Episode 26 of POLITICO's EU Confidential podcast has just been released, featuring a deep dive into the EU's capital city. We discuss how to improve Brussels as a city with regional minister Pascal Smet and debate the thorny topic of racial diversity in the EU bubble. Brussels the "whore": There's no doubt Smet has a way with words. He compares Brussels, a city and region he hopes to transform, "with a whore, with a prostitute." He says the city is "attractive and at the same time unattractive. ...
Dec 14, 2017•43 min•Ep. 28
Former European Council President Herman Van Rompuy talks to host Ryan Heath about the future of the EU in this week's episode. EU reform and Brexit haiku: Since leaving office, Van Rompuy has been shepherding a major report on the future of the EU, the New Pact for Europe, in the name of several leading foundations and think tanks. In a challenge almost as daunting, he has composed a haiku about Brexit especially for EU Confidential listeners. Hear the haiku — in English and in Dutch — in this ...
Dec 07, 2017•39 min•Ep. 27
This week's show features back-to-back interviews with the European commissioner for health, Vytenis Andriukaitis, who is also a heart surgeon, and Bernhard Uhl, the head of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Glyphosate politics: Speaking just after the EU reapproved the use of glyphosate, Uhl, whose EFSA agency concluded there is no health risk associated with agricultural use of the weedkiller, said it's nevertheless legitimate to discuss what kind of value system should support our ag...
Nov 30, 2017•49 min•Ep. 26
Episode 23 of POLITICO's EU Confidential podcast features Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee. This week, we've got two feature interviews for you. As well as Bach, there's Adecco Group board member Stephan Howeg. We also talked to POLITICO's Florian Eder about the recent political developments in Germany. German twists and turns: Florian Eder gives us a recap of what happened last week when the liberal FDP party quit the German coalition talks after weeks of explor...
Nov 23, 2017•43 min•Ep. 25
Episode 22 of POLITICO's EU Confidential podcast features Eldar Sætre, the CEO of Norway's oil and gas company Statoil. We spoke to Sætre on November 9, after the COP23 global climate conference had kicked off in Bonn, Germany, but before Norway's $1 trillion sovereign wealth fund proposed dropping investments in oil and gas stocks. We also chatted with POLITICO's Sara Stefanini, who has spent the week in Bonn reporting on the climate conference. Paging Rex Tillerson: Sætre says the future of hi...
Nov 16, 2017•39 min•Ep. 24
Host Ryan Heath interviews Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the head of Greece's New Democracy party and opposition leader in parliament. The outsider and the Mitsotakis dynasty: The opposition leader is the son of a former Greek prime minister, Konstantinos Mitsotakis, yet ran for the party leadership with virtually no support from fellow MPs. Instead, he won in an open primary thanks to support from ordinary Greek center-right voters rather than party elites. “My career is not the typical career of a prof...
Nov 09, 2017•33 min•Ep. 23
Ryan Heath interviews Rolf Falter, a historian who has worked across the Belgian and EU political landscapes: from adviser, to journalist, to get-out-the-vote advocate, to author of a new book on Europe. The dangers of absolute identity: Falter argues that one of the good things about fragmented Belgian identities is that they show how difficult and dangerous it can be to identify 100 percent with one region, one party, one identity. "None of us is a hundred percent British, or 100 percent Germa...
Nov 02, 2017•37 min•Ep. 22
Episode 19 of EU Confidential features a special discussion on the issue of sexual harassment and assault in the EU Brussels bubble. The podcast also includes an interview with European Commission Vice President for Energy Union Maroš Šefčovič, in which we discuss everything from batteries to Brexit. Harassment allegations: Joanna Maycock from the European Women's Lobby explains why she thinks the wave of recent allegations can lead to positive change. Host Ryan Heath and panelist Ailbhe Finn ta...
Oct 26, 2017•46 min•Ep. 21
Episode 18 of POLITICO's EU Confidential podcast features an interview with European Commissioner Vĕra Jourová, who leads the EU's work on data protection among her many responsibilities as commissioner for justice, consumer rights and gender equality. We also remember Daphne Caruana Galizia: Controversial and crusading, Malta's most famous journalist Caruana Galizia was killed by a car bomb Monday afternoon. EU Confidential speaks with Paul Dallison and Harry Cooper, two POLITICO journalist who...
