believer" who wants a "liberal democracy not an illiberal democracy.” Stubb says European values are under attack from "the U.S., China, Russia and from the inside" meaning countries like Poland, Italy, Romania, and Hungary. After claiming to be a "next generation" EU leader, Stubb (who is 50) joked that he's "next generation with bifocals." Can you guess who he names as his political hero? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ukraine, the Balkans, MEPs' expenses, fake news and fallout from the Salzburg summit are all on the menu this week. Our main guests are Thomas Greminger, head of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and Montenegrin Foreign Minister Srdjan Darmanovic. News editor Andrew Gray stands in again as host for the honeymooning Ryan Heath. But Ryan still features in the podcast, with an interview he recorded with Greminger, secretary general of the OSCE, at the European Forum Alpbach in Austria. Greminger talks to Ryan about the OSCE's role in keeping a lid on the conflict in Ukraine — and what it will take to create a lasting peace there. Before that, POLITICO's chief Europe correspondent Matthew Karnitschnig talks us through his interview with Montenegrin Foreign Minister Darmanovic at another gathering with a mountain backdrop — the Bled Strategic Forum in Slovenia. Darmanovic talks about Donald Trump suggesting World War III could start in Montenegro, relations with Russia and his take on a possible Kosovo-Serbia land swap. And our podcast panelists, Lina Aburous and Alva Finn, chew over big stories from the last seven days, including the European Court of Justice ruling that members of the European Parliament don’t have to account for €100 million worth of expenses every year. Will anyone dare to defend that? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

EU watchdog Emily O'Reilly is our main guest this week. Before heading off to get married, regular host Ryan Heath sat down for a candid chat with the European ombudsman in Strasbourg. Among the many topics covered: the Irish former journalist's investigation into the European Commission’s promotion of Martin Selmayr — Jean-Claude Juncker’s right-hand man — and why O'Reilly believes that Donald Trump shows transparency has its limits. News editor Andrew Gray steps into Ryan's shoes to host the show and chats to Christian Oliver, POLITICO's competition and trade editor, and Nick Vinocur, technology editor and former Paris correspondent, about some of the week's big stories. They discuss EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager's move against German carmakers and Amazon — and ponder Emmanuel Macron's advice to an unemployed gardener. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, a bona fide music mogul. Lyor Cohen has been in the business for 37 years, working with musicians who define memories and eras — think the Beastie Boys, Run DMC and Public Enemy, all signed by his iconic Def Jam label. These days, Cohen is YouTube’s global head of music. He spoke to EU Confidential ahead of this week’s big vote on copyright in the European Parliament. He talks about how the music business has changed and how he sees its future. Also this week, we talk to Alain Deneef, the founder of a new festival of European democracy called Jubel, taking place on September 22 in Brussels. Deneef explains the ideas behind the festival — and promises that, even though it’s in the European quarter, there will be no men in suits. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dimitris Avramopoulos, the European commissioner for migration, sets out how the Commission plans to fighting back against populist attempts to hijack the migration agenda.Avramopoulos outlines controversial tactics: working with hardliners to achieve one of their goals, controlled migration flows, but with different means.The Commission plans to propose next week a "genuine border police" to ensure a “controlled and orderly” migration system, and to increase returns of people whose applications for asylum are rejected.He calls populist leaders like Italy's Matteo Salvini “smart,” but says they "do not offer practical European solutions on migration.“Our podcast panel discusses the EU watchdog's conclusion that the Commission possibly "overstretched" the rules in appointing Martin Selmayr as its top civil servant. And we also look at the latest maneuvering as the European election campaign gets into gear. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week's episode revolves around two political hot topics: how Europe should manage the growth of far-right politics across the continent, and whether to support redrawing the borders of Serbia and Kosovo along ethnic lines. Julia Ebner, author of The Rage, is a fascinating interview: she takes you inside far-right parties and networks, how they organize, why they appeal to certain people, and what we can expect from Steve Bannon's "ability to be a chaos agent” as he moves into the fringes of European politics ahead of the 2019 European election. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we hit peak Barnier — the height of the EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier's influence — and the U.K. published its Brexit no-deal contingency plans. We run through the dangers and the dramas ahead with Jill Rutter and Joe Owen from the Institute for Government in London. On the podcast panel with Lina Aburous and Alva Finn, we discuss their reactions to a Swiss holiday accommodation business that's decided to ban women who wear headscarfs. