MCC Brussels Podcast

Brussels insists it only acts where member states allow it. MCC Brussel's Deputy Research Director Philip Siegert shows that is simply untrue. h exists down with John O'Brien to talk about his latest report: Empire of Law: Pushing supranationalism beyond democratic legitimacy.For decades, EU institutions have quietly rewritten their own powers; through courts, crises, delegated acts and clever legal gymnastics,  creating a system where the centre expands and national democracy shrinks.This Deep Dive cuts through the mythology:• Competence creep is not an accident — it’s a methodCourts reinterpret treaties, the Commission legislates without legislators, and the Council ducks responsibility by outsourcing real decisions to the technocracy. The result is a Brussels that governs far beyond its mandate.• Crisis governance as a power machineFrom the Eurozone meltdown to COVID and now “values enforcement,” every emergency becomes an excuse for more centralisation. Whether the policy fits the crisis is irrelevant - the answer is always “more EU.”• Rule-of-law conditionality as political weaponryFunds can now be withheld from governments Brussels dislikes, on the basis of vague “country recommendations” and administrative judgments that never face democratic scrutiny.• And the warning that matters most:If this continues, Brexit will not remain an outlier. A Union that overrides sovereignty and ignores subsidiarity is a Union that erodes its own legitimacy.If Europe is to remain democratic, it must return to clear limits, respect for national self-government, and the principle that powers come from the member states, not despite them.Read the report here: https://brussels.mcc.hu/uploads/default/0001/02/406b613a4df11a5e76c55230e18034bbaa0a39bf.pdf

This week, MCC Brussels’ John O’Brien sits down with Leonardo Orlando. He is an  evolutionary psychologist, co-author of Sex, Science and Censure, and one of the harshest critics of gender ideology in Europe.Orlando makes a simple but devastating point: you can’t understand society if you pretend biology stops at the neck. Yet universities have built entire “gender” departments on the denial of basic human nature. The result? A flat-earth worldview masquerading as scholarship, and an academic culture terrified of the truth.In this Deep Dive, we explore:Why evolutionary science is now taboo in universities.Researchers are punished for stating biological facts, while ideologues with tenure churn out theories that collapse on contact with reality.How the censorship works.Orlando explains how hundreds of cancelled events and silenced researchers point to a global pattern, not isolated incidents, where dissenters are pushed out of academia altogether.What the science actually shows.Across cultures and across time, behavioural sex differences are robust, measurable, and rooted in evolution. The evidence is overwhelming, which is precisely why activists work so hard to suppress it.Why ignoring biology leads to bad policy.From domestic violence to fertility decline to the gender-neutral toy obsession, policymakers burn public money because they refuse to accept basic human nature.And the heart of the argument:Biology isn’t destiny — unless you ignore it.For anyone tired of ideological propaganda dressed up as scholarship, this conversation is a breath of fresh air.Follow MCC Brussels on social media:https://twitter.com/MCC_Brusselshttps://facebook.com/MCCBrusselshttps://linkedin.com/company/mcc-brussels/website:https://brussels.mcc.hu

This week, Jacob Reynolds is joined by Pieter Cleppe and Anthony Gilland to review 2025 – the populist surge, the elite fightback on speech and elections, and Europe’s growing weakness from Washington to Ukraine.Populists surge – and the public stops whisperingThe conversation opens on the mood-shift of 2025: farmer protests across Europe, citizens stepping in where the state won’t (including border pressure), and parents scrutinising what schools are teaching. They run through the electoral and polling picture – from anti-centralisation politics in Czechia to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, and a Germany where broken promises and a spending splurge fuel a protest mood and push the AfD higher in the polls.The elite fightback – Democracy Shield, “pre-bunking”, lawfareAs pressure rises, the panel argues Brussels reaches for control: the Democracy Shield’s language of “safeguarding” and “protecting” elections, and a wider push to police online discourse. They dig into “pre-bunking” as proactive narrative management (AI plus NGO fact-checkers), link it to the Digital Services Act, and discuss headline-grabbing interventions – including a major fine on X and the pattern of legal-institutional moves around high-stakes elections (from France to Romania).US–EU reality check – then the Brussels scandals pile upOn the global stage, they frame EU–US relations as a clash over regulation and values – with America increasingly hostile to Europe’s speech regime and Europe looking strategically irrelevant. Ukraine exposes that weakness: arguments over sanctions, Russian assets, and the EU’s limited leverage. Then the year’s “unmasking” theme returns via scandals – NGO funding and influence operations, Jean Monnet-style academic patronage, PfizerGate, and the College of Europe affair.Follow MCC Brussels on social media:https://twitter.com/MCC_Brusselshttps://facebook.com/MCCBrusselshttps://linkedin.com/company/mcc-brussels/website:https://brussels.mcc.hu

This week, Jacob Reynolds is joined by Philipp Siegert, Deputy Research Director at MCC Brussels, to unpack the EU’s migration pact blow-up, a College of Europe fraud probe, and the vandalism of Brussels’ Grand Place nativity scene. Pay up or take migrantsThe Commission sells the Pact on Migration and Asylum as “solidarity” – but the rollout is exposing open fractures across Europe. The Council is discussing relocation quotas (around 21,000) and a “solidarity contribution” of €20,000 for states that refuse to accept relocations, with Central European governments signalling pushback. The result is a policy that’s legally adopted, politically contested, and heading towards a confrontation that could run well past its planned June 2026 start date. A ‘quiet’ tender, then the real moneyA new scandal centres on the College of Europe and an EEAS-linked tender that allegedly stayed below a transparency threshold (around €143,000), before larger sums followed. The episode walks through how a dormitory requirement narrowed the field, how funding then jumped via additional grants (including ~€650,000) and later a much larger figure (~€960,000), and why investigators are now circling figures connected to the project. Defaced nativity, stolen JesusBrussels’ Grand Place nativity scene went “inclusive” – with faceless figures – and then got desecrated: the baby Jesus figure’s head was stolen and the tent was tagged “Free Palestine”, alongside reports of a major demonstration and clashes around the Christmas market opening. Philipp argues it’s not just vandalism, but a wider cultural pattern – a politics of deconstruction that leaves Europe’s Christian heritage permanently on the defensive. Follow MCC Brussels on social media:https://twitter.com/MCC_Brusselshttps://facebook.com/MCCBrusselshttps://linkedin.com/company/mcc-brussels/website:https://brussels.mcc.hu

Join Danish MEP Anders Vistisen, a crucial voice on immigration policy, as he reveals Denmark's unapologetic approach to migration. Discover how strict asylum rules and integration demands have shaped a cohesive society. Vistisen argues for the importance of language and civic values while highlighting the consequences of mismatched skills in the labor market. He advocates for open debate on immigration issues and shares lessons for other nations facing similar challenges. Denmark's model may not be ‘closed,’ but it's certainly a controlled success story.

This week, Jacob Reynolds is joined by Agnieszka Kolek and Richard Schenk to break down Brussels’ assault on X, Washington’s blunt verdict on Europe’s decline, and the Commission’s extraordinary pressure campaign against Belgium over frozen Russian assets.Brussels fines X to tame the last free platform.The Commission has slapped a €120 million penalty on Elon Musk’s platform, dressing it up as “transparency” enforcement. In reality, X is the only major network Brussels cannot control. It allows unfiltered footage, dissenting voices and inconvenient facts to circulate. So the EU is trying to discipline it through fines. America calls Europe a civilisation in decline.Washington’s new national security strategy says the quiet part out loud: Europe is losing confidence, population, and purpose. For all the EU’s grand rhetoric, the US sees a continent heading for demographic crisis and cultural fragmentation, while Central and Eastern Europe now look more stable than the West. The battle over Belgium’s Russian assets turns surreal.EU leaders insist Belgium must take on the entire financial risk of seizing frozen Russian funds to help Brussels fund the war in Ukraine.  A liability no other member state is willing to share. When Belgian leaders object, they are smeared as “pro-Russian.” It is less strategy than headless panic.  Brussels needs money for Ukraine, has none of its own, and is now bullying individual member states.

The gender lobby insists debate is forbidden. Institutions rewrite language. Women’s prisons, refuges and schools are paying the price -  and Europe’s political class looks the other way.In this Deep Dive, John O’Brien sits down with Kellie-Jay Keen (Posie Parker), one of the most outspoken defenders of women’s rights, for a blunt, unsparing conversation on how gender ideology captured institutions, intimidated feminists, and erased the very word woman.They discuss:• The moment she realised women were expected to stay silent• Why defining “woman” is now treated like blasphemy• How men are being placed in women’s prisons — and the cover-ups• Why the feminist movement caved so quickly• The indoctrination of a generation of children• What lawmakers must do if they wish to protect women and protect the truth• Why speaking plainly is now an act of civil courageHer message is simple:If you lose the word woman, you lose women.If you value open debate, freedom to speak plainly, and the protection of women and children, make sure to like, comment, and subscribe. It genuinely helps counter the algorithms that punish dissenting voices.And for more conversations like this, follow us every week on Deep Dives from MCC Brussels.

