Politico's Eu Confidential

Ryan Heath interviews Megan Richards, a Canadian who spent three decades working for the EU, rising to be one of its top officials in digital and later energy policy. It's a short episode this week, all the better to let you enjoy your holidays. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week we’re going Green again: Ryan Heath talks to Kristian Ruby who runs Eurelectric and the Electrification Alliance, as a way to clean our energy systems. After that, POLITICO's Anca Gurzu takes a hydrogen-powered car for a wild test drive.It's all a world a way from where the EU started: as a coal trading community. After the greenest EU election ever, the question in Europe now isn't whether to go green, but how fast we should get there.We have a very special podcast panel this week. With summer holidays approaching and host Ryan Heath moving to POLITICO in the US, it's the last panel featuring the current trio.The podcast takes a brief summer break next week but we'll be back in a fortnight. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

As Boris Johnson's begins his term as U.K. prime minister on a fast and furious Brexit course, Annabelle Dickson asks the Conservative leader of the House of Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg, and a group of U.K. Parliament staffers, what they think about a seemingly endless list of complaints and two official independent reports of bullying, harassment, and management in the U.K. Parliament, and what can be done to improve the institution's culture. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Best-selling author Peter May talks about his political thriller set in Brussels, The Man With No Face, just republished four decades after he wrote it. Forget the heatwave sweeping the Continent and dive into a dark and wintry world of intrigue and murder as May describes the Brussels bubble of 40 years ago that formed the backdrop for the book. May talks about what has changed in Brussels and European politics since those days — and what has remained remarkably similar.The podcast panel brings things bang up to date with Boris Johnson's Westminster wizardry — he really is very good at that disappearing Cabinet trick — and Martin Selmayr's intriguing career move. Then it's back to the literary theme with some summer reading recommendations from our panelists: "Merde in Europe" by Stephen Clarke, "Freshwater" by Akwaeke Emezi, "Reporter: A Memoir" by Seymour Hersh, and "Uneasy Street: The Anxieties of Affluence" by Rachel Sherman. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and o

Mette Grolleman runs the biggest lobbying office in Brussels — FleishmanHillard — and isn’t tempted to return to the Berlaymont to work for her old boss Margrethe Vestager: “When you leave, you have to leave,” she told EU Confidential.Grolleman’s new goal is to bring nuance to how outsiders understand the EU. The different sides of the Brussels bubble need each other to deliver a functioning whole, she said: “We are an ecosystem ... I valued [lobbyist input] when I was on the inside.”FleishmanHillard has good reason to explain its values to the world in 2019: it has been mired in a controversy over its campaign aimed at winning the reapproval of glyphosate, on behalf of Monsanto, now owned by Bayer.Grolleman demurred when asked whether the company got its tactics right: “I can't speak so much to a specific case a because all clients need and deserve respect and privacy around what we do with them. But what I can say in more general terms is that when you are exposed to criticism … you need to take a step back

In our latest podcast episode, we discuss the life of a lobbyist, the latest in the Brussels hustle, and the recent transatlantic twitterstorm.This week’s feature interview is with Paul Adamson, the godfather of Brussels lobbying. He talks to Ryan about his 40-year career in the EU capital, how Boris Johnson hasn’t changed since his own whippersnapper days on the continent, and why lobbyists get a bad name. We spoke before U.K. ambassador Kim Darroch offered his resignation Wednesday.The regular podcast panel looks into top-job nominee Ursula von der Leyen’s vote-gathering efforts, and debates the fate of the UK’s now ex-ambassador in Washington DC, Kim Darroch. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

A surprise European Commission presidential nominee landed on Brussels this week: the polished and much-criticised defense minister of Germany, Ursula von der Leyen. The job is now hers to lose, and she might indeed lose it. German greens and socialists are furious about how the deal went down. Our main interview is with Mark MacGann: he’s a 25-year veteran of the EU’s tech and telecoms scene who runs Moonshot Ventures. We talk EU reform and how ended up needing 24/7 bodyguards during his time at Uber See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In the latest in our occasional series focusing on green issues, we ask whether capitalism can save the planet.The European Commission held a sustainable finance conference this week, and two of our reporters went along to get beyond the hype. Tune in to hear them interview some of the conference participants, including the Commission's financial markets chief.On the podcast panel, we talk about the proponents and detractors of the 2050 climate-neutrality target discussed at last week’s EU summit. And away from the green theme, our panelists pick apart the rights and wrongs of the media coverage of Boris Johnson’s row with his partner. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

David Miliband speaks to POLITICO’s Brexit editor James Randerson in our feature interview this week.It’s delicious timing, given the U.K. is getting a new prime minister and the EU is getting a new slate of leaders. Had history taken just a slightly different path, Miliband could have been a big player in those events.He talks about Boris Johnson, why he thinks U.K. Labour’s Brexit policy is a disaster, the time he met the Belgian who saved his grandmother and aunt from Nazi concentration camps, and his views on how we can help the 70 million people on the run from conflict or persecution.On the podcast panel, we talk about the strong and weak points of recent efforts by European and American politicians to rebrand themselves and their parties, and then move to the easy-listening topic of Middle East peace and development. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hear European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in conversation with POLITICO's Florian Eder, discussing Trump, Brexit and more.Also this week, Shada Islam from think tank Friends of Europe talks to POLITICO's Ryan Heath about educating EU newbies on Asia and how to counter Islamophobia.In the podcast panel, POLITICO's EU editor Andrew Gray is joined by Lina Aburous, Alva Finn and Carmen Paun to discuss the battle for top EU jobs, Moldova's double-government trouble and how to respond if the U.S. president's son-in-law wants to drop by for a chat. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In a week full of world-shaping history, from the 75th D-Day anniversary to the 30th anniversary of the Tianamen Square massacre, our feature interview is with former U.K. Cabinet minister Danny Alexander. He flew in from Beijing to discuss his new work as vice president at the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. They're bringing the annual meeting to Luxembourg next month.The podcast panel is Alva Finn and Ryan Heath flying solo on the Trump visit, a center-left win in Denmark's election, and whether or not the European Parliament is a "kangaroo court" as Nigel Farage claims. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

