Talking Europe FRANCE 24 English

This week we take a closer look at the Green Transition in Europe - from the invaluable invertebrates in the soil beneath us, to the end of obsolete coal mines and the revolution in transport, our show investigates just how fast Europe is becoming greener - and how to ensure no-one is left behind in the race to decarbonise.

Another edition of our EU election series, on individual countries and regions in the EU: The Republic of Ireland is considered to be one of the most pro-EU member states, and the Eurobarometer poll that came out this spring bears that out: 67 percent of respondents said that the EU conjures up a positive image. But being pro-European does not necessarily mean supporting the traditional pro-EU parties in Ireland. Indeed, this election campaign has seen increased support for independent candidates. Is that trend related to the big social challenges that Ireland is facing - housing, and the cost of living?

With just a few weeks to go before EU elections, the far right in France is on track for a comfortable win, if the polls are correct. The National Rally only just beat France's ruling party, Renaissance, in the last EU elections in 2019. This time, a wide gap has opened between the two, potentially striking a serious political blow to President Emmanuel Macron and his idea of a more powerful Europe. The National Rally has struck a chord with its campaign about purchasing power, standards of living and crime in French cities. We take a closer look.

It has been called an invisible epidemic. Every year, around 300,000 people in Europe die prematurely because of air pollution, according to the European Environment Agency. Those of us living in cities are particularly exposed to unsafe levels of fine particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide. The EU is trying to bring air quality closer to World Health Organization guidelines, but the political deal that has been struck includes a clause that will allow member states to delay action by up to 10 years, if specific conditions are met. So how meaningful is this new legislation? We put the question to two MEPs.

Is the EU's single market failing? Faced with growing competition from China and the US, the bloc is falling behind. The union has been relying on the single market to guarantee the free movement of goods, capital, services and people for more than 30 years. But inertia is creeping in, and it’s time for a new single market, says our guest Enrico Letta, a former prime minister of Italy, president of the Jacques Delors institute and author of a high-level report on the single market's future. He has just presented the report to EU leaders, after hundreds of meetings in dozens of European cities, in which Letta tried to gauge where the market is delivering for people – and where it isn't.

Georgia has erupted in protest once again, as the ruling Georgian Dream party pursues a "foreign agents" bill in parliament – something that has left a question mark hanging over the country’s European ambitions. The EU granted the ex-Soviet nation candidate status to join the bloc last December. We speak to Georgia's President Salomé Zourabichvili, who plans to veto the final draft of the law, but admits that parliament can still override her veto. That makes the October 26 election even more crucial for re-asserting the country’s European path, she says.