EU Scream

Policy differences between Europe and Africa have been widening, and while there may be warm words about a new partnership when the leaders of the EU and African Union meet in Brussels, there are unlikely to be breakthroughs on key African demands. One area where Europeans and Africans have long seen eye-to-eye is fighting jihadists, and Europe has not hesitated to ally with African autocrats who promise a measure of stability. Could Françafrique — the French sphere of influence that outlived the end of French colonialism — still be revived on a European scale, as Eurafrique? Nick Westcott is the director of the Royal African Society in London and he was the first managing director for Africa at the EU's European External Action Service. Faten Aggad is a senior advisor at the African Climate Foundation and she was formerly a senior advisor for negotiations with the EU with the African Union High Representative in Addis Ababa. Elissa Jobson is director for global advocacy at the International Crisis Group and she was previously the group’s main liaison with the African Union. The Open Society European Policy Institute partnered with EU Scream in making this episode.Support the show

Europe is green. Europe is humane. Europe has defeated populism. These views are common among the EU chattering classes. But they often seem more reflexive than reflective, and some of them amount to shibboleths — beliefs that are outmoded or no longer as useful as they once may have been. In this episode Mehreen Khan of the Financial Times unpacks the European shibboleths that rank among her favourites. Past episodes with Mehreen feature her commentary on race and strategic autonomy; her clairvoyant take on French President Emmanuel Macron's ugly side; and her own brush with his policies on Islam. Support the show

Freedom of information. Openness. Access to documents. These are names for laws people can use to ask authorities to share information and records. The European Union adopted its access regulation at the turn of this century. But as work went digital, the access rules have failed to keep pace. A lot still goes unrecorded. Or it goes unregistered, and can't be accessed easily, if at all. "There are very important pieces of information that are not coming out," says European Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly. The EU access regulation was part of efforts to build public trust. But lax enforcement may be exacerbating the very narrative the EU is seeking to overcome — that it's an elitist and unaccountable political project. Also in this episode: tax expert Martijne Nouwen on the mass deletion of European Commission emails; and journalist Alexander Fanta on messages about vaccine contracts on Ursula von der Leyen's phone.Support the show

Enrico Letta was prime minister of Italy for less than a year before he was ousted by a rival, Matteo Renzi. But a lot happened during Letta's time at the top. After six years in Paris, he's back in Italy and leading the centre-left Democratic Party with a conspicuously progressive agenda on issues like gender equality and LGBT+ rights. Speaking at the Global Progressive Forum, Letta describes the victim-shaming of Italy and Spain during the financial crisis — and he explains how a big bag of money from Brussels called NextGenerationEU may be helping heal the wounds. Letta also calls on the EU to make joint budget support permanent, and he suggests excluding Poland and Hungary from shared European migration and asylum policy to break the deadlock on the issue. Support the show

Liberal lawmaker Sophie in 't Veld says the European Union's survival depends on overcoming creeping sclerosis, ending acquiescence to autocrats, and embracing the kind of political spectacle that captures the public imagination. In her new book, The Scent of Wild Animals, Sophie writes that too much EU politics takes place behind closed doors, with no sensory experience for citizens. Her remedies include recasting the European Parliament's deference to the European Council and emboldening the Parliament to dismiss the European Commission when it fails to enforce EU law. "I see my colleagues looking at me as if I'm Che Guevara, you know, some very dangerous revolutionary or something," says Sophie, a four-term member of the European Parliament from the Dutch D66 party who recently withdrew from the race to lead Renew Europe. "But I wonder why?"Visit EU Scream for more episodes.  Support the show

With the next big climate conference about to get underway in Glasgow, major breakthroughs look elusive. Among the spectres at the feast are raging geopolitical tensions, high energy prices, the ongoing pandemic and — in the wake of Brexit — a lack of diplomatic vigour from Europe. Nick Mabey is a founding director of the non-profit environmental group E3G who helped create Britain's first environmental diplomacy network. Nick urges Europeans to do much more to leverage progress on climate protection by stepping up alliances with countries most vulnerable to the effects of global warming.Listen to an interview with Connie Hedegaard in part one of this two-part series on Europe and the climate. Support the show

Concerns are growing that the big climate conference in Glasgow next month will not do enough to avert climate breakdown. Obstacles to progress include international tensions between the US and China, and between the UK and Europe. Someone who knows first hand how hard it can be to make climate negotiations succeed in such conditions is Connie Hedegaard. In 2009 Connie presided over the Copenhagen climate conference that ended in rancour — and left Europe on the sidelines. Connie went on to become the first European commissioner for climate action at the European Commission where she used her role to help put global climate talks back on track. Among Connie's most urgent messages to policymakers ahead of Glasgow is to resist the temptation to derail the incipient green transition in response to skyrocketing energy prices. She warns that delays risk stoking further disenchantment with democracy — and could usher in a new era of radicalisation in Europe.  For more episodes, visit us at EU Scream.  Support the show

During the first few months of 2015 the world watched in awe — and often admiration — as a scrappy government in Athens tried to stare down Europe's financial and political establishment. The standoff failed spectacularly. Greece ended up with more loans on even tougher terms. In their bestselling book The Last Bluff, co-authors Viktoria Dendrinou and Eleni Varvitsioti judge the Greek government's strategy as doomed from the outset. But they also spotlight conflicts among Greece's creditors that inflicted undue suffering on ordinary citizens. In this first EU Scream Book Club, Eleni describes some of the characters her book brings to life, and its most memorable scenes, including the tragicomic denouement featuring François Hollande. For more episodes, visit us at EU Scream.  Support the show

This summer some 450 undocumented workers and migrants in Brussels refused food during two months. They were protesting Belgian immigration rules that human rights officials and campaigners like Lilana Keith of PICUM say arbitrarily obstruct them from legal and stable residency. The hunger strike provoked an outcry against the Belgian government. Yet there was no intervention from the European Union even though its headquarters is just 10 minutes away from the 17th century church that became the rallying point for supporters of the strikers. Albert Kraler, an assistant professor at Danube University Krems, says the EU has long been studiously silent about residency rights for the kinds of undocumented workers and migrants who led the Brussels protest. That's especially the case when regional upheavals like in Afghanistan could mean more irregular arrivals in Europe. Beethoven Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, by Papalin is licensed under CC by 3.0. Visit EU Scream for more episodes. Support the show

There is a double standard at the heart of the European Union’s powerful executive body, the European Commission. Women — mostly white women — benefit from affirmative action when applying for jobs. But people of colour seeking advancement do not benefit from special consideration. Commentator and columnist Shada Islam says the Commission’s progress on gender makes its foot-dragging on racial diversity less excusable than ever. Sarah Chander, a digital rights advocate and a co-founder of the Equinox Initiative for Racial Justice, discusses the moral panic over critical race theory that's spread to Europe.  This episode was made in partnership with The Brussels Binder under the BBBeyond project.Beethoven Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, by Papalin is licensed under CC by 3.0. Visit EU Scream for more episodes. Support the show