We speak to French EU Commissioner Stéphane Séjourné, a close associate of President Macron, and one of the Commission’s six Executive Vice-Presidents. He in in charge of a key portfolio: Prosperity and Industrial Strategy. Before his appointment to the post he was France’s foreign minister, an MEP, and leader of the centrist Renew group in the European Parliament. On May 21, Stéphane Séjourné presented a strategy for boosting the EU’s single market, something that he argues is critical for growth and prosperity in the European Union.

Séjourné maintains that global uncertainty makes it more urgent for the EU to strengthen its single market, simplify and harmonise its internal regulations, and find new trade partners around the world. “We need to find new markets, and that means new trade agreements,” he says.  “I know that it's not popular in France to talk about trade agreements, but in the current political climate, if we want to reduce our dependence on China, if we want to protect ourselves from a future American market that could close, we absolutely must find new outlets. And at a time when the Americans are making very radical choices, we also need to be very clear about our own European regulations.” 

Central to that global uncertainty is, of course, President Trump’s ever-changing approach to tariffs. On May 23, he threatened a 50 percent tax on all imports from the European Union. 

“I don’t think we should have a doctrine. You shouldn’t be choosing one option or another,” Séjourné opines.  “I'm in favour of not making any definitive proposals until we have an American proposal on the table. And a clearly defined framework for new trade cooperation with the United States. Some sectors will require full reciprocity in terms of tariffs. This is the case for aerospace, for example. If there is a 10 percent tariff on Airbus, there should be a 10 percent tariff on Boeing. But for other sectors, it is not in our interests, our European interests, to reciprocate. I think Europe has pursued these negotiations well. It hasn’t made as much noise as the US, but it has been united. “ 

Given the international context, Séjourné insists that the EU’s internal market should become a safe haven for European companies. But he says there are still too many barriers. “For a French company, to go to Germany or Italy, to market its products, to ‘go European throughout’ the internal market, is something of an administrative and bureaucratic nightmare,” he says. “Firstly, because you need to have a subsidiary, to adapt to European law, to adapt to national law, to look at the regulatory differences, and also to look at the differences in the way goods are marketed. We have put in place a number of measures to simplify and harmonise all the regulations.” 

‘Simplification’ is also the watchword when it comes to corporate due diligence reporting. Séjourné is adamant that this streamlining is not, as some NGOs have said, a dismantling of the Green Deal or of environmental standards. “Under the CSDDD, (the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive) the subcontractor of the subcontractor of the subcontractor also has to be checked by your European company, otherwise you could be liable before the European courts. This raised various problems of legal uncertainty. We put forward a proposal at the start of this EU mandate to stop this legislation and start again from scratch. Now, there is a discussion about overhauling these texts, and Germany and France have made a proposal to abolish them. To do that, we still need a majority, because it's a matter of co-decision between the European Parliament and the Council.” 

We discuss the electric car market, a central plank of Séjourné’s industrial strategy. “European manufacturers currently have a problem with vehicle orders,” Séjourné explains. “There are no electric vehicles on the second-hand market today, and we are unable to offer – not only to French consumers, but to all Europeans – cheap vehicles with a life expectancy of two, three or four years, which in reality represent 80 percent of the market in many countries.” 

He goes on: “Ending the sale of internal combustion cars (scheduled for 2035) has to be combined with a genuine European purchasing strategy. And we need to boost that strategy, particularly when it comes to sales of electric vehicles, with an increased demand for business vehicle fleets.” 

Circling back to the Trump administration, Séjourné says he sees an opportunity for attracting American talent to Europe. “We are committed to increasing our international attractiveness, since there are prospects for bringing in incredible talent, particularly from the other side of the Atlantic, who have found themselves with no money for research. These people are often very experienced, and they could make an enormous contribution to the European economy and to applied research for our industries. 

Many EU leaders were undoubtedly relieved when the result of the Romanian presidential election was announced on the night of May 18. Nicusor Dan, who had campaigned on a platform of pro-Western stability, defeated the firebrand populist and Eurosceptic George Simion. Indeed, Dan achieved a stunning reversal, after heavily losing the first round. But Simion still won more than five million votes, or around 46 percent, which highlighted a deep fracture in Romanian society.  

Poland, which holds the second round of its presidential election on June 1, is similarly fractured. The hard-right Law and Justice party, well known for its run-ins with Brussels when it was in power, made a strong showing in the first round, with its preferred candidate Karol Nawrocki coming in only slightly behind the frontrunner, Rafal Trzaskowski. 

We look at the appeal of these anti-establishment forces in the former communist eastern bloc countries, with our panel of MEPs. (None of the MEPs from the “sovereigntist” camp that we contacted was available to take part.) 

We host Guillaume Klossa, a noted French thinker and writer on Europe, and the president of the EuropaNova think tank. He is also the chair of the "Conclave", a high-level reflection platform advising European leaders. Klossa has a strong interest in digital issues, and was advisor to former EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker in that capacity.

Asked about strategic autonomy in the digital space, Klossa says that "we should have our own platforms in Europe. And this is really feasible. It's a matter of five years if we really want it. This is not clearly in the AI continent-wide plan proposed by the EU Commission. We should be clearer on this point. The Commission's plan is good. It sets a certain number of objectives. But we need a very quick implementation strategy. We can't wait another 10 years."

With the challenge posed by US big tech and the Trump administration in mind, Klossa explains further: "I think we in Europe have an opportunity because the US tech giants are aligned with President Trump. There are many people working for those companies who doubt about whether they want to go on working for them. And there is an understanding that we need to develop our own digital platforms and cloud capacities."

But can the EU realistically compete in this field, when the US outspends the EU?

"In fact, in public expenditure we have more or less the same level as the US," Klossa answers. "The big difference is that, in America, private investors and tech giants are investing much more, and with much more impact. And there we have an issue, because our high tech is not strong enough. But we have the capacity to increase massively our debt, which is not the case anymore of the US or Japan."

We put it to Klossa that many Europeans do not want to get into more debt, and that the idea is not politically sellable in many European capitals.

"This is no longer a taboo," Klossa counters. "Be aware of the position of the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz. The German constitution has been changed [to allow for more debt]. There is an opportunity to boost the Franco-German relationship. But there is also a common understanding that we need to transform the EU into a global power, and very rapidly."

Putting some broader historical context to his thoughts, Klossa says: "When we founded EuropaNova 20 years ago, it was already clear to us that we were entering 50 years of global crisis. And in that framework, Europe cannot be only an observer. It should be a power and even a political superpower with its own values, capable of discussing with the US, with China, with Russia. And if we were not doing that, the risk for us was to become a vassal." 

Continuing that theme, Klossa adds that "up until recently, there was the idea that our security, our defence was guaranteed by the US. And this works as long as the US is a liberal democracy. But what happens when the US is not any more a liberal democracy? And that's the situation we start to see now."

Programme prepared by Perrine Desplats, Oihana Almandoz, Isabelle Romero and Luke Brown 

"Business as usual with Turkey cannot continue." That was the message MEPs sent when they voted on a report about Turkey's EU accession process on May 7 in Strasbourg. Amid a crackdown on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's political rivals as well as on protesters, MEPs said that EU membership talks with Turkey cannot be restarted in the current circumstances. At the same time, the European Union does not want to shut the door on Turkey completely, as Ankara remains a significant partner within NATO and its interests overlap with the EU's in Ukraine.

So how should the EU stand up for human rights while still pursuing some form of realpolitik? We debate that question with our panel of MEPs in Strasbourg.

Programme prepared by Perrine Desplats, Oihana Almandoz, Isabelle Romero and Luke Brown 

France and the EU Commission co-hosted a conference in Paris on May 5 entitled “Choose Europe for science”, with the stated goal of making the EU “a magnet for researchers”, according to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The EU is hoping to capitalise on the pressure that the Trump administration is putting on universities and some research facilities, to perhaps attract US scientists to Europe. But is this a pipe dream? And are there not too many barriers inside the EU to make it a truly global hub for innovation? We put those questions to our guest, Roxana Minzatu. She is one of the executive vice-presidents of the European Commission, and her wide portfolio includes social rights, skills, quality jobs, and preparedness. 

On the timing of the “Choose Europe” conference in Paris, Minzatu comments: “Why now? Well, we are living in turbulent times, that is for sure. We can see this geopolitically. Europe has to position itself in relation to the USA, to China, to other parts of the world. But we are also a continent whose productivity is starting to decrease. A continent that is aging. A continent that needs innovation, like the air that it breathes.” Minzatu elaborates; “There was a package of half a billion euros presented by (EU Commission) President von der Leyen, to support scientists and scientists’ careers in Europe. This is not necessarily to attract American or Indian scientists; it is to make Europe the destination of choice in terms of innovation and research. And that means investing in the resources that scientists and innovators require here in Europe.” 

Challenged on the paradox that France, the co-host of the conference, has actually cut financial credits for its own higher education and research, Minzatu remarks, “Each member state has its own issues with deficits, and adjustments that it needs to make. But we really need to understand that it's the time to prioritise those (innovation) policies that will fuel our economic growth and will bring more money to our budgets. If you're constantly a consumer, a buyer of products and services that are launched from other competitors, then you cannot be stronger and then your budgets will never grow stronger.” 

We put it to Minzatu that, apart from the financial constraints, there is still a lot of fragmentation in the EU science market, which is hampering Europe’s efforts at global leadership in this sphere. 

“This is the situation with many of the policies that we are trying to make stronger in Europe,” Minzatu concurs. “We are working on the European Research Area, which should be a unified market which can allow for the free circulation of knowledge in the same way that we allow for the free circulation of goods, of capital, of persons, and of skills. We need to have a stronger market, a stronger research area that is not hindered by barriers. This requires political commitment. So it's important that member states also engage in this direction.” 

On skills – an important part of her remit – Minzatu admits that reskilling in an age of automation is a huge challenge. 

“We are proposing a skills guarantee for workers,” Minzatu says. “We will pilot it this year and next year with a limited amount of money to see how we can work with industries, with social partners, with governments. We want to see how we can invest in the training of workers in companies that are restructuring, so that they can face a new job where they are assisted by AI, or where their job description changes in the same company, or when they transition to a similar industry. We are talking with crucial sectors such as automotive and defence; industries where you have these technical STEM skills. After we pilot this, we want it to become a kind of ‘right to train’. In Brussels we talk about this idea a lot; that workers have a right to train, a right to reskill, to upskill.”  

Minzatu admits, though, that not everyone wants to develop technical or STEM or engineering skills, or to reskill in that direction. 

“In Romania I went into universities and high schools to discuss with the young generation. I asked, ‘do you want to study to become an engineer in water systems, or to be a technician?’ And they didn't.  They applied for college, and then they abandoned their university studies. And I said, ‘why?’ They said, ‘Oh, but it's so much easier to be an influencer, to do vlogging on YouTube!’” 

Minzatu goes on to explain; “Young people are of course critically unemployed, more so than other categories. But we see since 2012 until the present how in maths, in reading, in literacy overall, their minimal competence is slowly decreasing. This is making us very vulnerable in relation to our competitors because when companies choose destinations to invest, it's no longer about the cheapest resources or human capital. It's about the availability of quality.” 

Programme prepared by Perrine Desplats, Oihana Almandoz, Isabelle Romero and Luke Brown 

"It is up to us to make the Franco-German engine stronger than ever" – those were the words of French President Emmanuel Macron, when he congratulated Friedrich Merz on becoming Chancellor of Germany. 

Merz’s own political engine had a problem, though; in an unprecedented upset, he failed to win the backing he needed from the German parliament in the first vote on his chancellorship on May 6th, only securing the majority he needed in a second vote later the same day. Does this mean that he’s starting out from a fragile position as he and his French counterpart try to re-invigorate the crucial Franco-German partnership in the EU? Or was it merely a hiccup that will be forgotten once the two leaders get going on common projects, especially in the critical field of defence? We discuss with our guests from France and Germany at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. 

Programme prepared by Perrine Desplats, Oihana Almandoz, Isabelle Romero and Luke Brown 

Our guest is one of France's most prominent commentators on European affairs and global trade issues. Pascal Lamy is coordinator of the Jacques Delors Institutes - named after the visionary of European integration whom Lamy worked with closely in the 1980s and 1990s. Lamy was EU trade commissioner in the early 2000s, and he served two terms as director-general of the World Trade Organization from 2005 to 2013. He is also vice-president of the Paris Peace Forum and has numerous books to his name about Europe, geopolitics, geoeconomics and global governance.

We begin with the US-EU trade dispute, and the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on EU steel and aluminium as well as on other European goods. "I had to deal with issues of this kind when I was European trade commissioner back in the Middle Ages, but on a much smaller scale," Lamy says wryly. "There is a zone where you can retaliate in pinching the US without shooting yourself in the foot. The usual candidates – Harley Davidson [motorcycles], orange juice or Kentucky Bourbon were already on my list (when I was the commissioner). But if there had to be retaliation this time, it would probably not be just on goods, but also on services, which is a much more complex area – whether that's in financial services, where the US have an extremely large position in Europe, or in digital services. So that would be new ground to be covered."

Lamy implies that the EU may end up having to retaliate against the US tariffs, one the current 90-day "truce" ends. "The EU has two options. One is to try to negotiate. And if that doesn’'t work, the second option is to retaliate," Lamy states. "Now, the question for Mr. Trump is, 'is there anything which you believe would ease transatlantic trade tensions and which we could negotiate together?' So far, as far as I know, there is no answer to this question. There have been repeated trips by Commissioner Šefčovič to Washington to try and identify some sort of negotiating corridor. 'What are you looking for? I can tell you what I am looking for. Then let’s structure some sort of trade-off.' But there is zero signal on the US side for the moment."

Does Lamy see the dispute ultimately going to the World Trade Organization? "If the US maintains tariffs that clearly violate their WTO commitments, then countries will have the right to retaliate and seek compensation," he replies. "You are allowed to offset the damage done to you by another damage that you impose on the US economy. At the end of the day, it's a lose-lose game. But there has to be a price for a country which belongs to an international organisation and which has taken firm commitments [to that organisation]."

We turn to the economic situation in France, which is a concern to many both in France and the EU. Lamy believes that debt is "the Achilles heel of the French economy. I entered professional life in 1975, and the French Republic has not had one balanced budget since 1975. And that's not normal. So we really have to, at some stage, bite the bullet and reduce public expenditure. None of the political forces in France really have a strategy to do that. And the public mood in France is pro-expenditure and against taxes. We've seen the results."

What would Lamy's former mentor Jacques Delors, who was president of the European Commission in the 1980s and 1990s, make of the direction that Europe is now taking, if he had lived to see it? "He would say, 'the world has changed. Europe needs to be more powerful'," Lamy replies. "Whether we like it or not, this a necessity imposed by the context." Lamy goes on: "We will not become more powerful if our economy is not stronger. So the first step to political power is to reform our economies, and to exploit the huge untapped potential of the internal market. This is a necessity. Then, of course, more investment in defence is a no-brainer."

Programme prepared by Agnès Le Cossec, Perrine Desplats, Oihana Almandoz, Isabelle Romero and Luke Brown

The EU faces long and likely tortuous negotiations on its next big budget, as the current one runs out in 2027. Many say the bloc shouldn't have to choose between funding defence – the current big priority – and financing the green transition, the welfare state, development aid and so on. But even if these different areas are equally important, the reality is that there are tough choices ahead for the EU, as political factions emphasise their own priorities and member states defend their national interests.

