For our first Talking Europe interview with the new crop of EU Commissioners, we host Hadja Lahbib, who is in charge of preparedness and crisis management, as well as equality. Lahbib, a former foreign minister of Belgium, talks about the challenges o…
He has called the German chancellor an “incompetent idiot” and the countryโs president an “anti-democratic tyrant”.ย Perhaps such invective would not matter if Elon Musk did not have the influence that he does. But Europe is a key market for the tech b…
Talking Europe sits down with France’s top diplomat in Warsaw, just as Poland takes up the rotating presidency of the EU in turbulent geopolitical times. รtienne de Poncins was previously French ambassador to Ukraine and got out of Kyiv just in time w…
2025 looks like a year full of dangers for the European Union. Even before US President-elect Donald Trump returns to office, his unpredictability is on full display as he tells NATO ally Denmark that he needs Greenland for US national security purpos…
Preparing to support Ukraine “in all scenarios’ โ that’s how the head of the EU Council described the gist of the last European summit of the year, before Donald Trump returns to the White House. We explore the EU’s preparedness with Belgian Foreign M…
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…
Talking Europe meets one of Spainโs most seasoned diplomats, and a close confidant of the Spanish prime minister. Josรฉ Manuel Albares is Spainโs foreign minister, and a former ambassador to France. We discuss the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, war…
Today, the EUโs 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 fl…
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 partyโs decisi…
The war in Ukraine has entered what some officials say could be its most dangerous phase, with Kyiv now using Western-supplied missiles to strikeย deeper inside Russia, and Russia reported to be using North Korean troops in Ukraine. There is even talk …
Social media platforms play an increasingly important role in election campaigns, as the first round of the Romanian presidential election โ in which a NATO-sceptic populist came out on top โ amply demonstrates. Our guest is Mariya Gabriel, a former E…
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 โ the land of drug cartels. For Interior Minister Bru…
In an exclusive interview, FRANCE 24 and Radio France International sit down with France’s minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noรซlย Barrot, who was appointed to the job in September. We discuss France’s diplomatic initiatives in the Middle E…
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, …
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 Pier…
Deadly floods in Spain and in central and eastern Europe, as well as devastating hurricanes in the US, are justย someย of the recent potent reminders of climate change. From November 11, world leaders are huddling in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku for the CO…
With the US election just around the corner, is the EU prepared for what might be coming? And what does โbeing preparedโ mean, exactly, when it comes to Europeโs defence capabilities?ย These are some of the questions we put to veteran French diplomat P…
It’s a ritual that happens every five years, and also a test for two of the EUโs key institutions. Once all the European Commission’s new members have been designated, they go through confirmation hearings before the European Parliament.ย The parliamen…
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 t…
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 ofย โWe will work with any US president to develop transatlantic tiesโ. However there is little doubt that m…
As he nears the end of his term, Josep Borrell, the EUโs 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…
European Union member states have narrowly backed import duties on Chinese-made electric cars, over what the EU considers to be unfair competition. Tariffsย of up to 45 percent are set to be imposed from next month for five years. Chinese carmakers hav…
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…
France’s debt has reached a record โฌ3.228 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. Seve…
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 depri…
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 …
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 challeng…
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…
The new French government faces many challenges, including questions about its democratic legitimacy, and a public debt which has worried Franceโs EU partners. We discuss the economic outlook with former Spanish foreign minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya,…
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 P…
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. …
Ukraine is continuing its ground offensive in Russia’s Kursk region, and pursuing drone attacks deep inside Russian territory โ signaling a more assertive approach. At the same time, Russian forces have advanced in eastern Ukraine, piling pressure on …
The nomination of Michel Barnier, a veteran of both French and EU politics, to the post of French prime minister, is โa surprise and a delicate gambleโ by French president Emmanuel Macron. Thatโs according to our guest in Talking Europe, economist and…
It hasnโt been smooth sailing this summer for Ursula von der Leyen, who was voted in as EU Commission president for a second term in July.ย She had asked national capitals to put forward two candidates for her new Commission, one female and one male, …
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…
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.