A look back at the European Parliament election results, and a look ahead to the race for EU top jobs.Ryan Heath interviews Martin Selmayr, the powerful and controversial secretary-general of the European Commission, at a special POLITICO event the day after the election. Selmayr gives his insights on what it will take to install a new Commission, and what and who will shape its policy agenda.The podcast panel of Alva Finn and Lina Aburous debate the meaning of the partial liberal, green and Euroskeptic waves that took away the decades-long parliamentary majority enjoyed by the European People’s Party and Party of European Socialists. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Bruno Le Maire, French minister of economy and finance, outlines his big ambitions for collecting tax from giant companies, creating a eurozone budget and ensuring European sovereignty on key new technologies. Does it, or will it, amount to a "new capitalism"? You be the judge.In the podcast panel Lina Aburous is joined by POLITICO's polling expert Cornelius Hirsch, to discuss everything from the Austrian Ibizagate scandal to how right or wrong the EU election polls may be. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

After three years of divisive Brexit debate and voting in the United Kingdom, POLITICO's Annabelle Dickson surveyed the damage and opportunities that have arisen as British voters unexpectedly head to vote in the 2019 European Parliament election. How have Britain's political relationships changed? Why are female politicians a particular target of abuse? What other type of politics is possible? Annabelle interviewed Annunziata Rees-Mogg (Brexit Party MEP candidate), and MPs Mary Creagh (Labour), Jo Swinson (Liberal Democrat), and Helen Whately (Conservative). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

For EU Green Week and EU Public Health Week, we go to an issue at the intersection of those themes: air quality.The World Health Organisation attributes up to seven million deaths annually to air pollution. The topic is getting political too, thanks to scandals like Dieselgate and a growing number of devices and apps that tell people exactly how exposed they are to the dangers.The EU is at the heart of these discussions: a would-be enforcer that doesn't do much enforcement, and which oversees contradictory monitoring systems. Here’s another thing to consider: unlike other deadly things you can breathe, like cigarette smoke, it’s a lot harder for individuals to control their exposure to air pollution. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We have a double-header this week: interviews with both Frans Timmermans (Socialist) and Margrethe Vestager (Liberal), two rivals to become European Commission president.Ryan Heath and Nazan Gökdemir jointly interviewed the candidates as part of a television series for ARTE, the franco-german television network.In the podcast panel Alva Finn and Lina Aburous debate whether it was right to offer Jean-Claude Juncker a "European of the Year" award at the European Business Summit this week, and a new documentary about the Brexit negotiations, based on two years of insider footage following around the European Parliament Brexit coordinator Guy Verhofstadt See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hosted by Sarah Wheaton and featuring Corinna Horst, Lina Aburous, Jacinda Ardern and Lulwah Al Khater, this episode takes us from the Middle East to Mexico, and on to New Zealand, the United States and Rwanda to look at the challenges shared by women in politics, and what Europe can take away from those experiences. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode we offer you highlights from Monday's 95-minute EU presidential debate in Maastricht, co-moderated by EU Confidential host Ryan Heath. Five candidates debate on Digital Europe, Sustainable Europe and the Future of Europe.The podcast panel is back together to critique the debate and the five new far-right ministers who have joined the government of Estonia, even though two liberal parties won a majority of seats in the country's March election.If you want to here the full 95-minute presidential debate, you can listen to it at: https://soundcloud.com/ryanheatheu/2019-eu-presidential-debate-maastricht-full-length#t=7:49 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week it's a short episode: just a 20-minute interview with Manfred Weber, the person in pole position to succeed Jean-Claude Juncker as European Commission president later this year. The interview was conducted by POLITICO's Ryan Heath and Nazan Gökdemir, a journalist from the Franco-German TV station ARTE, part of a series of interviews with six presidential candidates. You can binge-watch all the interviews on politico.eu.We focus on Weber this week, because next week's podcast will be highlights of the Maastricht EU presidential debate, featuring all the candidates and parties except Oriol Junqueras (who is in in pre-trial detention in Spain) and Weber, who is skipping the debate to attend a celebration of Theo Waigel, his fellow Bavarian politician and a political mentor.Before the interview Ryan speaks to Andrew Gray, POLITICO's EU editor, about Weber's side of the story. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Why do female candidates and politicians receive more negative coverage than men, and why are they seen as less newsworthy? In this episode we look at the case study of Italy with POLITICO reporter Silvia Sciorilli Borrelli, and speak to one of the most high profile members of the European Parliament Marietje Schaake. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.