The European Commission, Parliament and member states are already working on their respective positions for the post-2027 MFF, or multi-financial framework. In the current period, from 2021 to 2027, spending works out to an average of €173 billion per year.

We sit down with two MEPs to discuss what could change in the next MFF, and what sacrifices might need to be made.

Programme prepared by Isabelle Romero, Luke Brown, Oihana Almandoz and Perrine Desplats

We sit down with France's minister-delegate for Europe, Benjamin Haddad, to take stock of diplomacy around Ukraine and the US-EU standoff over trade tariffs. Haddad lived in the US and worked for top think tanks there, including the Atlantic Council and the Hudson Institute. He wrote a book entitled "Paradise Lost: Trump’s America and the end of European illusions" during the first Trump presidency. With that theme in mind, we also touch on European competitiveness, research and innovation.

Asked about the diplomatic prospects for reaching a breakthrough on Ukraine, Haddad says: "We've seen the strikes by Russia continue every day. Every day, horrific strikes against civilians, against infrastructure, against the Ukrainian military. And we’ve seen maximalist demands by Russia on demilitarisation and neutralisation. We Europeans share the objective of the United States, which is to find a solution to end this war and to have a long and lasting peace. That is in the interest of Ukrainians, of Europeans and of the United States. But now it's up to Russia to make up its mind, because it is continuing to renege on this."

Asked what form European security guarantees for Ukraine could take, Haddad explains: "This could be a deployment of contingents in key strategic points of Ukraine. Of course not fighting forces, not forces on the frontline, but reassurance forces like it is the case today in the Baltic states, in Poland or in Romania. It's fundamentally in our interest to have an independent, sovereign Ukraine that can continue, that can rebuild, that can continue its European orientation."

Turning to the US tariffs imposed on the EU, which he calls "completely unjustified", Haddad states: "We want to be able to find a solution that's in the interest of everyone and to be able to de-escalate. Right now, we have a situation where you have [a] 10 percent tariff on European goods, and 25 percent on steel and aluminum. This cannot be accepted as a sort of 'new normal' of the trade relationship. So let's have a negotiation. But we have the instruments at the European level to defend our interests. The EU is not weak, and President Trump is the first one to say so."

Haddad elaborates: "Beyond just this trade dimension, what's the question that's being asked right now? It's the question of European competitiveness. The best way to react to this is to focus on ourselves, to focus on supporting our innovators, our companies, our SMEs, to make sure that the €300 billion in European savings that cross the Atlantic every year to fund US stock markets, stay in Europe. That they stay in Europe to support companies in AI and quantum [technologies], in the green transition and in defence. Those companies need funding and capital. They want to be able to expand. But too often they still see too many impediments in trying to develop all across Europe, because you still have different regulatory standards."

"There are so many opportunities for Europe if we make the right decision, if we take this moment as a historical turning point, to focus once again on our reforms and our investment," Haddad concludes.

Programme prepared by Perrine Desplats, Luke Brown and Isabelle Romero

Romania is about to re-run a high-stakes presidential election, fuelled by a political crisis that has engulfed the country for the last five months. At the end of November, the ultranationalist Calin Georgescu sent shockwaves through the EU by winning the first round of the vote. But the Constitutional Court annulled the result in December, because of allegations of electoral violations and manipulation through social media. Indeed, the role played by TikTok has come under intense scrutiny, with the European Commission now saying that it has grounds to suspect that the platform was in breach of its obligations under the EU's Digital Services Act.

Georgescu is banned from the repeat vote on May 4, but Brussels still has plenty to worry about in Romania, as the far-right AUR, led by Gheorghe Simion, is polling strongly, and the allegations of Kremlin meddling in European elections – something that Moscow firmly rejects – have not gone away.

We delve into what's at stake with three MEPs.

Programme prepared by Isabelle Romero, Luke Brown and Perrine Desplats