Talking Europe

FRANCE 24 English
FRANCE 24 English
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Politicians, activists and researchers debate the issues facing the EU and a 'guest of the week' offers their insight in a long-format interview that gets to the heart of the matter. Saturday at 7:15pm.

  1. 2d ago

    'We have to close defence gaps urgently': EU Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee chief McAllister

    We sit down with David McAllister, the chair of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee. He talks to us about the security threats facing Europe, and what defence gaps the EU urgently needs to close. For McAllister, the EU is "not at war with the Russian Federation, but we are no longer at peace with Russia". He also believes that the EU is not, as yet, capable of making sovereign decisions in certain areas of defence "because we are too dependent on US capabilities." Asked about the worsening security situation that Europe faces, McAllister says: "We need to establish a fully fledged European defence by the end of this decade. We need to be able to defend ourselves against all the imminent threats we are facing. And that means spending more, but also spending more effectively, because it is taxpayers' money that we are spending in large numbers. There are certain military capabilities that we don't have in Europe, for the time being. There are fields in which we have to move ahead. I'm talking about ammunition and anti-drone systems. I'm talking about satellite intelligence. I'm talking about air-to-air refuelling. I'm talking about air defence in general. These are fields where we are not in a situation to take sovereign decisions because we are too dependent on US capabilities. We have to close these gaps urgently." Speaking of threats, McAllister asserts that "we are not at war with the Russian Federation, but we are longer at peace with Russia. We have every day, every week, violations of our airspace, attacks on our critical infrastructure, cyberattacks. That is also why it was so positive that the Federal Republic of Germany got the immediate solidarity of all 26 other member states (after the drone attack on Leipzig airport, attributed to Russian special services). An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us. And that's why it's correct to sanction the Russian Federation, to further sanction individuals, but also to come up with new additional ideas for how we can better protect our critical infrastructure." We ask about German Chancellor Friedrich Merz leading the charge to secure hundreds of billions of euros in cuts from the proposed EU budget, also known as the Multiannual Financial Framework, or MFF.  Would Merz's proposal not hurt cohesion, regional development and social spending that EU member states actually benefit from?  "We are now entering crunch time, and we still have a lot of work ahead of us," McAllister concedes. "There will be controversial debates, but I'm very sure that in the end, as always, there will be a last-minute solution. If you look back over the last 10, 15, 20 years, there have always been heated discussions about the size and the dimension of the MFF and who will pay how much and for what. [EU Council President] Antonio Costa has been clear. He wants an agreement on the next MFF, starting on the 1st of January in 2028. I would welcome that because we need the year 2027 for the necessary legislative work and so that everyone who receives EU money has clarity and can plan better for the years 2028 to 2034." In Germany, the far-right AfD party surged in recent regional elections in Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-West Pomerania. What are the implications for conservatives, for Christian Democrats and for the European People's Party?  "We have different political conditions in the 27 member states, and we have different strategies," McAllister says. "I can only say, as a German Christian Democrat, our strategy towards the AfD is that if we are convinced of something and we propose legislation, and by chance the AfD supports it, then we accept this. But they are our policies. We never support proposals coming from the AfD. We never actively engage with the AfD. We are strictly against this. Why? Because the AfD is questioning the fundamentals of the Federal Republic of Germany and also of the European Union. They are against the EU. They are against the euro. They are against NATO. They are pro-Putin and they are following a right-wing populist radical course. And that is not where the EPP should be. We are the party of common sense and that is in the centre." Programme prepared by Isabelle Romero, Perrine Desplats, Paul Guianvarc'h, Agnès Le Cossec and Florine Hausfater

  2. 2d ago

    A grim winter ahead? EU states asked to prepare gas and electricity savings

    Alarm bells are ringing about fuel prices across the EU. The average cost of diesel per litre is well above €2, whereas in October of last year it was around €1.50. Even before this latest spike, the cost of living was already biting, and it seems that the conflict in the Middle East is not going to give Europeans much respite as the winter draws closer. We review what EU member states have done to cushion the blow of rising energy prices for ordinary people, and whether those measures have been effective. Programme prepared by Isabelle Romero, Perrine Desplats, Paul Guianvarc'h, Agnès Le Cossec and Florine Hausfater

  3. Sep 25

    'Moldova is the best performer in my class': EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos

    The EU has gone through seven waves of enlargement since 1973, but there has not been one since Croatia joined in 2013. Indeed, there are not likely to be any new members in the club before 2028 – some 15 years after Croatia entered. But 2026 undeniably has momentum, and is on track to be a record year in terms of opening and closing new chapters for existing applicants. That is why our guest, EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos, sees this as "the year of the enlargement." "Montenegro, which is really the frontrunner, could finish technical negotiations at the end of the year, and then become a member in 2028," Kos says. "Albania is well on the way. Moldova is delivering better and better and, of course, also Ukraine. So these are the four frontrunners. But when we say that this is the year of the enlargement, I mean that in the nine months of this year, we have opened and closed more chapters than in any previous year in the last 25 years." But there's a distinction between the frontrunner and the best student. Kos says that Moldova "is the best performer in my class," taking into account that it started the process much later than applicant countries in the Balkans. Speaking of the Balkans, Kos admits that there is uneven implementation of reforms, which could lead to €330 million in EU funding shifting away from the weakest performers. "We will see how much money we will reallocate," Kos says. "Montenegro, for instance, has a 91 percent implementation rate of reforms to date. But then we also have Bosnia and Herzegovina with a zero (rate), because their politicians are not able to ratify two important agreements which would enable us to pay the money," Kos explains. "You know, our European Union is not a charity. So in order to be able to help their economies and societies to develop, they have to deliver the reforms, and we only give the money if they are doing this." We turn to Serbia, which has been an EU candidate since 2012, but which has had a turbulent relationship with Brussels. According to Kos, "the trust between EU member states and Serbia was broken even more with the glorification of the war criminal Ratko Mladic at his funeral, which is really unacceptable. And that's also why I cancelled my planned mission to Serbia. We can have different opinions on how fast a country should make reforms. But there is no space for the glorification of a war criminal, or for denying the genocide in Srebrenica. We expect all the EU candidates, especially those from the Western Balkans, to walk the way of reconciliation. But sometimes I have the feeling that, instead of healing the wounds of the past, leaders are rubbing salt into those wounds." Of course, enlargement is not only about the EU's closest neighbours. While Georgia's EU bid has stalled, Armenia is increasingly eyeing EU membership as an attractive option – even though it has not formally applied. "We are helping Armenia, especially now when Russia stopped importing many Armenian products. So we are helping Armenia to redirect its exports to the European Union. We are also in the process of visa liberalisation. This means that Armenians would be able to travel to the EU without a visa. So now they have to align a lot of legislation, and they are doing great work. I'm full of admiration for the people of Armenia. It is not easy but, with the result of the last parliamentary elections, they have clearly shown that they want to be on the European path."

  4. Sep 25

    Climate breakdown: Is the EU adapting to the new normal? Europe's summer of disasters

    It has been called Europe's disaster year. 2026 has seen more than 30,000 excess deaths linked to heatwaves, along with mega wildfires, nuclear power plants having to shut down, gas plants under pressure, droughts reducing hydropower generation from rivers and wild fluctuations in electricity prices, not to mention major disruptions to crops and farming in general. So is the EU adapting effectively to the new normal of climate breakdown? And are the plans announced by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on a "heatwave plan" and related measures credible? We put the question to two MEPs. Programme prepared by Perrine Desplats, Isabelle Romero and Agnès Le Cossec

  5. Sep 18

    We’re ideally placed to chair EU budget negotiations, says Irish Minister of State

    Ireland is managing a jam-packed agenda as the current holder of the rotating presidency of the EU. We caught up with the country’s Minister of State for European Affairs, Thomas Byrne, who was in Strasbourg for the 2026 State of the Union speech and debate with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. We discussed key points from that address, such as a proposed ban on social media access for children, which Ireland is keen to push forward with during its EU presidency. On talks coming up on the 2028-2034 EU budget, Byrne says that Ireland is ideally positioned to be a broker because, while it is now a net contributor to the budget, "we were until relatively recently a net recipient of EU funds, so we’ve seen both sides of the picture." "We tend to be quite pragmatic about all of this," Byrne says.   Programme produced by Perrine Desplats, Florine Hausfater and Agnès Le Cossec.

  6. Sep 18

    Ursula von der Leyen’s sixth State of the Union speech: A grand sweep, but thin on details?

    In this episode, we debrief one of the key annual events in the EU calendar: the State of the Union speech. It was Ursula von der Leyen’s sixth such address as President of the European Commission, and the second State of the Union speech of her second mandate. We home in on the key innovations since the 2026 address: a potential associate membership for Canada with the European Union, a proposed ban on social media use for children and an as-yet vague ‘emergency framework’ to deal with Ceuta-like migrant crises. Programme prepared by Isabelle Romero, Perrine Desplats, Florine Hausfater and Agnès Le Cossec

  7. Sep 11

    I'm extremely worried by extremists that win elections in Europe: Luxembourg's PM Luc Frieden

    "European strategic autonomy" is a buzz phrase in Brussels and in EU capitals these days. What does it mean for space policy? That was one of the central points that we raised with the Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Luc Frieden, during his visit to Paris for the International Space Summit hosted by the French government on September 9 and 10. Major American aerospace companies were noticeably absent from the summit while the feud between Brussels and the Trump administration continues. We began by talking about the far-right breakthrough in Germany – the AfD’s victory in the Saxony-Anhalt regional election at the beginning of September – a political earthquake that sent tremors right across the EU. "Of course, we live in democracies, so it is for the people of the respective (EU) countries to vote for their leaders, and I am a very strong supporter of democratic elections," Frieden said. "Yet at the same time, people should realise what would happen if we didn’t have Europe. Europe is the answer to the disaster of the last century. We shouldn't forget the lessons of history. Nationalism, discrimination of minorities, of Jews and other minorities, led to the Second World War."  Frieden continued: "The consequence (of far-right election wins) is that those in the political centre to which I belong must show that they can still achieve the promise of Europe. I want to make sure that tomorrow Europe remains a continent of peace. But peace is not the only thing. We need to have prosperity; this big market where products that are produced in one country can be sold in another country. This is the promise that is making the lives of people better." We asked if it was a blow to the EU’s image that US aerospace companies such as SpaceX stayed away from the international space summit hosted by the French government, reportedly because of pressure from the Trump administration. "Strategic autonomy means the freedom to decide for yourself. But deciding for yourself, including in space, does not mean that you exclude all the others. It doesn’t mean that you isolate yourself," Frieden explained. "As Europeans, we can be proud of what we have achieved with our universities, our research centres, our companies. We have strong companies that are building rockets; that are building satellites. And we should continue with quantum technology, where we use satellites to communicate between continents. My country is playing a leading role on that. All this is necessary. But America is and remains our friend. And on many occasions, we need their technology." Skeptical that the US does not see cooperation with Europe that way, we recalled that the EU was again sidelined from the US diplomatic efforts over Ukraine in early September. Frieden responded: "On Ukraine, Europe cannot be a mediator because Europe is clearly on the side of Ukraine," Frieden responded. "We are supporting Ukraine because what is at stake is much more than just those provinces in the east of Ukraine. It's about the fundamental principle in which we strongly believe that borders cannot be changed by force. And therefore, every effort that the United States is making to help find a solution finds the support of Europe. Now we have to interact with America so as to make sure that the voice of Europe is also heard. We obviously would like the Americans to be more inclined towards multilateralism. So this is a difficult and challenging time, but we have a lot of links with America, also in economic terms, that we need to preserve."   Programme produced by Perrine Desplats, Isabelle Romero, Agnès Le Cossec and Florine Hausfater

  8. Sep 11

    French far-right leader polling ahead for 2027 election: should the EU be afraid?

    In Brussels, opinion polls coming out of France have not escaped attention. Two polls see far right leader Marine Le Pen beating all her likely rivals in the French presidential election, which is set to take place in April and May of next year.  Le Pen, the head of the far-right National Rally party, is projected to beat out the competition in a second round against far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, as well as against mainstream candidates Raphaël Glucksmann, currently an MEP, and former prime ministers Gabriel Attal and Édouard Philippe. A European Union with Le Pen in charge in France would likely be a very different EU from the current one. We discuss with our guests at the European Parliament. Programme prepared by Isabelle Romero, Perrine Desplats and Florine Hausfater

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About

Politicians, activists and researchers debate the issues facing the EU and a 'guest of the week' offers their insight in a long-format interview that gets to the heart of the matter. Saturday at 7:15pm.

Information

  • Channel
    FRANCE 24 English
  • Creator
    FRANCE 24 English
  • Years Active
    2015 - 2026
  • Episodes
    26
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © France Médias Monde
  • Show Website
    Talking Europe

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