Oct 19, 2017•37 min•Ep. 20
Episode 17 of POLITICO's EU Confidential podcast features back-to-back interviews with Karl-Heinz Lambertz, president of the European Committee of the Regions, and George Kaminis, the center-left mayor Athens. Theresa May — Not dead yet: We start by getting out of the Brexit weeds in a conversation with Paul Taylor, POLITICO's Europe-at-large columnist. Taylor takes us through the debate in London following Theresa May's refusal to say whether she would vote for Brexit today, and argues that the...
Oct 12, 2017•43 min•Ep. 19
Host Ryan Heath talks to POLITICO's chief Europe correspondent Matthew Karnitschnig about a homegrown journalism experiment: POLITICO's first Global Policy Lab. We convened labor and economics experts, executives and union representatives, along with regular POLITICO readers, to develop stories about how Europe can engineer growth, and in particular to develop real policy prescriptions for how Germany's old world manufacturing base could survive the country's demographic crisis. Robots to the re...
Oct 05, 2017•42 min•Ep. 18
In a special episode this week, we feature interviews from both sides of the Catalan independence debate ahead of the Catalan regional government's referendum, planned for Sunday. Ryan Heath interviews Jorge Toledo Albiñana, Spain's secretary of state for European affairs, who makes the case for Spanish unity, as well as Amadeu Altafaj, the Catalan government's representative to the EU, who accuses Madrid of using repressive tactics that breach EU law. Ryan also speaks to POLITICO Europe's manag...
Sep 28, 2017•46 min•Ep. 17
Host Ryan Heath interviews Toni Cowan-Brown, a vice president at NationBuilder, the software company that has powered election campaigns for Emmanuel Macron's party, Theresa May, Bernie Sanders and even Belgian communists. Also this week: POLITICO's Florian Eder looks ahead to the German election. Smashing political barriers: Cowan-Brown explains how political software is dramatically lowering the money and time it takes to launch movements and campaigns. Analog Germany: But the company is not w...
Sep 21, 2017•44 min•Ep. 16
Ryan Heath interviews Tomáš Valášek, the former Slovakian ambassador to NATO who heads the Carnegie Europe think tank. As Russia begins its Zapad war game, the West should be worried about Moscow “downright lying about the size and the type” of military exercises it holds, Valášek says. But he also says that fears Moscow will use the exercise as a springboard to attack or invade a neighbor are overblown. Valášek said the EU has finally upped its defense cooperation game in a meaningful way, and ...
Sep 14, 2017•46 min•Ep. 15
Host Ryan heath talks to David McAllister, head of the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee and a key ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. McAllister says the U.K.'s decision to leave the EU is a "historic mistake" and Turkey's authoritarian drift is “appalling." He also says the EU cannot slam the door on the membership aspirations of Western Balkan countries. McAllister says that while “there aren't many people who really believe that Martin Schulz could become German chancellor...
Sep 07, 2017•44 min•Ep. 14
Regular host Ryan Heath is back with an interview with Michael O’Flaherty, the head of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency. The interview, recorded at the European Alpbach Forum in Austria, looks at why human rights defenders have failed to make more headway in the face of populist challenges. O'Flaherty also talks about the European Commission's fights with Poland and Hungary and why he regrets Brexit from a human-rights perspective. Also on the podcast this week, POLITICO's energy and climate edi...
Aug 31, 2017•39 min•Ep. 13
While regular host Ryan Heath recovers from his holiday jet lag, news editor Andrew Gray presents an interview with former Irish PM John Bruton on Brexit, a roundup of the latest on Britain's departure from the EU, and discussion of stories from across the Continent. We start with POLITICO's Brexit editor James Randerson, who brings us up to date on the flurry of Brexit position papers released by the U.K. government as well as the EU's official reaction — and what it really thinks. Bruton, the ...
Aug 24, 2017•37 min•Ep. 12
Regular host Ryan Heath is on holiday but the podcast rolls on with news editor Andrew Gray standing in once more. This week, we've dug into the archives again to bring you the highlights of a conversation between Ryan and General Petr Pavel, the head of NATO's military committee, at a Playbook event in June. Pavel talks about Turkey, Russia and defense spending among NATO allies. Germany's Social Democrats want to make military spending a key issue in their campaign to stop Chancellor Angela Me...
Aug 17, 2017•36 min•Ep. 11
Europe might be slowing down for the summer but we're still going strong. Regular host Ryan Heath is on holiday so news editor Andrew Gray stands in this week. We've raided the archive to bring you something a bit different — Emmanuel Macron, before he was famous. Well, before he was French president, or even a presidential candidate. Last year, soon after founding the movement that would help propel him to power, Macron sat down for a chat with Ryan and senior Paris correspondent Pierre Brianço...
Aug 10, 2017•42 min•Ep. 10
This week, host Ryan Heath sits down with Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the former NATO secretary-general and now adviser to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. Rasmussen talks defense spending, Trump and how to handle Russia. And he reveals why we should spend our summer holiday in Denmark.David Herszenhorn, POLITICO's chief Brussels correspondent, brings us up to date with events in Ukraine and Russia.In our "EU WTF" section, our Brussels brains trust, Lina Aburous and Ailbhe Finn, discuss the case...
Aug 03, 2017•48 min•Ep. 9
This week Violeta Bulc, the European transport commissioner and a taekwondo black belt, explains why she’d have Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary as a Brexit negotiator to make sure planes can still fly from the U.K. to the EU and vice versa the day after Brexit. Bulc is also passionate about drones and tells us why there should be millions of them, why they need to be regulated and how she plans to do it. You'll also hear what it takes to establish a cross-border fast train link, and so why many obvi...
Jul 27, 2017•43 min•Ep. 8
This week Mark Scott, POLITICO Europe's new chief technology correspondent, talks to us about the trends he sees as tech companies deal with the reality that their libertarian early days are coming to an end and regulators confront them in the name of protecting citizens' and national interests. Taavet Hinrikus, the Estonian member of the 2016 POLITICO 28 list who helped build Skype and went on to found and run TransferWise, is our main interview guest. Hinrikus explains how he sees the future o...
Jul 20, 2017•37 min•Ep. 7
This week Christian Oliver, POLITICO Europe's trade editor, talks us through the astonishing speed with which the EU completed its trade deal with Japan, and why future trade deals will not be so easy. Marietje Schaake, a Dutch liberal member of the European Parliament and member of the 2017 POLITICO 28 list, tells us why she thinks a data flows chapter could still be added into the Japan trade deal, why she thinks protestors at the G20 summit have no excuse for their violence, and why she is so...
Jul 13, 2017•37 min•Ep. 6
Host Ryan Heath, author of POLITICO's Brussels Playbook, talks to journalist Frances Robinson about the things Brexit has already wrecked — before it’s even happened. Frances reveals how it's ruined the British dating scene, and why many of Jeremy Corbyn's fans might be in for a shock when they realize what he really thinks about Brexit.Victoria Espinel, CEO of BSA, the world's biggest alliance of software companies, discusses the politics — and awesome power — of data.Our Brussels brains trust,...
Jul 06, 2017•37 min•Ep. 5
Host Ryan Heath speaks to Ángel Gurría, secretary-general of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), who explains why it will take more than austerity to get the world economy growing faster — and why his organization has to get more political to be useful in an era of populist complaints. POLITICO competition and tech reporter Nicholas Hirst breaks down the debate around the European Commission's decision to fine Google €2.42 billion and demand the search giant change...
Jun 29, 2017•38 min•Ep. 4
After two pilot shows, host Ryan Heath brings you the first official episode of POLITICO’s new podcast all about the EU and European politics. Ryan talks to European trade commissioner Cecilia Malmström about Trump, Brexit, China and more. Following the start of Brexit negotiations this week, we cut through the spin with POLITICO’s Brexit news editor James Randerson. And Ryan is joined by Ailbhe Finn and Lina Aburous from his Brussels brains trust to talk about an EU court ruling on soya milk, t...
Jun 22, 2017•42 min•Ep. 3
Host Ryan Heath gets some tips for Brits from Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg about what it's like to be closely linked to the EU but not part of the club. POLITICO Europe news editor Andrew Gray and Brussels reporter Harry Cooper discuss the U.K. general election and its impact on the Brexit talks. And Ryan calls in two members of his Brussels brains trust, Ailbhe Finn and Lina Aburous to talk about proposals to construct a new European Parliament building and the plight of unpaid interns...
Jun 18, 2017•36 min•Ep. 2
In this pilot episode of POLITICO's new podcast, EU Confidential, host Ryan Heath talks to European Commissioner Pierre Moscovici about the future of the euro — and about what he would do if he wasn't a politician. Ryan discusses issues behind the interview with POLITICO finance reporter Bjarke Smith-Meyer and gets the views of his Brussels brains trust on EU stories big and small. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/a...
Jun 13, 2017•41 min•Ep. 1
A sneak preview of the new podcast from Politico Europe. Coming soon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jun 05, 2017•1 min
