If Donald Trump wins today's election and carries through on his pledges to impose tariffs the EU needs to hit back with countermeasures and remain unified, Italian socialist MEP Brando Benifei tells Radio Schuman today. Trump's proposed 10% levy on EU goods could severely impact Europe’s export-dependent sectors, particularly automotive and machinery industries in countries like Germany, Italy, and Ireland. Benifei is a member of the parliamentary committee responsible for trade (INTA) and the ...
Nov 05, 2024•15 min•Season 2Ep. 50
Today Radio Schuman spoke with German Green MEP Daniel Freund, as he drove through Pennsylvania, the critical state where Joe Biden narrowly defeated Trump by just 1.2% in 2020, and where Harris and Trump are once again locked in a very tight contest. Brussels and Europe will hold their breath tomorrow as millions of Americans head to the polls for a pivotal election with global repercussions. The race is razor-thin between Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and her Republican opponent, Donald T...
Nov 04, 2024•14 min•Season 2Ep. 49
The EU will slap its new tariffs on electric vehicles imported from China for the next five years, but Beijing has been slammed the duties, filing an action with the WTO and launching anti-dumping investigations into European exports of brandy, pork and dairy products. Is this tug of war going to evolve into a full-fledge trade war? Could these tariffs slow down the energy transition and lead to fewer people buying EVs when combustion engines are supposed to be banned in 2035? If Donald Trump wi...
Oct 31, 2024•17 min•Season 2Ep. 48
The Petitions Committee (PETI) sees itself as a bridge between the EU and its citizens, drawing 35 MEPs from various political groups to review ordinary people's petitions. If these pass muster, MEPs can forward them to European Commission to consider legislative action. But a review of the committee’s activity from the previous legislative period raises questions. Over the last four years, Peti received only 6,991 petitions (1,357 in 2019 and 1,573 in 2022), a small number given the EU’s popula...
Oct 30, 2024•17 min•Season 2Ep. 47
Brussels and Tbilisi are growing increasingly distant: the recent election victory of the Georgian Dream party, marked by irregularities denounced by the opposition and EU observers, has deepened the mistrust. EU top diplomat Josep Borrell called to address electoral irregularities and implement reforms. Two laws have sparked significant debate in Brussels: the so-called "foreign agents" law, criticised as a tool to suppress freedom of civil society organizations, and a law limiting LGBTQ rights...
Oct 29, 2024•14 min•Season 2Ep. 46
On Saturday, Georgia held parliamentary election that have been framed as a "referendum" on the country's choice between Europe and Russia. The country’s Central Election said the pro-Russian ruling party, Georgian dream had won 53.92 percent of the votes. However, the opposition disputed those results, and international and European observers spoke of a climate of hatred, intimidations and voting irregularities. Euronews spoke with different sides, including Maka Botchorishvili an MP from the r...
Oct 28, 2024•25 min•Season 2Ep. 45
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has claimed the country is on course to join the EU and denied Russian influence, in an exclusive interview with Euronews on the eve of a crucial vote that he painted as a choice between war and peace. The poll comes at a crossroads for Georgia. Granted EU candidacy last year, Georgia's accession process was frozen after the government passed a controversial "foreign agents" law, similar to Russian legislation, which was panned European leaders. Another ...
Oct 25, 2024•18 min•Season 2Ep. 44
What is there to fear for the EU about the BRICS summit, the group whose swelling ranks now account for 45% of the global population and 28% of the world’s GDP? Established in 2009 by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, the group aimed to reduce reliance on the US dollar, but has evolved into a geopolitical counterbalance to the G7, with Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE joining, and NATO powerhouse Turkey looking to become a member. The current summit appears less a dis...
Oct 24, 2024•16 min•Season 2Ep. 43
On Monday (21 October), Moldovans narrowly voted in favour of continuing the country's path toward EU membership, with the "No" vote leading until the final moments. The country's president Maia Sandu condemned Russian interference and accused "criminal groups" of attempting to undermine the vote in the former Soviet republic. Moldova will now hold the second round of presidential elections next month, where Sandu will face a pro-Russian opposition leader. This has raised concerns in Brussels ab...
Oct 23, 2024•16 min•Season 2Ep. 42
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claims 10,000 North Korean troops are in training to support Russian forces in the war against Ukraine, risking the conflict escalating into a “world war”. European officials are yet to verify that, but if it's confirmed, there are fears North Korean involvement could intensify the war. Russia and its ally recently signed a partnership agreement to provide mutual military assistance in case of attack. Today we speak to senior Euronews reporter and Ukraine expert Sas...
Oct 22, 2024•16 min•Season 2Ep. 41
The current migration debate is largely dominated by EU countries seeking to delegate migration management outside European territory, making borders increasingly impenetrable for asylum seekers and intensifying the return of migrants to their countries of origin. But some countries including Spain or Belgium have also opposed the idea of outsourcing irregular migration and building migrant centres in non-EU countries. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in a news conference after the Euro...
Oct 21, 2024•17 min•Season 2Ep. 40
The high-stakes European Council summit concluded on Thursday, with migration policy dominating the agenda. For the first time, leaders discussed so-called "return hubs" — centres in third countries where migrants within the EU, whose asylum claims have been rejected and cannot be repatriated, would be held. This, along with discussions around the European Union's asylum and migration pact, set to be implemented in 2026, signalled that leaders were potentially radically rethinking how the bloc a...
Oct 18, 2024•14 min•Season 2Ep. 39
In today’s European Council, EU leaders will discuss mainly Ukraine, the Middle East, and migration. In particular, there is the implementation of the €50 billion loan agreed at the G7 and call for a ceasefire in Gaza, the release of hostages, continued humanitarian aid, and an end to Israel's attacks on UNIFIL in Lebanon. However, migration will be the summit's key issue, especially the bloc's Migration and Asylum Pact, set to be enforced by 2026. Some EU countries, under pressure from rising a...
Oct 17, 2024•18 min•Season 2Ep. 38
Today marks the first-ever summit between the EU and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which includes the UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, and Kuwait, part of the EU's new strategy to strengthen ties with Gulf countries, focusing on climate and trade relations. Radio Schuman brings you a part of our colleague Shona Murray's interview with Jasem Mohamed AlBudaiwi, Secretary General of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf. There's also a brief comment by European Commi...
Oct 16, 2024•13 min•Season 2Ep. 37
Is outsourcing migration management the new trend in Europe? In this episode, Radio Schuman examines the external dimension of migration by discussing the model of Italy’s new migration centres in Albania. The outsourcing of migration to non-EU countries has become a new trend, whether it is by sending money to countries of origin or by looking into the possibility of building processing centres outside of the EU borders. But are these options viable? Radio Schuman talks about this issue with Eu...
Oct 15, 2024•19 min•Season 2Ep. 36
In 2024, the EU's humanitarian aid amounted to €1.8 billion, and the bloc is now the largest international donor of humanitarian aid in Palestine. Yet the word "humanitarian" is mentioned only a handful of times in European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's mission letter to the future Commissioner for Preparedness and Crisis Management, who will lead the EU's humanitarian aid policy. Will humanitarian assistance be relegated to a less important matter in the next Commission? We talk t...
Oct 14, 2024•18 min•Season 2Ep. 35
Since European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced her proposals for the new batch of European Commissioners, the legal affairs committee, also known as JURI, has been in charge of examining the conflict of interest declarations for each candidate. However, many members of the committee from the Greens and The Left walked out of the meeting, arguing that the examination was a total scam as the Parliament has no real powers to investigate - so what is the point of scrutinising fin...
Oct 11, 2024•16 min•Season 2Ep. 34
In this podcast, Radio Schuman interviews Péter Magyar, leader of the Tisza party in Hungary, who has recently emerged as the only popular alternative to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán . Magyar spoke to Euronews political reporter Vincenzo Genovese in his office in Strasbourg, where the Hungarian MEP talked frankly about Orbán's media machine, his own court cases in Hungary and where he stands on Ukraine, migration, and relations with China. As the plenary session in Strasbourg wraps up later today...
Oct 10, 2024•16 min•Season 2Ep. 33
Halfway through its six-month rotating presidency, rather than playing the honest broker, Budapest has blocked many files, including the ones on aid to Ukraine. It further blocked a statement denouncing Moscow's media ban, and it voted against the EU’s plan to impose tariffs on electric vehicles. It's unclear what exactly broke the camel's back, but one thing is certain: the EU has lost its patience with Hungary. Yet on Tuesday, at a press conference ahead of this speech in Parliament, Orbán pla...
Oct 09, 2024•20 min•Season 2Ep. 32
Monday marked a year since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, which led Brussels to repeat its calls for a ceasefire and the immediate release of hostages. One year later, Europe is still not on the same page, and in just a few weeks, Kaja Kallas, the former Estonian prime minister, will become the EU's new foreign policy chief. But Kallas is known to be less committed and outspoken on the Middle East than the current High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Jo...
Oct 08, 2024•18 min•Season 2Ep. 31
Last Friday, EU countries agreed to impose definitive tariffs on imports of electric cars from China, a move with far-reaching implications for the bloc's trade policy with Beijing, the future of the EU's car industry and, most importantly, Berlin's influence in Brussels. In an unprecedented move, Germany was one of only five other European countries to vote against the tariffs, as Berlin feared a "yes" would lead to a trade war with China — is this a sign that Germany is losing influence among ...
Oct 07, 2024•16 min•Season 2Ep. 30
Last Sunday, Austria’s Freedom Party (FPÖ) became the latest far-right political group to win a national election in Europe. The party now faces a familiar challenge encountered by many of its counterparts across the continent: will it form a coalition with the centre-right Austrian People's Party? Will Herbert Kickl become Austria’s next Chancellor, or will he be sidelined? Political analyst Cas Mudde contends that while far-right prime ministers remain relatively rare, the traditional "cordon ...
Oct 04, 2024•23 min•Season 2Ep. 29
With the ongoing escalation of violence in the Middle East, the number of displaced individuals continues to rise rapidly. The UN refugee agency UNHCR has reported that thousands of Lebanese and Syrian refugees in Lebanon have already fled towards the Syrian border to escape Israeli strikes. Experts warn that the current situation could mirror the 2015 refugee crisis, when the Syrian conflict forced many to seek refuge in Europe. However, this time the EU may be less willing to accommodate a new...
Oct 03, 2024•16 min•Season 2Ep. 28
In Brussels, exit interviews are often particularly insightful, especially with a commissioner responsible for a complex portfolio where decision-making predominantly rests with individual governments. While Kyriakides did not always assume a central public role during the COVID-19 crisis, her team was tasked with overseeing vaccine procurement in Europe and introducing numerous other significant legislations. These included the EU’s Cancer Master Plan, the extension of smoking bans to outdoor a...
Oct 02, 2024•15 min•Season 2Ep. 27
Austria’s far-right Freedom Party, or FPÖ, led by Herbert Kickl, is one of Europe's biggest opponents of migration, including ending asylum rights and promoting “remigration” — a vague concept of shipping foreigners away to protect what sounds like its racial and religious purity. Even without the FPÖ in power, the Alpine country already enforces strict immigration laws and has abstained or voted against some key files of the EU’s migration pact so far. If the FPÖ forms a coalition with the cent...
Oct 01, 2024•17 min•Season 2Ep. 26
As EU Ombudsman since 2013, Emily O'Reilly oversees an independent body tasked with holding EU institutions accountable. She investigates cases of maladministration, either on her own initiative or in response to complaints from EU citizens. O'Reilly has also urged the Commission to combat secrecy, which she argues undermines public trust. In 2022, her office criticised Ursula von der Leyen's undisclosed text messages with Pfizer's CEO during the COVID-19 pandemic. More recently, she called for ...
Sep 30, 2024•18 min•Season 2Ep. 25
Two years ago, the EU adopted a ground-breaking deforestation law, set to take effect in January, aiming to ban imports of products linked to forest loss, such as coffee, soy, timber, and cocoa. The regulation requires suppliers to certify that their goods are not sourced from areas that were recently stripped of woods to make way for farms and plantations. While supported by environmental groups and left-leaning politicians, it has faced opposition from governments, trading partners, and conser...
Sep 27, 2024•20 min•Season 2Ep. 24
Ursula von der Leyen’s decision to nominate Olivér Várhelyi raised many an eyebrow in Brussels — and elicited a couple of hearty chuckles. When the European Commission president made the announcement during a press conference in Strasbourg earlier this month, it drew laughter from journalists and sent EU-themed meme-making social media accounts into overdrive. Várhelyi, a former Commissioner for enlargement, was Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s preferred candidate for a second term. However, given ...
Sep 26, 2024•12 min•Season 2Ep. 23
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen unveiled her plans for the new top team at the European Commission last week, but the reactions were mixed. Many politicians argued that the portfolios were too broad and overlapped each other. The fear is that the upcoming commissioners will constantly step on each other's toes, as many did in the previous mandate. But the underlying question might actually be: why do we need 27 Commissioners? What would have to change at the political and admi...
Sep 25, 2024•15 min•Season 2Ep. 22
Last week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen chose Lithuania's former Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius as the EU’s first defence commissioner. The EU does not have strong army and is not responsible for each member state's armed forces. Yet, defence has become a crucial issue in Europe, especially since Russia's war in Ukraine highlighted the bloc’s weak and fragmented defence industry. Will the position of defence Commissioner be powerful and independent enough to achieve an EU ...
Sep 24, 2024•18 min•Season 2Ep. 21
