Talking Europe

In an interview with Talking Europe, the EU's former top diplomat Josep Borrell reacts to the Democrats' victory in the US midterm elections, warning that US President Donald Trump is still "a very dangerous person for the world".

Josep Borrell spent five years at the heart of European diplomacy as the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. He helped steer the bloc through some of the defining international crises of recent years, from Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine to the Gaza conflict.

A former Spanish foreign minister, he is now president of the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB), one of Europe's leading think tanks.

In this interview, we look at what the US midterm results could mean for Europe. Will the so-called blue tsunami, the decisive victory for the Democrats in Congress, lead to a more constructive transatlantic relationship? Or could a more constrained Donald Trump domestically actually mean a more erratic president on foreign policy?

According to Borrell, despite the Democrats' election victory, Trump still retains veto powers and remains a "very dangerous person for the world". The former top EU diplomat also comments on the fractured transatlantic relationship, and how "Europeans have been playing the game of submission with the US".

When it comes to the war in Ukraine, Borrell is not optimistic about improvements in US funding, arguing that Europeans have effectively been "paying the bill".

We also discuss what message the Republicans' heavy midterm defeat could send to right-wing and far-right parties hoping to gain ground in Europe. With elections approaching in countries like France and Spain, Borrell believes these results are "encouraging" for the left.

However, he says it remains to be seen whether Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's decision to call a snap election for November 29 will prove to be a gamble that pays off, or whether Spain could see a far-right party enter government for the first time since the death of Francisco Franco in 1975.

Programme prepared by Oihana Almandoz, Isabelle Romero, Florine Hausfater, Perrine Desplats and Charlotte Prudhomme

A growing wave of discontent is sweeping across Europe. What began in France as student protests over deteriorating school conditions, teacher shortages and an education system under pressure has quickly grown into something much bigger: a groundswell of discontent over the rising cost of living, unaffordable housing and struggling public services.

The unrest has spread beyond France, with demonstrations in Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal. While many marches have remained peaceful, some have descended into violence, with clashes, looting and destruction. The response from authorities has also come under scrutiny for excessive use of force and mass arrests.

This discontent comes against a backdrop of mounting economic pressure. France, the EU's second-largest economy, is facing sluggish growth and rising public debt, projected to reach 120 percent of GDP by 2027. Meanwhile, inflation across both the European Union and the eurozone hit 3.8 percent in September, up from 2.1 percent in 2024.

Is Europe facing a wider crisis of public discontent and could this be a tipping point for governments already struggling to maintain public trust? 

Programme prepared by Perrine Desplats, Oihana Almandoz, Isabelle Romero, Florine Hausfater and Charlotte Prudhomme

We speak to the influential and long-serving president of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), Koen Lenaerts. The court is the EU's supreme judicial authority, responsible for ensuring that European law is interpreted and applied across all 27 member states.

Lenaerts applauds the European Parliament's decision to award its annual Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to the International Criminal Court (ICC), because its work "is indeed important in the context where the world is more and more governed by autocratic leaders."

Read moreInternational Criminal Court wins EU's Sakharov human rights prize

We also touch on rule-of-law issues inside the EU, and on the legal aspects of the apparent hardening of migration policy across the bloc.

Programme prepared by Oihana Almandoz, Isabelle Romero, Perrine Desplats and Florine Hausfater

From the EU's perspective, the second Trump presidency has felt even more destabilising than the first. From making the false claim that the EU was set up to "screw" the United States, to slapping tariffs on European goods, to making territorial claims on Greenland, to doing a diesel deal with Vladimir Putin and telling Ukraine to get a new president, Donald Trump has more than ruffled feathers on this side of the ocean. He has shaken the very foundations of the historical transatlantic relationship.

Could things change after the US midterm elections in November? Will we see "Trump lite"? Or the opposite? 

We discuss what's at stake with two MEPs.

Programme prepared by Isabelle Romero, Oihana Almandoz, Perrine Desplats and Florine Hausfater

Estonia's counterintelligence service has recently warned that sabotage operations orchestrated by Russian special services have reached a new and dangerous phase in Europe, with targets no longer being purely symbolic. Talking Europe sits down with the country's foreign minister, Margus Tsahkna, to discuss the security situation in Estonia and the European Union in general.

Speaking of undercover operations against Estonia attributed to Russian special services, Tsahkna says: "We have witnessed terrorist attacks, sabotage attacks, against the defence industry companies. We just attributed, three weeks ago, one serious attack against our defence industry company organised by the Russian secret services. We caught these three guys. They are in prison now. We see an increase in the number of these attacks. But we also see that they are not against the Baltic States as much as against Europe as a whole. We (in the Baltics) are not at the top of this list. Russia is increasing the pressure on Europe. This is about terror attacks, sabotage attacks, cyberattacks, and any kind of disinformation to divide our unity and to divide our societies as well."

Tsahkna distinguishes between this hybrid war and Russia’s actual military capabilities, which he implies have been degraded by its involvement in Ukraine.

"When I served as a defence minister in 2016-2017, we had permanently 120,000 Russian troops on the other side of our borders, very close, ready to go within 48 hours. These troops were literally sent to Ukraine; they are not existing anymore. They are dead," he says.

Tsahkna goes on: "We know exactly what to do on the military level. We have NATO troops. Actually, French troops are located in Estonia. They are 100 percent integrated with our troops. We have very solid NATO regional defence plans. So this is not the main concern. The main concern now is to keep all of us in Europe united. And we need to understand that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is testing all of us. He's very carefully watching how we are acting, how united we are, how we are responding."

On diplomatic moves to try to reach a ceasefire in Ukraine, Tsahkna warns that Europe cannot, and should not, become a kind of neutral arbiter.

"Europe is taking part in initiatives, and we just had a meeting in Oslo, together with the US representative and President Zelensky and also the Nordic presidents, prime ministers and the Norwegian prime minister, " Tsahkna says. "So it's not about whether Europe is connected. Of course, we must be there. But we must also understand the position. We cannot let ourselves be dragged into the mediating position that Putin really wants: appointing a special envoy and then trying to mediate between Ukraine and Russia. So we are part of the process, of course, but we are not in the mediating position, a so-called neutral position, in which we would somehow stop our sanctions or give the frozen assets back to Russia. So this is important to understand. "

Tsahkna also has a few observations about the recent protests, violence and unrest in France.

"Elections are coming next year in France that are so important for Europe," he notes. "Of course, using violence is not a solution. And in Estonia we have been paying a lot of attention to keeping our society united, not divided. How to not go to the way of radicalisation. Because divisions in society are making you weaker as a country and as a nation. But of course, it's a matter for France and for the French how to have this dialogue about the future. You know, I'm coming from [the] north. We are very calm people!"

Programme prepared by Oihana Almandoz, Isabelle Romero, Perrine Desplats and Ahmed Hassaine

A marathon EU summit on October 15-16 failed to produce a breakthrough on the European Union's next long-term budget. Although EU leaders put on a brave face at the end of the talks by saying that "the way forward is clearer", EU capitals appear deadlocked on what that path is. At stake is the EU's ability to finance its strategic priorities from 2028 to 2034. The main dividing line is between the so-called "frugal countries", who want deep cuts to the proposed budget, and the "friends of cohesion", who say that cuts are not the answer.

The clock is ticking, not least because next year will see 10 parliamentary or presidential elections in EU member states, which could well change the political balance across the bloc, while the European Parliament will have its say as well.

We delve into the issue with two MEPs.

Programme prepared by Isabelle Romero, Perrine Desplats and Oihana Almandoz

Our guest is veteran French journalist and commentator Bernard Guetta, who is a Member of the European Parliament for the centrist Renew group. He tells the programme that Donald Trump is "a liar, because he tried to tell the American people that Zelensky and the Ukrainian resistance were responsible for the price of diesel. This is a pure lie. He (Trump) is responsible because he started the war with Iran." Guetta goes on to say that "without American intelligence sharing, Ukraine is weaker and weaker. That's terrible, to see the president of the United States giving a hand to Putin against Ukraine."

Programme prepared by Oihana Almandoz, Perrine Desplats and Isabelle Romero

As the international context becomes more challenging for the European Union, the bloc is looking to boost its ties with like-minded allies. Canada is part of that architecture that the EU says it wants to build. The big news of EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's State of the Union speech in September was that Canada could become an associate member – an arrangement that does not exist for the EU's partners at the moment.

The EU-Canada summit, set to take place at the end of October in Montreal, might provide some clues as to what this enhanced relationship will look like. We delve into the topic with two MEPs.

Programme prepared by Oihana Almandoz, Isabelle Romero and Perrine Desplats

2020 was an annus horribilis. Covid stalked the land. Lockdowns, curfews and social distancing were the order of the day. But there was a silver lining: European countries showed themselves to be capable of great solidarity, jointly procuring vaccines and then agreeing on a mammoth post-Covid recovery fund, the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). That fund has disbursed €450 billion in grants and loans to EU member states since 2021. As the RRF enters its crucial final phase, we take stock of the situation with Pierre Moscovici, the French member of the European Court of Auditors (ECA).

The ECA has just presented a report on the health of the EU's finances, which also talks about the implementation of the RRF.

Moscovici says that the creation of the Covid recovery plan "was a crucial decision. Some people, and I was one of them, had been arguing for Eurobonds, for common borrowing, in order to invest together in Europe. And this was never possible due to some political positions between member states and the EU Commission. And finally, because of Covid, this was done. This was called Next Generation EU. It was the idea that we could borrow together some €750 billion in order to sustain growth, to be capable of facing the consequences of Covid. And this was absolutely a success. Some countries, for example Spain or Italy, massively benefited from this fund and were able to recover swiftly."

Moscovici elaborates: "The question is, is this a one-off, or should we do that again? Should it become permanent? Should it also inspire the Multiannual Financial Framework (the EU's long-term budget) that the member states and the Council are now preparing? Because if we want to do that again – that's what Mario Draghi (the author of a seminal report on EU competitiveness) is proposing that we do massively. He believes that we need to have €1.2 trillion worth of investments in defence, in greening the economy, in order to face the future. But to do that, we also have to know what has been working in the RRF and what has not been working."

Moscovici sums up: "The Recovery and Resilience Facility now also has to be evaluated not only on what has been disbursed, but also on the results. And that's what the European Court of Auditors is wondering or examining or evaluating with facts and findings. So our main concern and our motto is 'let's go to results'."

Moving onto broader economic issues, Moscovici highlights the problem of debt, both at the EU and at the national level.

"There two different things," he explains. "The one thousand billion euros of debt (that is projected to be reached in 2027) refers to the European Union. And then there is the problem of national countries. In France we have a debt-to-GDP ratio of 120 percent. That means that the servicing of debt is over €90 billion a year. The consequences of that are clear. When you have so much to reimburse, you cannot finance pensions, health, research and innovation, or schools. We are now in a in a crisis with education. We are in a crisis with the price of energy. That's the consequence when a country is indebted. The EU is not in the same situation. It still has a triple A (rating). But what the European Court of Auditors has flagged is that the EU has a debt as well. It is significant. The repayments will last for decades. And we must take care of that debt."

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

It has been dubbed "the PISA shock". Countries that had been used to their school pupils performing well in test scores are seeing a plunge in standards. The PISA test is an international assessment led by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which measures how well 15‑year‑olds in over 80 countries apply reading, mathematics and science skills to real‑world problems. In the latest rankings, France's results were the worst it has ever had, and Germany's school pupils got their worst PISA report card too.

When it comes to EU member states in the global PISA rankings, the top five performers are Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Austria and Poland. France hovers in 27th place, while the bottom five performers are Malta, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria and Cyprus.

We look at these trends with two MEPs at the European Parliament.

Programme prepared by Isabelle Romero and Perrine Desplats