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we mix the format up: not one guest, but many. We've asked POLITICO reporters to talk us through stand-out stories they've produced this summer. Ginger Hervey and Jillian Deutsch talk about the EU getting under the skin of the tattoo industry, and its 4,000 unregulated chemicals. (https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-tackles-tattoo-ink-safety-regulation-inking-european-chemicals-agency/) Carmen Paun discusses her postcard from Romania, reflecting on how emigration has changed a village she's known since childhood. (https://www.politico.eu/article/intorsura-romania-village-migration-feels-the-countrys-emigration-pain/) Kait Bolangaro goes on a field trip: to visit a potato farmer who's had his crop wiped out by the heat, threatening supplies of the national dish of frites. (https://www.politico.eu/article/belgian-frites-fry-in-the-heat-summer-drought-french-fries/) And Simon Marks walks us through his investigation revealing Greece's lifeline to the Syrian regime through the import of phosphates, a fertilizer ingredient. (https://www.politico.eu/article/syria-europe-greece-throws-lifeline-bashar-al-assad-by-buying-phosphates/) And of course we also hear from our regular panelists, Alva Finn and Lina Aburous, with our roundup of EU WTF moments of the week, including the political blame game surrounding the Genoa bridge collapse. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week's interview is with Constanze Itzel, the director of the EU museum, the House of European History, in Brussels.Listen to hear her views on fake memory, conscious distortion of history, and her battle with people who think the museum is too critical of the EU.The panel discusses the heatwave, green churches and Swedish police shooting dead an intellectually disabled man who was holding a toy gun. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this week's main interview, we hear from Sue Duke, the global head of public policy for LinkedIn. She reveals the labor market lessons to be learned from data on the company's 167 million users in Europe.We also talk about how to handle — and how not to handle — the topic of pregnancy in the workplace.The podcast panel of Lina Aburous and Alva Finn debate cost-shifting in Belgium: The country is apparently happy to pay for a new school for the children of EU officials — but wants to charge Belgium-based journalists to attend EU summits. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Johannes Hahn, European commissioner for enlargement negotiations and neighborhood policy, talks us through the Western Balkans. It's a region whose countries desperately want into the EU club, but which still has a lot of work to do in overcoming the legacies of the wars of the 1990s, including corruption and organized crime. Hahn warns against China using countries like Montenegro as a Trojan Horse to get into EU decision-making, and pushes back against Emmanuel Macron's view that the EU needs to focus on cleaning up and renovating its own house, rather than enlarging. Did you know? Hahn, like President Donald Trump, takes Coca-Cola at the meeting table and holidays in Scotland. (But the similarities end there.) His job will also grow with Brexit: the U.K. will become part of Hahn's remit as a "third country" in Europe's own neighborhood. Trump and Juncker's love-in: Our podcast panel weighs in on peace breaking out at the White House, Steve Bannon's plan to conquer Europe and the latest satellite launches for Europe's Galileo program. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amélie de Montchalin, a French member of Parliament with Emmanuel Macron’s En Marche party explains why its undemocratic to finalise the EU’s next seven-year budget ahead of the 2019 EU election. European agriculture commissioner Phil Hogan talks about how farming needs to change, Brexit, and trade deals. The panel discusses the EU's €4.3 billion fine against Google, and how to handle a leader when they stumble, literally and politically. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A special defense-themed episode take you inside this week’s tense NATO summit and discusses the new specialism of 24/7 POTUS management. The stellar line-up includes United States Ambassadors Alexander Vershbow and Daniel Fried; Beatrice Fihn who leads ICAN an anti-nuclear and Nobel Peace Prize-winning campaign group; Brookings Institution’s Constanze Stelzenmüller and journalist Paul Taylor. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A bumper episode featuring NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg who’s got a present for Donald Trump ahead of next week’s NATO summit in Brussels, and Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who has presided of the sacking of 27 Polish judges this week, but who is at pains in our interview to explain what he likes about the EU and Jean-Claude Juncker. The podcast panel discussing a whirlwind of good deeds, hypocrisy and protest at the European Parliament this week. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s summit week: crammed with migration and Trump and eurozone and Brexit and will-Merkel-stay-or-go drama. One man who could benefit greatly from Merkel going is Wolfgang Schäuble, her long-time rival and finance minister, now president of the Bundestag, the German Parliament. He’s our first interview guest, followed by Danny McCoy, the head of the Irish business lobby Ibec, who talks Brexit and why Ireland has upped its lobbying game in Brussels The podcast panel tries to unpack why so much of what EU leaders are saying about migration is either unrealistic or not addressing some of the key problems. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week’s theme is Women Rule! Our feature interview is withPhumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, executive director of U.N. Women, who’s got passionate views about violence, #MeToo and more. Mlambo-Ngcuka spoke to POLITICO reporter Ginger Hervey, who joins us to put the conversation in context. Our podcast panel gets into the World Cup spirit with a series of "EU kick-offs" and "EU red cards" as we chew over the Italian government’s views on its Roma communities, and the political strategy of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices