In today’s European Council, EU leaders will discuss mainly Ukraine, the Middle East, and migration.  In particular, there is the implementation of the €50 billion loan agreed at the G7 and call for a ceasefire in Gaza, the release of hostages, continued humanitarian aid, and an end to Israel's attacks on UNIFIL in Lebanon. However, migration will be the summit's key issue, especially the bloc's Migration and Asylum Pact, set to be enforced by 2026. Some EU countries, under pressure from...

Today marks the first-ever summit between the EU and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which includes the UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, and Kuwait, part of the EU's new strategy to strengthen ties with Gulf countries, focusing on climate and trade relations. Radio Schuman brings you a part of our colleague Shona Murray's interview with Jasem Mohamed AlBudaiwi, Secretary General of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf. There's also a brief comment by European...

Is outsourcing migration management the new trend in Europe? In this episode, Radio Schuman examines the external dimension of migration by discussing the model of Italy’s new migration centres in Albania. The outsourcing of migration to non-EU countries has become a new trend, whether it is by sending money to countries of origin or by looking into the possibility of building processing centres outside of the EU borders. But are these options viable? Radio Schuman talks about this issue with...

In 2024, the EU's humanitarian aid amounted to €1.8 billion, and the bloc is now the largest international donor of humanitarian aid in Palestine. Yet the word "humanitarian" is mentioned only a handful of times in European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's mission letter to the future Commissioner for Preparedness and Crisis Management, who will lead the EU's humanitarian aid policy. Will humanitarian assistance be relegated to a less important matter in the next Commission? We...

Since European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced her proposals for the new batch of European Commissioners, the legal affairs committee, also known as JURI, has been in charge of examining the conflict of interest declarations for each candidate. However, many members of the committee from the Greens and The Left walked out of the meeting, arguing that the examination was a total scam as the Parliament has no real powers to investigate - so what is the point of scrutinising...

In this podcast, Radio Schuman interviews Péter Magyar, leader of the Tisza party in Hungary, who has recently emerged as the only popular alternative to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Magyar spoke to Euronews political reporter Vincenzo Genovese in his office in Strasbourg, where the Hungarian MEP talked frankly about Orbán's media machine, his own court cases in Hungary and where he stands on Ukraine, migration, and relations with China. As the plenary session in Strasbourg wraps up later...

Halfway through its six-month rotating presidency, rather than playing the honest broker, Budapest has blocked many files, including the ones on aid to Ukraine. It further blocked a statement denouncing Moscow's media ban, and it voted against the EU’s plan to impose tariffs on electric vehicles. It's unclear what exactly broke the camel's back, but one thing is certain: the EU has lost its patience with Hungary. Yet on Tuesday, at a press conference ahead of this speech in Parliament, Orbán...

Monday marked a year since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, which led Brussels to repeat its calls for a ceasefire and the immediate release of hostages. One year later, Europe is still not on the same page, and in just a few weeks, Kaja Kallas, the former Estonian prime minister, will become the EU's new foreign policy chief. But Kallas is known to be less committed and outspoken on the Middle East than the current High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy...

Last Friday, EU countries agreed to impose definitive tariffs on imports of electric cars from China, a move with far-reaching implications for the bloc's trade policy with Beijing, the future of the EU's car industry and, most importantly, Berlin's influence in Brussels. In an unprecedented move, Germany was one of only five other European countries to vote against the tariffs, as Berlin feared a "yes" would lead to a trade war with China — is this a sign that Germany is losing influence...

Last Sunday, Austria’s Freedom Party (FPÖ) became the latest far-right political group to win a national election in Europe. The party now faces a familiar challenge encountered by many of its counterparts across the continent: will it form a coalition with the centre-right Austrian People's Party? Will Herbert Kickl become Austria’s next Chancellor, or will he be sidelined? Political analyst Cas Mudde contends that while far-right prime ministers remain relatively rare, the traditional...

With the ongoing escalation of violence in the Middle East, the number of displaced individuals continues to rise rapidly. The UN refugee agency UNHCR has reported that thousands of Lebanese and Syrian refugees in Lebanon have already fled towards the Syrian border to escape Israeli strikes. Experts warn that the current situation could mirror the 2015 refugee crisis, when the Syrian conflict forced many to seek refuge in Europe. However, this time the EU may be less willing to accommodate a...

In Brussels, exit interviews are often particularly insightful, especially with a commissioner responsible for a complex portfolio where decision-making predominantly rests with individual governments. While Kyriakides did not always assume a central public role during the COVID-19 crisis, her team was tasked with overseeing vaccine procurement in Europe and introducing numerous other significant legislations. These included the EU’s Cancer Master Plan, the extension of smoking bans to...

