Brussels Playbook Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Episode 59: Inside the House of European History Aug 09, 2018

Show notes

This week's interview is with Constanze Itzel, the director of the EU museum, the House of European History, in Brussels.
Listen to hear her views on fake memory, conscious distortion of history, and her battle with people who think the museum is too critical of the EU.
The panel discusses the heatwave, green churches and Swedish police shooting dead an intellectually disabled man who was holding a toy gun.

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Episode 58: Labor market secrets — EU school rules — Summit entry fee Aug 02, 2018

Show notes

In this week's main interview, we hear from Sue Duke, the global head of public policy for LinkedIn. She reveals the labor market lessons to be learned from data on the company's 167 million users in Europe.
We also talk about how to handle — and how not to handle — the topic of pregnancy in the workplace.
The podcast panel of Lina Aburous and Alva Finn debate cost-shifting in Belgium: The country is apparently happy to pay for a new school for the children of EU officials — but wants to charge Belgium-based journalists to attend EU summits.

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Episode 57: Johannes Hahn — Western Balkans — Trump-Juncker love-in Jul 26, 2018

Show notes

Johannes Hahn, European commissioner for enlargement negotiations and neighborhood policy, talks us through the Western Balkans. It's a region whose countries desperately want into the EU club, but which still has a lot of work to do in overcoming the legacies of the wars of the 1990s, including corruption and organized crime.

Hahn warns against China using countries like Montenegro as a Trojan Horse to get into EU decision-making, and pushes back against Emmanuel Macron's view that the EU needs to focus on cleaning up and renovating its own house, rather than enlarging.

Did you know? Hahn, like President Donald Trump, takes Coca-Cola at the meeting table and holidays in Scotland. (But the similarities end there.) His job will also grow with Brexit: the U.K. will become part of Hahn's remit as a "third country" in Europe's own neighborhood.

Trump and Juncker's love-in: Our podcast panel weighs in on peace breaking out at the White House, Steve Bannon's plan to conquer Europe and the latest satellite launches for Europe's Galileo program.

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Episode 56: Phil Hogan — Amélie de Montchalin (En Marche) — Juncker and Trump stumble Jul 19, 2018

Show notes

Amélie de Montchalin, a French member of Parliament with Emmanuel Macron’s En Marche party explains why its undemocratic to finalise the EU’s next seven-year budget ahead of the 2019 EU election. European agriculture commissioner Phil Hogan talks about how farming needs to change, Brexit, and trade deals. The panel discusses the EU's €4.3 billion fine against Google, and how to handle a leader when they stumble, literally and politically.

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Episode 55, presented by Raytheon: Inside the NATO summit Jul 12, 2018

Show notes

A special defense-themed episode take you inside this week’s tense NATO summit and discusses the new specialism of 24/7 POTUS management. The stellar line-up includes United States Ambassadors Alexander Vershbow and Daniel Fried; Beatrice Fihn who leads ICAN an anti-nuclear and Nobel Peace Prize-winning campaign group; Brookings Institution’s Constanze Stelzenmüller and journalist Paul Taylor.

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Episode 54: NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg — Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki — EU Parliament expense shock Jul 05, 2018

Show notes

A bumper episode featuring NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg who’s got a present for Donald Trump ahead of next week’s NATO summit in Brussels, and Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who has presided of the sacking of 27 Polish judges this week, but who is at pains in our interview to explain what he likes about the EU and Jean-Claude Juncker. The podcast panel discussing a whirlwind of good deeds, hypocrisy and protest at the European Parliament this week.

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Episode 53, presented by Google: Wolfgang Schäuble — Danny McCoy — EU's Migration Troubles Jun 28, 2018

Show notes

It’s summit week: crammed with migration and Trump and eurozone and Brexit and will-Merkel-stay-or-go drama.

One man who could benefit greatly from Merkel going is Wolfgang Schäuble, her long-time rival and finance minister, now president of the Bundestag, the German Parliament. He’s our first interview guest, followed by Danny McCoy, the head of the Irish business lobby Ibec, who talks Brexit and why Ireland has upped its lobbying game in Brussels

The podcast panel tries to unpack why so much of what EU leaders are saying about migration is either unrealistic or not addressing some of the key problems.

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Episode 52, presented by Martens Centre: Women Rule! - Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka - Rome's Roma rhetoric Jun 21, 2018

Show notes

This week’s theme is Women Rule! Our feature interview is with
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, executive director of U.N. Women, who’s got passionate views about violence, #MeToo and more.

Mlambo-Ngcuka spoke to POLITICO reporter Ginger Hervey, who joins us to put the conversation in context.

Our podcast panel gets into the World Cup spirit with a series of "EU kick-offs" and "EU red cards" as we chew over the Italian government’s views on its Roma communities, and the political strategy of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

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Episode 51: Helle Thorning-Schmidt — European Parliament election — Migration debate Jun 14, 2018

Show notes

Helle Thorning Schmidt, the former Danish PM who's now head of Save the Children International, is our main guest. Host Ryan Heath asks her about tackling populism and who should lead Europe.

Ryan also talks to Jaume Duch, who runs communications for the European Parliament and is in charge of spending a whopping €30m to tell people about next year's election.

And our podcast panel debates the rights and wrongs of denying the right to dock to the Aquarius, the ship carrying 629 migrants rescued from the Mediterranean.

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Episode 50, presented by Google: How NGOs lobby the EU — OSF's Patrick Gaspard — Leaders get younger Jun 07, 2018

Show notes

A blockbuster episode, our 50th, in which three guests from the world of NGOs talk about the joys of their work and their frustrations at dealing with the EU and national governments.
Our first 50 episodes featured nine current national leaders, eight European commissioners and lots of other senior politicians: now it’s time to hear from the other side. Jana Hainsworth is the president of Social Platform, a network of 170 NGOs, and secretary-general of one of its members, Eurochild; Patrick Gaspard is the president of the Open Society Foundations, founded by George Soros; and Evelyne Paradis runs ILGA Europe, an LGBTI advocacy group.
Also this week, our podcast panel discusses a new generation of politicians who’ve brought the average age of EU leaders under 50 for the first time.

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