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 …
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 โ forty votes more than she need…
Talking Europe speaks to the head of the centrist Renew group in the European Parliament, Valรฉrie Hayer, who recently led the EU election campaign in France on behalf of President Macronโs political bloc. We dissect the all-important vote on July 18 o…
It seems that France is going to have to learn coalition politics after a parliamentary election in which no party or bloc came close to winning an absolute majority. Germany and other countries have experience of grand coalitions, but in France, a wi…
Talking Europe speaks to one of Franceโs most distinguished diplomats. Philippe Etienne, once dubbed โMacronโs diplomatic brain,โ has been the French ambassador to Washington and Berlin as well as the permanent representative to the European Union. We…
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 โunfair subsidiesโ, which pose a threat …
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 EUย โ but admi…
It’s been almost exactly eightย 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 ruli…
Our guest recently described the EU’s action on cohesion โ levelling up Europe’s diverse regions โ 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 o…
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 …
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 elect…
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 …
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 …
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…
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…
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.ย All of these are fake stories; …
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 gre…
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…
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 …
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 fin…
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…
Georgia has erupted in protest once again, as the ruling Georgian Dream party pursues a “foreign agents” bill in parliament โ something that has left a question mark hanging over the countryโs European ambitions. The EU granted the ex-Soviet nation ca…
Talking Europe sits down with one of the European Parliamentโs 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 a…
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 o…
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’ movemen…
Talking Europe hosts former Spanish foreign minister Arancha Gonzalezย Laya, who is now dean of one of the top international relations schools in the world โ the Paris School of International Affairs. We delve into the EU election campaign, EU competit…
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-e…
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 …
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 p…
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 governmentโs grand coalition on the one hand, and a resurgent far right on the other hand. We also look at Roman…
The EUโs 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 Euro…
The war in Ukraine is well into its third year, and Russiaโs 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 themesย โ not just mili…
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…
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 voter…
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. H…
The Legal Affairs committeeย (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 misus…
In the spotlight this week in our whistle-stop debate series featuring each of the EUโs 27 member states ahead of Juneโs European elections: Italy. Europeโs third-biggest economic power has seen a growing rivalry between the right-wing Brothers of Ita…
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 …
Alarmed by a recent series of maritime emergencies involving migrants trying to reach European shores, Europe’s top ethics watchdog is calling on the EUโs authorities to open a public investigation into thousands of deaths in the Mediterranean Sea. Eu…
The spectre of a second Donald Trump presidency is stalking America. Depending on whom you believe, the worldโs biggest superpower is either sleepwalking into dictatorship, or everyone just needs to chill out. Eight months before the US presidential e…
The man who might be back in the White House next year, Donald Trump, has caused huge alarm in Europe by saying that he mightย let Russia “do whatever the hell they want” against NATO allies that do not contribute enough to collective defence. Our gues…
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: Bel…
Horizon Europe is the EUโs key funding programme for research and innovation.ย Yet the EU has just agreed to cut the programmeโs budget byย โฌ2.1 billion, as part of the re-negotiation of the EUโs long-term budget, and continuing aid to Ukraine. Paradoxi…
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 startย with the Euroz…
After an extraordinary summit on Ukraine, the EU has voted unanimously for a โฌ50 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 p…
Farmers have been blocking motorways and protesting across Europe โ 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 regulat…
Call it the “crisis crisis”. A record surge in the number and frequency of extreme climate events afflicting millions of human beings is stretching Europe’s disaster response system to the limit, a top EU official has warned. Requests for emergency as…
Migration, identity and borders are always big issues in European politics, but perhaps never more so than in European elections. A cornerstone of the current five-year political programme has been the EU’s pact on asylum and migration. A political ag…
He has variously been called “Mister Fix-It”, “Laser Eye” and “Big Maros”. EU Commission Executive Vice-President Maros Sefcovic manages a dizzying array of portfolios, stretching to no fewer than 26 policy areas, many of them having to do with Europe…
The EU is adopting an unprecedented package of climate, energy and environmental legislation. The Green Deal has been an essential component of the European Parliament’s work over the last five years, and of the European Commission’s agenda. EU member…
Talking Europe interviews the EU commissioner in charge of jobs and social rights, Nicolas Schmit. He speaks to the importance of protecting workers, particularly the “gig” or “platform” workers, whose status is at the core of a dispute between the Eu…
Ukraine is seeking โฌ50 billion in budget support from the European Union. If it doesnโt get it, it might have to raise taxes or even print money this spring, officials in Kyiv have suggested. At stake are not only Ukraine’s finances, but the EU’s whol…
While wars are fought between armies or militant groups, conflicts have their keyboard warriors too. It is estimated that more than half of the world uses social media, and many people do not go to traditional media as a source of information at all. …
Poverty is set to be one of the key issues dominating the 2024 European elections. The EU is home to 95 million people who live below the poverty lineย โ that is, who live on less than 60 percent of the median income for their country. In all, that’s o…
Talking Europe hosts Austrian author Robert Menasse, the winner of the 2023 European Union book prize. The award was set up in 2007 to foster a European spirit and promote understanding of the EU from a cultural perspective. The prize has previously b…
Talking Europe sat down with the prime minister of Bulgaria, Nikolai Denkov, during a crucial EU summit that approved the start of EU accession talks for Ukraine and Moldovaย โ but failed to find an agreement on budget support for Ukraine. We take the …
Getting the European Green Deal finished is one of the EU Commission’s top priorities in the last few months of the current legislative term. At stake is a major transformation of Europe’s economies and societies, which could see the continent become …
As European leaders tussle over key decisions on Ukraine ahead of a crucial EU summit on December 14-15, Talking Europe hosts Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration, Olha Stefanishyna. She tells FRANCE 24 that it is…
The war in Ukraine has forced a major rethink in European security, with both Sweden and Finland abandoning their long-standing policy of non-alignment and applying for NATO membership last year. But while Finland was admitted into NATO this April, de…
Talking Europe hosts Pascal Canfin, the chair of the environment committee at the European Parliament. He is a former French government minister and a former director of the French branch of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). We take a look at what is com…
A controversial chemical will be allowed in the EU for another 10 years. After member states failed to reach an agreement amongst themselves, the European Commission decided that glyphosate, an agrichemical used in farming, will be re-authorised for a…
Talking Europe hosts one of the EU Commission’s vice-presidents, Margaritis Schinas, who is in charge of overseeing the promotion of the European Way of Life. That includes fighting anti-Semitism, racism and discrimination in various forms. Schinas al…
The statistics are as damning as they are grim.ย In the EU, one in three women aged 15 or over has experienced physical or sexual violenceย โ or both.ย More than half of all women in Europe have been sexually harassed. Only a fifth of women in the EU go …
Europeโs recommendation to grant Georgia candidate status for EU membership is โa very major stepโ that is goading the countryโs political leaders to coalesce around a โnew consensusโ in favour of a European future, Georgian President Salomรฉ Zourabich…
