Talking Europe

Our guest recently described the EU's action on cohesion – levelling up Europe's diverse regions – as "more than a policy: rather, a guiding principle to strengthen and unite Europe" in an op-ed. Elisa Ferreira has been the EU Commissioner in charge of Cohesion and Reforms since 2019. On Talking Europe, we discuss the outcome of the European elections, and whether new spending priorities – including on defence – could end up competing with cohesion funding needs. Despite her warnings on that, Ferreira remains optimistic. "I trust that we Europeans will be intelligent enough not to fragment Europe in such difficult times," she tells the programme. We also showcase a best-of our cohesion reports over the past year, filmed by Luke Brown and Johan Bodin.

Ferreira addresses the rise in far-right parties in the June 2024 EU elections – a vote that was obvious in poorer regions which, perhaps paradoxically, have benefited from cohesion funding. "If there is no progress, if people feel that the next generation will have a worse life than their own lives, then people start doubting if there is a place for them in this economy and in this Europe. And then they start blaming people, blaming someone for this lack of future. So it is important that we give a dimension of mutual support, with different intensities and with different instruments, because in certain regions you still need to solve roads or basic infrastructures. In other regions you just need to help these regions to go through their transitions. The solidarity across citizens and regions is what makes Europe a success project."

Turning to the battle for the top EU jobs following the election, Ferreira comments: "I would like to make sure, with all the results that we have from the Parliament, that we have a pro-European group of leaders that manage to keep Europe together, that put cohesion at the centre of the agenda and at the same time prepare Europe to be strong and competitive, and create well-paid jobs inside Europe and good businesses inside Europe, so that young people can have a good and prosperous life and have families if they so wish without leaving Europe."

Ferreira admits that procedures for beneficiaries of cohesion funds still need to be simplified – as the High-Level Report on the Future of Cohesion Policy recommended earlier this year – but she insists that this cannot come at the expense of safeguards needed to prevent fraud. "We have got to make sure that we know where the money goes, that we have instruments to prevent fraud and wrongdoing completely. We reach very high standards every year. In terms of fraud, the level is less than 1 percent, when we close the accounts at the end of every funding period. But even less than 1 percent is too much," she says.

"I think the likely evolution of cohesion policy is to be simpler," Ferreira goes on. "But that also requires more capacity at regional level to explain, to make the right diagnosis on what is blocking regions' development. Because the purpose of the funds is not to create a permanent subsidy. It is to create the conditions to not need subsidies later on."

Programme produced by Sophie Samaille, Isabelle Romero and Anaïs Boucher

Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the DG Regional and Urban Policy. Neither the European Union nor the DG Regional and Urban Policy can be held responsible for them.

In the end, the centre held. The far right's gains in this month's European elections, while historic, were not the continent-wide romp that some Europe-watchers had predicted. After the nail biting, the groups that set the agenda in the old European Parliament are not much different from those in the newly elected body. But nationalist conservative and hard-right parties do hold about a quarter of the seats in parliament, potentially giving them lots of sway on policies ranging from climate change to immigration to farm subsidies. If they were to coalesce in a grand coalition – a big if, given the far right's divisions – they could tear up the European playbook as we know it. We discuss what's at stake with two MEPs.

Programme prepared by Isabelle Romero, Sophie Samaille and Anaïs Boucher

Pascal Lamy, a 77-year-old "globalist" Frenchman who has staked his decades-long career on the idea that more Europe is always better than less, has told FRANCE 24 he's hopeful that the solid gains by hard-right and Eurosceptic parties in the EU elections will spur Europe's 500 million citizens to build more bridges. Speaking to Douglas Herbert, Lamy also discussed the new political landscape in his native France, following President Emmanuel Macron's shock decision to call snap elections. He predicted that the most likely outcome is that France will have "an extreme-right government sometime in July".

Lamy, a former two-term head of the World Trade Organization who was once ranked in the top 50 of the world's leading thinkers by the British magazine Prospect, built his reputation as a champion of pro-European causes during the nine years he served as chief of staff to European Commission President Jacques Delors, from 1985 to 1994.

Lamy told FRANCE 24 that the rise in voter turnout in these European elections from five years ago, though slight  – 51 percent, up from 50.6 percent in 2019 – suggested that people cared more, not less, about Europe "due to the fact that the world has become a terrible place for many people".

In an opinion piece for The New York Times that he wrote in 2012, when Greece was at the centre of Europe’s debt crisis, and many saw the EU as teetering on the brink, Lamy wrote that "the European stage must be lit up for the European project to advance".

Lamy said the European stage is "lit up" today in a way that could galvanise Europe's citizens as they face a difficult geopolitical map.

"If you're caught between [Vladimir] Putin, Xi Jinping and, possibly, [Donald] Trump, then the notion that you should coalesce, get your act together, is much more obvious than in normal, peaceful times. Fortunately, this is where we are and this is the reason why I believe with EU integration, there is probably more to come." He added: "Hopefully, although I am not sure."

Lamy echoed the view of political analysts who said a far-right earthquake had not come to pass, with centrist parties holding their ground perhaps enough to prevent extreme parties from blocking key legislation on issues ranging from climate to migration to trade.

"There was some push to the right, but this push was contained," Lamy said. "So, yes, we will have a slightly more right-wing European Parliament, although what really matters in a parliamentary system with a large variety of parties is whether the government, that is to say, the Commission [which proposes and enforces laws and implements the EU budget], can rely on a stable majority."

Asked about the far-right's especially strong performance in his native France, where the National Rally party led by Jordan Bardella trounced President Emmanuel Macron's centrist Renaissance party 31.5 percent to 14.6 percent, Lamy attributed the rout to the quirks of the French political system.

Shortly after the result, Macron shocked the country, including many of his own close allies, by dissolving parliament and calling snap national elections, to be held in two stages on June 30 and July 7.

"We have a presidential system which is very different from others in the European Union," Lamy said. "So we have a sort of European election that looks like a [US-style] midterm election … It was an anti-Macron result."

He predicted that the most likely outcome will be that France has "an extreme-right government sometime in July".

Some political observers have called Macron's dissolution move a dangerous rolling of the dice, with some likening it to former British prime minister David Cameron's decision to hold a Brexit referendum that he probably never believed had a chance of passing.

But the debate over Macron's motives is far from clear-cut.

Was he calculating that the French, after using the European election vote to blow off steam and vent their anger at Macron, as some have suggested, would behave differently when they head to the ballot box in France, knowing that the far right could be on the brink of power in their own country?

Put differently, was Macron betting that his compatriots would not vote at home the way they did in Europe?

Lamy suggested another explanation for Macron's actions, one that has more to do with what happens when his current – and final – term in office ends in 2027.

"He knows that for the next three years to come he is a sort of lame duck. No majority in parliament, muddling through, and that leads to a likely scenario where [National Rally standard bearer] Marine Le Pen and the extreme right will become president. His calculation may be, 'Let's have them in government and show that they don't do what they said they would do, like most populist movements. And then when 2027 comes, people will be able to see the difference between a populist party that pretends it will do miracles, and the reality in government.'"

Charles de Gaulle famously complained that governing a country with 246 kinds of cheese was all but impossible. Less known is what De Gaulle said just before that: "Only peril can bring the French together". President Emmanuel Macron had peril on his mind when he stunned his compatriots by calling a snap national election after the far right routed his pro-European party in Sunday's European elections. Macron is betting that faced with peril – the risk of being governed by the most extreme-right party since the Nazi-era Vichy government – French voters might put their grievances aside and unite against what he sees as a common threat. But will they? Douglas Herbert puts the question to Sandro Gozi, a French MEP from the centrist Renew Europe group in the European Parliament, and Thierry Mariani, a French MEP from the right-wing Identity and Democracy group, which includes Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally.

Programme prepared by Perrine Desplats, Sophie Samaille, Isabelle Romero and Anaïs Boucher

He's been seen campaigning on empty beer crates in pubs and playing table tennis. Talking Europe catches up with the lead candidate of the Party of The European Socialists (PES) and asks him what he has learned in this EU election campaign, away from the buttoned-up confines of the Berlaymont building in Brussels. We ask him if he will block the nomination of Ursula von der Leyen for a second term at the head of the European Commission if she goes for a tie-up between her centre-right EPP group and the hard right ECR. Schmit, who is currently also EU Commissioner for jobs and social rights, answers: "If Mrs. von der Leyen tries an arrangement with the extreme right, she will not be able to count on the support of the Socialists."

Programme prepared by Isabelle Romero, Elitsa Gadeva, Anaïs Boucher and Perrine Desplats

Five years after the fall of the so-called Islamic State caliphate in Iraq and Syria, the EU's anti-terrorism coordinator sees a more diffuse threat, coming from many different directions and spreading online. This is what Bartjan Wegter calls "mutant jihadism". With FRANCE 24's Armen Georgian, he discusses Afghanistan, IS-KP (Islamic State – Khorasan Province), and how the French authorities are trying to make the upcoming Olympic games secure – efforts that Wegter praises as "impressive". Wegter admits that more needs to be done to tackle what he calls "borderline content" online that might be inciting hatred and fuelling individuals' radicalisation. He also draws attention to new forms of terrorist financing such as cryptocurrencies – something that the EU and national authorities should keep a close eye on, he says.

Programme prepared by Perrine Desplats, Elitsa Gadeva and Anaïs Boucher

Voters under 30 account for a sixth of Europe's electorate. That's an important group for political parties to win over during this EU election season. Young people are less likely to take part in European elections than older generations, which makes them a prize for parties that know how to clinch their votes. But those aged 18 to 30 aren’t just a demographic. Their choices are a bellwether of what the priorities of Europeans will look like in the future, for instance on climate change and energy independence. We discuss this with our guests.

Programme prepared by Perrine Desplats, Sophie Samaille, Isabelle Romero and Anaïs Boucher

A Polish prime minister saying he's ashamed of his Polish identity. A flood of migrants assaulting people on the streets of Bulgaria's capital. The grandmother of a top European official shaking hands with Adolf Hitler. All of these are fake stories; part of what European officials say is a surge in disinformation ahead of next month's European elections. Much of it comes from Russia, without love. 

The goal is to confuse voters and sow distrust, doubt and division about the election process – and about democracy itself. 

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen – the one whose grandmother never shook Hitler's hand – has promised to set up a "European Democracy Shield," if she's re-elected for a second term, in order to fight back against foreign meddling. 

But is Europe's fight against fake stories like trying to empty the ocean with a teaspoon?

We discuss what's at stake with two MEPs.

Programme prepared by Isabelle Romero, Perrine Desplats, Anaïs Boucher and Sophie Samaille

This week we take a closer look at the Green Transition in Europe - from the invaluable invertebrates in the soil beneath us, to the end of obsolete coal mines and the revolution in transport, our show investigates just how fast Europe is becoming greener - and how to ensure no-one is left behind in the race to decarbonise.

Ursula von der Leyen made the Green Transition one of the landmark measures of her term as president of the European Commission, vowing that the EU will be carbon neutral by 2050. To achieve that goal, almost every aspect of Europeans’ way of life will have to be revolutionised, from homes to jobs, food-production and farming to heavy industry and transport, the Europe that Brussels wants in the coming decades will face major upheaval.

To make that possible, the EU’s solution is the Green Deal: the baton of stricter legislation accompanied by the carrot of financial compensation. One key pillar, for example, is the Just Transition Fund which will mobilise €55 billion to aid regions that have until now been reliant on coal for jobs and energy.

Despite those efforts, the Green Transition remains deeply controversial, with farmers’ protests in recent months highlighting the difficulties the sector feels it faces with the forced march towards greener practices – but they are not the only ones: the car industry also has concerns that imposing the end of the petrol/diesel motors by 2035 will handicap the sector – which employs 13 million people in the EU – faced with competition from the United States and China.

In this special report, our reporters Johan Bodin and Luke Brown travelled across Europe to find out just how the Green Transition is affecting Europeans’ lives: from Tallinn in Estonia, Green capital 2023, which is renovating its Soviet-era housing stock, to a French start-up which hopes to get millions of Earthworms to help farmers use less chemical fertiliser, as well as the regions of Poland where the closures of lignite mines mean thousands of miners need new jobs to avoid an economic catastrophe. A tour of Europe undergoing the Green Transition – despite the difficulties.

Editor in chief : Caroline de Camaret.

Reporters : Luke Brown et Johan Bodin

Video editing: Aurélien Porcher et Fabrice Briault.

Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the DG Regional and Urban Policy. Neither the European Union nor the DG Regional and Urban Policy can be held responsible for them.

Another edition of our EU election series, on individual countries and regions in the EU: The Republic of Ireland is considered to be one of the most pro-EU member states, and the Eurobarometer poll that came out this spring bears that out: 67 percent of respondents said that the EU conjures up a positive image. But being pro-European does not necessarily mean supporting the traditional pro-EU parties in Ireland. Indeed, this election campaign has seen increased support for independent candidates. Is that trend related to the big social challenges that Ireland is facing - housing, and the cost of living?

Programme prepared by Sophie Samaille, Perrine Desplats, Agnès Le Cossec and Paul Guianvarc'h