Politico's Eu Confidential

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 managing editor, Stephen Brown, about the challenges of covering a passionate debate where there appears to be little scope for a negotiated compromise.Independence 'is not going to happen,' says Toledo. In response, Altafaj said: "That short quote is very telling. It says a lot about the problem. Basically, this is a political challenge and it should be addressed through politics and it's being addressed by all means: the judiciary, the police forces, and undercover operations, etcetera, but not through politics."

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 working on the German election: because political parties wanted all the data stored in Germany. We discuss whether that attitude is likely to change.About that election: POLITICO managing editor Florian Eder previews Sunday's parliamentary vote — and discusses who Brussels would like to see in the next government.Boris Johnson's Brexit vision — fact or fantasy? Our Brussels brains trust debates what Britain's foreign secretary is up to with his recent Brexit opus and fact-checks some of his statements.The court with opti

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 that Jean-Claude Juncker's olive branches to eastern Europe in his State of the European Union speech are an essential gesture if the EU27 is to stay united through Brexit negotiations and planning for the next long-term EU budget.Also this week, Christian Oliver, POLITICO's European trade editor, guides us through Juncker's address. We discuss the speech's many priorities, traps, and fanciful power grabs.In our panel discussion, regular guests Ailbhe Finn and Lina Aburous discussing the political hot potato of the gover

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,” it would be a terrible mistake for the ruling CDU party to be complacent about their opinion poll lead.On Brexit, McAllister warns “the clock is ticking” for negotiators and said the U.K. needs to do more to bring the divorce talks forward.Also on the podcast this week, Jack Blanchard, the editor of the new POLITICO London Playbook, explains where Brexit is likely to bite most.In our "EU WTF" feature, Ailbhe Finn and Harry Cooper discuss an extraordinary set of money laundering and bribery all

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 editor Jan Cienski, one of our resident Poland experts, walks us through the key players in the European Commission's dispute with Warsaw over the government's role in the courts and its hardline positions on independent journalism and refugees.In our "EU WTF" feature, Ailbhe Finn and Lina Aburous discuss Emmanuel Macron's massive make-up bill, his tour of eastern Europe, and the incredible lack of chemistry between chief Brexit negotiators Michel Barnier and David Davis.And in the Dear POLITICO advice session, a

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 former Irish prime minister who later served as the EU's ambassador to Washington, tells us what Brexit will mean for Ireland, why Britain may decide its vision of life outside the EU isn't achievable and how the rest of the European Union will fare when the negotiating gets tough.In our "EU WTF" feature, Playbook's Harry Cooper and POLITICO tech reporter Joanna Plucinska discuss Donald Trump's Scottish tax break, Cambridge University Press's Chinese challenge and a big rise in popularity for the EU.You can con

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 Merkel winning another term. With some five weeks to go until the parliamentary election, POLITICO Berlin correspondent Janosch Delcker brings us up to date on the battle for votes. Janosch explains why taking a holiday has worked out well for Merkel while challenger Martin Schulz runs from one campaign event to the next.In our "EU WTF" feature, Brussels brains trust regular Ailbhe Finn is joined by POLITICO's Harry Cooper to discuss the new job of Germany's former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who is set to join

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 Briançon at a POLITICO Playbook cocktail event in Brussels. We've put together the highlights from that conversation.It's a rare chance to hear Europe's man of the moment talk — at length and in English — about French politics, Europe, trade policy... and which character he'd like to play on stage or screen.Pierre Briançon joins us from Paris to bring us up to date on how Macron is doing as president so far — and how he's changed since that conversation in Brussels.In our "EU WTF" feature, Brussels brains trust stalwa

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 of Andreas Georgiou, the Greek statistician who has been convicted for telling the truth about the state of the Greek economy.And in our Dear Politico section, we hear from an NGO worker who says their organization is misusing EU funds and wants to know what to do. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 obvious connections — like one between Vienna, Bratislava and Budapest — are still missing from Europe's map.Bulc even entertains the idea of giving farmers EU Common Agricultural Policy money to buy drones to help with their work.Joshua Posaner, a POLITICO transport reporter, talks us through a big week for the automotive sector. Allegations of a massive cartel in the German auto sector prompted soul-searching at the European Commission. Their response was to create a new role, which may as well be called Vice President f

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 of banking, gives advice on how to found your own start-up, tells us about living life out of a backpack, and why he might be thrown out of the U.K. because of Brexit.Our Brussels brains trust, Lina Aburous and Ailbhe Finn, give their radically different takes on David Davis' performance at this week's Brexit negotiations in Brussels. Is he a genius or a fool? You decide.And in our Dear Politico section we hear from a listener with an extraordinary allegation: he says he's an assistant to an MEP who has asked him for a €1

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 worried about the Trump administration.Schaake also has a message for Theresa May. Schaake thinks May is living in a fantasy land when it comes to post-Brexit trade deals: “Where's the sense of realism and what kind of narrative are you projecting out there and how are you ever going to meet it?” she told EU Confidential.Our Brussels brains trust, Lina Aburous and Ailbhe Finn, chew over whether it's OK for Ryanair and the European Commissioner for Transport Violeta Bulc to support special flight deals for Erasmus progr

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, Lina Aburous and Ailbhe Finn, talk roadworks rage and Simone Veil. And in our Dear Politico advice section, we hear from a listener who says she has experienced sexual harassment from members of the European Parliament and their aides. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 its business practices.EU Confidential's Brussels brains trust of Lina Aburous and Ailbhe Finn discuss the choice of CEZ, a Czech power company, to ask female intern applicants to enter a bikini contest. And in our Dear POLITICO section, we talk about the case of a staffer at the European Parliament who says they are mistaken for a server at official receptions because they are not caucasian. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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, the nomination of two openly gay European prime ministers and the perils of politicians accepting discounted property deals. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

A sneak preview of the new podcast from Politico Europe. Coming soon. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.