EU Confidential

For EU Green Week and EU Public Health Week, we go to an issue at the intersection of those themes: air quality.The World Health Organisation attributes up to seven million deaths annually to air pollution. The topic is getting political too, thanks to scandals like Dieselgate and a growing number of devices and apps that tell people exactly how exposed they are to the dangers.The EU is at the heart of these discussions: a would-be enforcer that doesn't do much enforcement, and which oversees contradictory monitoring systems. Here’s another thing to consider: unlike other deadly things you can breathe, like cigarette smoke, it’s a lot harder for individuals to control their exposure to air pollution. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We have a double-header this week: interviews with both Frans Timmermans (Socialist) and Margrethe Vestager (Liberal), two rivals to become European Commission president.Ryan Heath and Nazan Gökdemir jointly interviewed the candidates as part of a television series for ARTE, the franco-german television network.In the podcast panel Alva Finn and Lina Aburous debate whether it was right to offer Jean-Claude Juncker a "European of the Year" award at the European Business Summit this week, and a new documentary about the Brexit negotiations, based on two years of insider footage following around the European Parliament Brexit coordinator Guy Verhofstadt Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosted by Sarah Wheaton and featuring Corinna Horst, Lina Aburous, Jacinda Ardern and Lulwah Al Khater, this episode takes us from the Middle East to Mexico, and on to New Zealand, the United States and Rwanda to look at the challenges shared by women in politics, and what Europe can take away from those experiences. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode we offer you highlights from Monday's 95-minute EU presidential debate in Maastricht, co-moderated by EU Confidential host Ryan Heath. Five candidates debate on Digital Europe, Sustainable Europe and the Future of Europe.The podcast panel is back together to critique the debate and the five new far-right ministers who have joined the government of Estonia, even though two liberal parties won a majority of seats in the country's March election.If you want to here the full 95-minute presidential debate, you can listen to it at: https://soundcloud.com/ryanheatheu/2019-eu-presidential-debate-maastricht-full-length#t=7:49 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week it's a short episode: just a 20-minute interview with Manfred Weber, the person in pole position to succeed Jean-Claude Juncker as European Commission president later this year. The interview was conducted by POLITICO's Ryan Heath and Nazan Gökdemir, a journalist from the Franco-German TV station ARTE, part of a series of interviews with six presidential candidates. You can binge-watch all the interviews on politico.eu.We focus on Weber this week, because next week's podcast will be highlights of the Maastricht EU presidential debate, featuring all the candidates and parties except Oriol Junqueras (who is in in pre-trial detention in Spain) and Weber, who is skipping the debate to attend a celebration of Theo Waigel, his fellow Bavarian politician and a political mentor.Before the interview Ryan speaks to Andrew Gray, POLITICO's EU editor, about Weber's side of the story. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why do female candidates and politicians receive more negative coverage than men, and why are they seen as less newsworthy? In this episode we look at the case study of Italy with POLITICO reporter Silvia Sciorilli Borrelli, and speak to one of the most high profile members of the European Parliament Marietje Schaake. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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