Our guest is a European Commissioner who’s got a lot of money at her fingertips – around one third of the entire EU budget, in fact.

For the current budget period, that means €350 billion to help fund such essential and not always glamorous items as a ring road in Bulgaria, broadband internet in Scotland, or indeed a new museum in a gritty part of northern France. Corina Cretu is in charge of the EU's Regional and Cohesion Policy - something she’s described as "an essential element translating the solidarity that binds Europe together".

As the Cohesion Policy budget is renegotiated for the next budget period, FRANCE 24’s European Affairs Editor Catherine Nicholson asks her where the EU’s priorities lie.

Produced by Isabelle Romero and Roxane Runel