Register now for Europe’s most important conservative gathering: Battle for the Soul of Europe — 3–4 December in Brussels: https://soulofeurope.coThis week, Jacob Reynolds is joined by Richard Schenk and  Pieter Cleppe to tackle the EU’s revived chat control plan, the cold shower of COP30, and yet another Brussels values crusade against Hungary.Chat Control is backThe Commission has quietly revived proposals that would let authorities peer into your private messages. Encryption is being undermined and platforms are threatened with liability until they police speech for the EU. It is the surveillance state in all but name.COP30 ends in embarrassmentEurope’s leaders flew to Brazil to chant green slogans while the continent slides into deindustrialisation. China and India continue to raise emissions. The US has walked away. The EU keeps crippling its own industries and calls it leadership. Even developing nations pushed back against the Commission’s eco-fantasies.Another attack on HungaryThe Parliament returns to its favourite ritual. A new “rule of law” report built by activist NGOs and rubber-stamped by MEPs claims Hungary has violated EU values once again. As always, the target is national sovereignty and any government that refuses Brussels’ ideological line.Europe’s institutions are acting without restraint.From privacy to energy to democracy, this episode shows the scale of the challenge and the opportunity for a very different Europe.If you value open debate, like, comment and subscribe. The EU is tightening its grip on digital platforms and conservative voices need your support to stay heard.

For 30 years, COP summits have promised salvation and delivered nothing but slogans, moral posturing and declining European industry. At COP30, the same ritual repeats: frightened rhetoric, impossible targets, and yet more pressure on ordinary Europeans to pay for an ideology that refuses to face physics.Jacob Reynolds sits down with Samuele Furfari, engineer, former senior Commission official, and author of The Truth About COPs, 30 Years of Illusions, to dismantle the green mythology that Brussels treats as holy writ.Why have CO₂ emissions risen 65% since COP began?Why do China and India thrive while Europe de-industrialises?Why is “renewable energy” a fairytale built on fossil fuels?And why is the COP system, after three decades, little more than a travelling theatre for globalists who preach sacrifice while flying private?If you want to understand why Europe’s energy policy is collapsing, and what should replace the climatist dogma,  this conversation is essential.

Register now for Europe’s most important conservative gathering: Battle for the Soul of Europe — 3–4 December in Brussels: https://soulofeurope.coEurope Runs Out of Money for Ukraine, V4 Regroups, and the Parliament Tries to Police DemocracyThe EU’s crazy solution to fund the Ukraine warBrussels is scrambling to fund a war it can no longer afford. With budget deficits rising across Europe, EU leaders are eyeing frozen Russian assets held in Belgium. This move  could blow up the Euro’s credibility and trigger a financial backlash from Beijing to Jakarta. Our guests explain why this is not strategy but panic dressed up as policy.The Visegrad Four return?Hungary, Slovakia, Czechia and Poland may be rediscovering their shared interests: sovereignty, energy security, and a refusal to accept Brussels-imposed migration quotas. A new patriotic bloc could be forming and Europe’s establishment won’t like it.Parliamentary democracy, EU-styleThe European Parliament is preparing a conference on “democratic resilience.” Behind the slogans: new mechanisms to steer national parliaments, sideline elected MPs, and empower unelected civic bodies that nobody voted for. It’s Brussels’ favourite trick: manufacturing the appearance of democracy while weakening the real thing.This week, host Jacob Reynolds is joined by Richard Schenk and Agnieszka Kolek to examine the stories shaping Europe’s future.Thanks to everyone who likes and comments. Your support genuinely cuts through an algorithm that is still stacked against conservative and patriotic voices. Keep sharing , and we’ll keep making the case for common sense.Follow MCC Brussels on social media:https://twitter.com/MCC_Brusselshttps://facebook.com/MCCBrusselshttps://linkedin.com/company/mcc-brussels/website:https://brussels.mcc.hu