I4C Trouble with Daly and Wallace

In the last episode before the Parliament closes for Christmas, we discuss the EU’s refusal to share the vaccine technology with the Global South; Navalny winning the EU Sakharov prize for “freedom of thought”; tensions in Ukraine; yet another European Parliament resolution condemning Cuba; and proposed new powers for the Gardaí. We also discuss the country of the week- Spain.

links:European Council on Foreign Relations, essays on neutrality and European defence: https://ecfr.eu/publication/ambiguous-alliance-neutrality-opt-outs-and-european-defence/ Study on EU Border Regime: Profiteering from Dehumanisation and Mythologised Technologies: https://left.eu/content/uploads/2021/11/EU-Border-Regime-Profiteering-from-Dehumanisation-and-Mythologised-Technologies_.pdf 

It’s been a busy week at the parliament. We discuss Covid and the world going mad over the new variant, the European Parliament’s foreign interference committee and their report on social media disinformation by the EU’s so-called enemies- Russia, China and Iran, an anti-money laundering proposal to limit the use of cash which could have problematic implications for EU citizens, the EU “green” taxonomy for sustainable economic investments which is considering labelling gas and nuclear as sustainable- so not so green after all, finally, Julian Assange’s father visits Brussels, we hear some updates from that

We’ve got a second podcast for you this week, we discuss Covid, Vaccines, the Common Agricultural Policy, Tsikhanouskaya (Belarus’s Guiado) visiting the EP (again), and lovely Belgium.

Damien is back from the COP climate conference in Glasgow. We talk about the failure of the rich countries to address financing climate change adaptation and mitigation in the Global South.

This week Mick and Clare are joined by the wonderful Bethany Howard, another week, another host. They are just back from Lithuania at the trial of Algirdas Paleckis former journalist and MP accused of espionage. They fill us in on the trial and what they saw there.They also discuss the COP in Glasgow and the depressing reluctance of rich countries to take meaningful action on the climateFinally, Covid never went away but it’s back in full swing- they discuss how governments are handling it and the need for room for debate around the vaccine pass. 

Clare and Mick are back in the Parliament, we discuss their recent trips.Clare fills us in about the report she just launched in Bulgaria and her visit there; Mick tells us about his trip to Nicaragua during the recent elections; Finally Clare has just been to Chios island in Greece where she met asylum seekers imprisoned on charges of people smuggling. She tells us the stories of the people she met in the prison there and the gross mistreatment of migrants by Greece, called “Europe’s shield” by EU Commission president Von der Leyen- is this what she meant?Read the report on rule of law in Bulgaria, Spain and France here: https://claredaly.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/BindingtheGuardian.pdf

Mick and Clare are just back from the Julian Assange trial in London. This week the podcast is all about journalism- what does it mean for the world when journalists can be jailed for exposing war crimes?Following on from that we discuss Taiwan and the lambasting Mick got last week for a video he put out on Taiwan and the One China policy. The One China policy is something accepted by the UN and the Irish government, yet somehow stating that now gets you described as a mouthpiece for the Chinese Communist Party…

Poland is causing trouble in the EU- the Polish government is being accused of interference with the judiciary and overstepping the mark in terms of EU law. Is this the EU getting involved in the sovereign issues of member states or is it simply a case of enforcing the rules of the game? This week Mick, Clare and Damien get into the some big questions about the EU- what are the limits of EU power and where should we be drawing the line?

Damien and Clare are missing this week and Ciara, Mick’s parliamentary assistant, is taking over as presenter. Mick gets his revenge for previous “censoring” of his jokes by telling a long story he heard about a priest… lord help us.We discuss rising energy prices and gas shortages as we come into the winter- how did we get here, and what comes next? Also on the agenda- EU relations with the Sahel, China, and Ethiopia, and the killing of protesters in Lebanon this week.