Austria’s far-right Freedom Party, or FPÖ, led by Herbert Kickl, is one of Europe's biggest opponents of migration, including ending asylum rights and promoting “remigration” — a vague concept of shipping foreigners away to protect what sounds like its racial and religious purity. Even without the FPÖ in power, the Alpine country already enforces strict immigration laws and has abstained or voted against some key files of the EU’s migration pact so far. If the FPÖ forms a coalition with the...

As EU Ombudsman since 2013, Emily O'Reilly oversees an independent body tasked with holding EU institutions accountable. She investigates cases of maladministration, either on her own initiative or in response to complaints from EU citizens. O'Reilly has also urged the Commission to combat secrecy, which she argues undermines public trust. In 2022, her office criticised Ursula von der Leyen's undisclosed text messages with Pfizer's CEO during the COVID-19 pandemic. More recently, she called...

Two years ago, the EU adopted a ground-breaking deforestation law, set to take effect in January, aiming to ban imports of products linked to forest loss, such as coffee, soy, timber, and cocoa. The regulation requires suppliers to certify that their goods are not sourced from areas that were recently stripped of woods to make way for farms and plantations. While supported by environmental groups and left-leaning politicians, it has faced opposition from governments, trading partners, and...

Ursula von der Leyen’s decision to nominate Olivér Várhelyi raised many an eyebrow in Brussels — and elicited a couple of hearty chuckles. When the European Commission president made the announcement during a press conference in Strasbourg earlier this month, it drew laughter from journalists and sent EU-themed meme-making social media accounts into overdrive. Várhelyi, a former Commissioner for enlargement, was Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s preferred candidate for a second term. However,...

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen unveiled her plans for the new top team at the European Commission last week, but the reactions were mixed. Many politicians argued that the portfolios were too broad and overlapped each other. The fear is that the upcoming commissioners will constantly step on each other's toes, as many did in the previous mandate. But the underlying question might actually be: why do we need 27 Commissioners? What would have to change at the political and...

Last week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen chose Lithuania's former Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius as the EU’s first defence commissioner. The EU does not have strong army and is not responsible for each member state's armed forces. Yet, defence has become a crucial issue in Europe, especially since Russia's war in Ukraine highlighted the bloc’s weak and fragmented defence industry. Will the position of defence Commissioner be powerful and independent enough to achieve an...

On Saturday, Michel Barnier, France's newly appointed prime minister and former EU Brexit negotiator, unveiled his government, which is dominated by conservatives and centrists from French president Emmanuel Macron's Renaissance party. Among the most contentious appointments is Bruno Retailleau as interior minister, a staunch conservative who has consistently opposed same-sex marriage and voted against enshrining abortion rights in the French constitution. Barnier faced the challenging task...

Is EU policy on equality going to take a backseat in the upcoming mandate of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen? Back in 2019, von der Leyen named Malta's Helena Dalli the EU's Commissioner in charge of equality. But last week, when she announced her proposal for the new team of European Commissioners, von der Leyen ditched the equality portfolio, combining it instead with "preparedness and crisis management". Many NGOs defending women's rights reacted to what they saw as von...

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's decision to assign the migration and home affairs portfolio to Austrian nominee Magnus Brunner was one of her most unexpected choices when deciding on the portfolios for her new College. Vienna's recent tougher stance on EU migration policy, as well as Brunner's own background, sprung to the fore. Austria was behind a long-standing veto against Bulgaria and Romania's entry into the Schengen Area, and Vienna also voted against and abstained...

The European Parliament in Strasbourg was again divided — this time, it was the MEPs' opinions that were split after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced her new batch of Commissioners. Radio Schuman gathered different reactions from the MEPs Peter Liese, Christel Schaldemose, Moritz Körner, and Sergey Lagodinsky on the entire affair, including the fitness of individual Commissioners for their new tasks, big jobs that went to Eastern European and Baltic countries and...

Thierry Breton's surprisingly public last-minute resignation as France's European Commission nominee was the talk of the town on Monday. While Paris quickly replaced the outgoing Commissioner with former MEP and Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Séjourné, Breton's final salvo aimed at Commission President Ursula von der Leyen further made sure her new mandate was off to a rocky start. Will von der Leyen weather the storm, and is she really as opposed to critical voices among her Commissioners...

Back in July, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced that she would appoint a Commissioner for housing and launch the union's first-ever European Affordable Housing Plan.   The announcement was part of a favour made to the European Parliament's centre-left S&D group, which had asked the Commission to include the lack of affordable housing and the rising cost of living as one of its top priorities.   But what does the job of housing Commissioner consist of? And how...