Talking Europe

The news of another migrant drama off the coast of Italy on February 26 has prompted familiar expressions of shock by EU leaders, as well as familiar calls for the EU to rethink its approach to migration and asylum. Dozens of people are thought to have died in the Mediterranean this year, not just near Italy, but off the coasts of Libya and Tunisia too.

Before February 24, 2022, few could have imagined that Ukraine would be awarded candidate status to join the EU in the space of just a few months. But the war on Ukraine has transformed the relationship between Kyiv and Brussels, evident not just in the various bilateral visits at the highest level, but also in the reforms that the Ukrainian government is undertaking. Ukraine’s ambassador to the EU, Vsevolod Chentsov, assesses the current state of affairs and outlines the steps ahead.

Talking Europe hosts one the EU's most hawkish voices on Russia, Urmas Paet, who was Estonia’s foreign minister from 2005 to 2014. He is now an MEP and vice-president of the foreign affairs committee in the European Parliament. Paet outlines his hopes for a stronger EU defence capability and for more transparency on frozen Russian assets, as well as accountability for alleged war crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine.

Europe is becoming more aware of itself as an economic and trading power – that’s the message from France’s secretary of state for European affairs, Laurence Boone. She talks about the new tools the EU has given itself to take on unfair competition, especially from Chinese companies, but she also downplays the warnings of a possible conflict with the United States over subsidies. Boone also outlines the latest moves when it comes to sanctions on Russia and EU support for Ukraine and Moldova.

Ukraine is burning through ammunition faster than the West can resupply it. That was the stark backdrop to the meeting of the so-called Ramstein group of Ukraine’s allies in Brussels on February 14. The huge challenge for Kyiv is not just to secure weapons such as fighter jets, but to keep munitions flowing to those arms that have already been delivered. NATO’s chief has admitted that this has now become a grinding war of attrition.

In this special travelogue, FRANCE 24's Caroline de Camaret and Luke Brown follow EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell step by step through the EU-Ukraine summit that happened last week in Kyiv. Our team accompanies him on the train, on the plane, in meetings and on a visit to a mine clearance operation. Borrell analyses his relations with his European and Ukrainian counterparts as well as the EU's support for the war and shares his geopolitical vision. We discover European diplomacy in action on the ground and behind the scenes, all the while collecting impressions of the trip.

Iran has long been one of the world's most prolific executioners. But it seems to have taken the death penalty to a new level recently, with dozens of people executed in the last few weeks, according to the Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights. The UN has denounced what it calls state-sanctioned killing, while campaigners say capital punishment has been weaponised to intimidate those who have been protesting since of the death of Mahsa Amini. She died following her arrest last September, after allegedly violating the Islamic Republic's dress code for women. The EU's response has included sanctions and a strongly-worded resolution in the European Parliament. But what more should the bloc be doing?

Talking Europe hosts Mark Gitenstein, the US ambassador to the EU and a close confidant of President Joe Biden since the 1970s. Gitenstein took up his position in Brussels a year ago, and it proved to be a baptism of fire, with the war in Ukraine starting just a few weeks into his job. We ask him about transatlantic cooperation on Ukraine and the recent tensions between Brussels and Washington in the light of the US Inflation Reduction Act, which the EU fears will put European companies at a competitive disadvantage.

For months, European leaders have sought a united response to the US Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA. That plan, announced by the White House last year, favours American-made climate technology through subsidies and tax credits. But EU chiefs say the policy discriminates against Washington's closest partner, Europe. The panelists in this debate agree that that the IRA poses a major challenge to the European economy, but disagree on the way forward. "We need a major subsidy programme to re-industrialise Europe," says MEP Martin Schirdewan. But MEP Christophe Hansen counters: "Fighting subsidies with subsidies is the wrong way. It will play big EU countries off against small ones, and damage the internal market, which is turning 30 years old," he says.

Emily O'Reilly, who heads the EU Ombudsman, says she has been stonewalled by the European Commission when asking for information in relation to the "Pfizergate" affair. At the core of this controversy is an exchange of text messages between the EU Commission chief and the CEO of Pfizer in the run-up to a major contract signed between the EU and the pharmaceutical company for a Covid-19 vaccine. O'Reilly says this is a very important issue of citizens' trust in the EU. She also weighs in on the various transparency reform plans in the wake of the Qatargate bribery scandal that continues to ripple across the European Parliament.