EU Confidential

Double-header this week: socialist candidate for European Commission president Frans Timmermans and the European Commissioner for sport, education and culture, Tibor Navracsics. The panel debates Britain's mid-life crisis a.k.a Brexit Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We talk to Carlos Moedas, European Commissioner for innovation, research and science, about his passion for zero-emission cities, artificial intelligence and blockchain. The panel debates the Yellow Jackets eco-tax protest movement in France, and Denmark’s plan to send migrant criminals to an isolated island. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We return to the theme of diversity in Brussels, a year after POLITICO’s Brussels So White article series, which looked at racial diversity and related themes in the EU’s de facto capital.The interview guests are two high-ranking lobbyists and public relations strategists, Lisa Ross and Gurpreet Brar from Edelman, who speak about their personal experiences of Brussels as people of color.Ross told us that “it is really important to not flip the dominance. I sent off a team to do a multimillion-dollar pitch. They were all women. And as we were preparing, I worried 'oh my God, we've got an all-female team' because isn't that the same as having an all-male team? Isn't that the same as having an all-white team?”Brar said: “My identity is extremely complex. I grew up in a household of Indian parents, ate Indian food. I listened to Bollywood music. I watch Ru Paul’s drag race and I was a gay man that was trying to deal with my sexuality growing up in a very, very impoverished area of Birmingham (U.K.). So my identity is not one single layer. It's like almost like an onion”He added: “I am British, but I am also European. I'm really not going anywhere. We're still going to have to live in this environment together, so how do we then make sure that we are living positively?”In the panel we discuss how Hillary Clinton’s entry into Europe’s migration debate backfired and the emergence of a conservative wing in European civil society. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Greens are riding high as they gather in Berlin this weekend for their co-candidates for European Commission president in 2019. A string of national and regional electoral successes in Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg are the reason for the positive mood. But the Greens are also only a tiny force in much of the EU.This episode features Ska Keller, Bas Eickhout and Petra Sutter: the three candidates competing for the Green nomination. They pitch to you why it’s time to go green, what they’re doing to change the status quo in Europe, and what they’ll do if, as seems likely, they poll in the single digits across Europe and miss out on the top job. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rose Gottemoeller, NATO's deputy-secretary general, is our main guest this week. She's the highest-ranking female official in the history of the military alliance — or, as Gottemoeller herself puts it, "the first deputy secretary-general of NATO who happens to be a woman.”Gottemoeller talks about Russia’s turn from the west, and how attitudes to women have changed in the national security world since she began her career in the 1970s — and what needs to happen to change them further.Our Brussels Brains Trust of Lina Aburous and Alva Finn debate the big stories of the week — Theresa May's fight for political survival after sealing a Brexit deal, and Angela Merkel's speech to the European Parliament outlining her vision for the EU. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our main guest is Bill Browder, once the largest foreign investor in Russia but now a fierce critic of Vladimir Putin. He’s the driving force behind the Magnitsky Act — legislation designed to impose severe financial and travel sanctions on human rights abusers. Browder tells our chief Brussels correspondent, David Herszenhorn, the story behind the act and how he’s trying to bring it into the EU.Also this week, the European People’s Party chose Manfred Weber as its lead candidate for the European Parliament election. But how much of a contest was it? Weber looked to have it wrapped up from the start. Our Brussels Brains Trust debates the best way to pick political candidates.We also chew over what the U.S. midterms mean for Europe — and how worried Europe should be about Russian interference in elections.With Ryan Heath getting married (again — same husband, different continent!), news editor Andrew Gray fills in as host. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With Europe's eyes glued to Berlin this week as the effects of Angela Merkel's partial retirement are digested, this podcast episode looks at what happens now that she has more time to devote to EU-level challenges and reforms, but less political capital to spend on them. And what of Europe's increasingly fragmenting political center? A different European party runs each of the five biggest EU countries. The biggest party, the EPP, runs only one of the 12 biggest countries — Germany.Our interview guest this week is the left-wing Swedish MEP Malin Björk, one of the key players in Brussels on the EU’s controversial and sometimes unenforced refugee policies. She made the issue her priority because “it's a matter of life and death ... what kind of continent are we going to be?”In general, Björk doesn’t like the direction the EU is headed in, and she isn’t afraid to say so. She supports a 50-50 Parliament in terms of gender and in 2014 encouraged others on board a plane to refuse to buckle their seatbelts after she realized a fellow passenger was set to be deported to Iran.Our podcast panel picks the words they think sum up Merkel's legacy and savors this photo of European political grandees: https://twitter.com/ManfredWeber/status/1055842523736915968. Can you spot the poodle? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

First up Justine Maillot from the Surfrider Foundation, a group of activists pushing for healthy oceans from the bottom-up. Then we speak to Davide Magnana who is trying to build an industry based on wave and tidal power, and Werner Hoyer, president of the European Investment Bank: the man Europe turns to when it doesn't have enough money to solve a pressing problem. Finally, European commissioner Karmenu Vella speaks of oceans as “a goldmine we instead treat like a landfill.” Our podcast panel this week discusses the cultural reasons why our public debates seem to be careening out of control. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bill Gates — billionaire tech founder turned philanthropist — is the main guest on this week's podcasts. We focus on why Europe is an aid superpower, what support Africa needs to cope with its exploding population, and why there's reason to believe the world is getting better. The podcast panel compares the world views of Gates and the nationalists winning support across Europe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a wide-ranging interview Weber says Brussels is a "black box" that is disconnected from most Europeans (though he leads its biggest party in the European Parliament). His campaign pitch puts a premium on changing how the job of European Commission president is done: “When there are fires in Sweden or in Portugal and people dying in Greece, I think a commission president must be there to show up, to be present with the concerns of the people," Weber said. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices