Talking Europe

At a jam-packed EU summit in Brussels on 23 October, dominated by the thorny issue of using frozen Russian assets, we caught up with the Deputy Minister for European Affairs of Cyprus, Marilena Raouna. Although Belgium was at the centre of haggling over how to turn the Russian assets into a “reparation loan” to help Ukraine, it is not the only country concerned by the issue. Cyprus has frozen €1.2 billion in Russian assets. Raouna emphasises that Cyprus has “completely turned the page” on Russian money flowing through the country and that supporting Ukraine will be a “top priority” when Cyprus assumes the rotating EU presidency in January 2026.

Cyprus’s historically close links with Russia notwithstanding, Raouna pledges that the Cypriot EU presidency will “take an approach of unequivocal, steadfast support for Ukraine on all fronts – political, economic and humanitarian. This is about defending core European principles, including territorial integrity and sovereignty. Cyprus is a member state of the European Union that has part of its territory under occupation by Turkey. We know first-hand what it means to have territorial integrity violated. So this will be a top priority for the Cyprus presidency,” she asserts.

On the question of using frozen Russian assets to aid Ukraine – the issue that dominated the EU summit – Raouna says: “There is broad support for the need to continue supporting Ukraine financially and in its defence capabilities. One of the proposals being discussed in this context is the use of the frozen Russian assets. The point we are making is that we need to ensure these proposals are legally sound, and that they are financially and economically viable for all member states.” In the event, EU leaders did not achieve a breakthrough on the issue and will revisit it at the next summit.

Cyprus itself has frozen more than a billion euros in Russian assets. Raouna insists, however, that the island does not deserve the “Moscow on the Mediterranean” epithet that the media has sometimes used in reference to Russian money on the island.

“There is very clear evidence that Cyprus has completely turned the page in that regard,” she states. “There are independent reports that verify this. President Christodoulides took very concrete steps when he assumed office a little over two and a half years ago. He invited a law enforcement team from the FBI to join our own teams. We have been steadfast in our support of the 19 sanctions packages, and our economy has done away completely with any Russian capital. If anything, we now have a very strong presence of American companies in Cyprus.”

Being something of a bridge between Europe and the Middle East, Cyprus has been an active player in diplomacy on Gaza, and it intends to keep Gaza high on the agenda during its EU presidency.

“When the war in Gaza started, we put forward the Cyprus Maritime Corridor, a humanitarian corridor which was supported by the European Union and by the United Arab Emirates, together with our partners in the region and with Israel. And this corridor is still ongoing,” Raouna says. “We’ve also put forward a six-point plan, which corresponds to a number of points in President Trump’s 20-point plan. We want to facilitate and advance its implementation, and we are now in the crucial initial phase. This is about the EU increasing its footprint in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East, because these regions are inextricably linked with the security of the European Union.”

 

 

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

As political and economic turmoil continues in France, we speak to the influential former EU Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton. A former minister of economy and finance in the French government, Breton gives us his reading of the debt situation in France, as well as of France’s current standing in the European Union. We also talk about the obstacles to a more integrated EU defence industry – something that Breton was closely involved with in the European Commission during his tenure in 2019-2024.

Breton points out that France is in worse shape than Germany, despite experiencing the same problems. "We had the same subprime issues, the same debt problems, the same Covid impact," he says. "And now we are at 116 percent debt versus GDP. Germany is at 62 percent. So it means that probably something is wrong with us. And we need to be very candid and to say to our public opinion that we cannot afford to pay our social benefits [the way we used to]. And we need to discuss together how to reduce our spending."

So has the political deadlock and the mounting debt hurt France's standing in the EU?

"When you are a founding member of the Union like France, you need to behave by example," Breton replies. "And it's true that, since 20 years, we have not kept our commitments. In the Eurogroup, at the Ecofin, when you don't stick to your commitment, it makes you a little bit more weak when you speak to others. That's the reality. Of course it's painful, but I think it's possible to demonstrate to the rest of our partners that we will get back on track."

Breton adds: "France is still a big country. Remember that we have nuclear submarines. We have nuclear aircraft carriers. We are the only ones able to carry deterrence with our nuclear weapons, which is extremely important these days."

Speaking of defence, we discuss the problems facing the EU's European Defence Industry Programme (EDIP). Breton was intimately involved with EDIP's launch as EU Commissioner.

"What is extremely important is that defence stays at the level of member states. This is their sovereignty and it will stay this way. And the European Commission needs to understand that," Breton states. "On the other hand, the Commission has a very important power in industry. You remember we had a big discussion about shells and calibre 155 ammunition that we wanted to deliver to Ukraine. We were manufacturing 500,000 per year, but today, because we put a programme in place, we are producing more than 2 million per year. So are on our way to achieving what Russia is doing. This demonstrates that it's possible to work together to drastically enhance our defence industry."

We ask Breton if it was a good idea for the Commission to talk about creating a "drone wall", in response to the recent presumed Russian drone incursions into European airspace.

"Well, you know, in France this term reminds us of the Maginot Line (a French fortification that the German army bypassed in 1940). You can go around [a drone wall] in a car, or as an individual. So, I mean, it doesn't work this way," Breton says. "But, of course, we need to defend our airspace together. And this was already put into the EU's Strategic Compass in 2023. So we don't need to reinvent the wheel. It's already extremely clear that there are four contested spaces – airspace, space itself, cyberspace and maritime space – where we need to work together."

Programme prepared by Isabelle Romero, Perrine Desplats and Oihana Almandoz

Elections in Europe are a rollercoaster these days. EU elites were relieved when the pro-EU camp won the parliamentary vote in Moldova, but the Czech legislative election turned out quite differently. Andrej Babiš, a populist and self-proclaimed Trumpist, won the ballot, staging a comeback similar to his colleague in neighbouring Slovakia, Robert Fico. Babiš’s victory is clearly a boon to Eurosceptic forces since it was he who, together with Hungary's leader Viktor Orban, set up the Patriots for Europe group in the European Parliament. But does his win have an impact on the EU's help for Ukraine? And on dealing with a more assertive Kremlin, which seems to be testing Europe with drone incursions? We put these questions to two MEPs.

Programme prepared by Oihana Almandoz, Perrine Desplats and Isabelle Romero

Read more about the work of the Special Committee on the European Democracy Shield (EUDS)

Moldovans have voted in what is arguably the country's most pivotal election since independence in 1991. Our guest says that there was "a big danger that pro-Russian forces might have drawn Moldova into Russia's war against Ukraine". But that danger was averted, and voters gave a clear thumbs-up to Moldova's European future and its desire to join the EU. We analyse the result of this parliamentary vote with Nicu Popescu, a former deputy prime minister and former foreign minister of Moldova.

 

"If you look at recent elections in Europe in the last three years, you would see that most incumbents lost in Italy, in the United Kingdom, in Germany, in Poland, in Slovakia, in the United States," Popescu points out. "People have mostly voted against incumbents. So this makes the victory of the governing team in Moldova really exceptional by European standards." 

Popescu elaborates: "The levels of inflation, the economic shock of high energy costs have been bigger on Moldova than they were on Germany or France. And yet Moldovans voted this way because they want to live in a country that is democratic, European and at peace. And there was a big danger (in this election) that pro-Russian forces might have drawn Moldova into Russia's war against Ukraine." 

Popescu details the hybrid warfare that Moldova has experienced – something the Kremlin dismisses as an attempt to distract attention from Europe's problems. "When you say hybrid war, for example in France or Germany, people think of disinformation on social media, and we had a lot of that in Moldova," Popescu states. "We had a lot of cyberattacks on the Central Election Commission’s critical infrastructure. All of that has been happening. But beyond that, Russians have been pumping hundreds of millions of euros into the political system, paying party activists, corrupt journalists, corrupt experts, paying for leaflets for a lot of things that are completely illegal. Russians laid out a scheme where they distributed at least 140,000 bank cards so that they can pay people for their votes. So this was a massive vote-bribing scheme." 

On the recent drone incursions into EU or NATO airspace, Popescu says: "It's a message to scare the Europeans, to say, 'Don't invest in your defence. Be afraid of Russia. Don't help Ukraine, otherwise it will get worse.' Between 2008 and 2022, European leaders missed the fact that Russia is militarising, and they did not take the threat seriously. And we see the result of that today. Europe doesn't have enough means to protect its airports from drones; doesn't have enough means to have sufficient artillery shells to help Ukraine; doesn’t have enough means to keep the Russian military as far away from the rest of Europe as possible." 

We ask Popescu about Moldova's EU membership process, and whether there is "enlargement fatigue" among existing EU members states. 

"The cost of enlargement is a real issue, but a smaller EU would have been today at the mercy of lots of other hostile powers," he counters. "A bigger Europe is a stronger Europe, and that makes French citizens richer and live in peace. Europe consists of mostly small countries. So you add Moldova, you add Slovakia, you add Estonia, you add Portugal or Ireland, and you make Europe more peaceful." 

Will problems with corruption and the judiciary hamper Moldova's EU membership? "Four years ago, when the Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) came to power, Moldova was on 115th place on the Corruption Perceptions Index," Popescu replies. "In the last four years, Moldova improved by roughly 50 places. That's amazingly good progress. But it's also obvious that we need to do a lot more. There is still a lot of corruption left. And this is what people understood (in the election). They saw progress and they want a continuation of that progress." 

Programme prepared by Oihana Almandoz, Perrine Desplats and Paul Guianvarc'h 

Several new portfolios have been created in the current European Commission, to reflect the EU's changing priorities. One of those is a Commissioner for the Mediterranean. This is a crucial region for the EU, as the bloc grapples with difficult issues such as migration, climate and energy. The EU wants to pursue this southern pivot by signing a Pact for the Mediterranean with North African and Middle Eastern countries. Our guest is the EU's Commissioner for the Mediterranean, Dubravka Suica. She is a Croatian centre-right politician and she held the Democracy and Demography portfolio in the first von der Leyen Commission, from 2019 to 2024. She has also been an MEP. 

We begin with this year's UN General Assembly, and the growing number of EU member states that recognised a Palestinian state. "This General Assembly showed a big step forward because more than 160 countries recognised Palestine," Suica states. "And I'm sure that this somehow created new momentum, regardless of some divisions which you mentioned within the EU. We will see in the next Foreign Affairs Council what the situation is among EU member states. I think that we are still not united, but things are going in the right direction, especially now after we have this 21-point plan which was offered by President Trump to both Israel and Palestine."

On the Palestine Donor Group, initially outlined by EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen in her State of the Union speech, Suica says: "We are sure that we will establish this group by the end of this year. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is interested, so we will somehow co-chair this donor group. But this is the moment to invite everyone in the world to help reconstruct Gaza, and to think about how to anticipate the situation after a ceasefire. [My] Mediterranean portfolio is not only North Africa and the Middle East, but also the Gulf countries. Without them, we cannot achieve peace and security in the region. We badly need all the Gulf countries on board."

Suica insists that the new Pact for the Mediterranean, scheduled to be announced by the European Commission on October 16, will be "for the benefit of both sides of the Mediterranean, north and south, because we think that there is a lot of potential in in the Mediterranean. It's about everything. It's about the environment; keeping this area clean and not polluted. It's about trade. It's about development. It's about education. It's not only about migration. Migration is only one of the points within our strategic partnership agreements."

But will this Pact not end up creaming off skilled labour from the southern Mediterranean to plug job shortages in Europe? "We don't want to create brain drain in these countries," Suica answers. "We don't want to take all their doctors, their engineers, their intellectual elite. We are putting people at the centre. It's about young people. They can help us to connect the people of the Mediterranean. This is exactly why I would like to establish a Mediterranean University, be it in Beirut, Alexandria, Fez or Barcelona."

Suica was about to travel to Tunisia, a key partner for the EU, just after our interview. We asked her about the human rights abuses in that country, and whether the EU has been too soft. "With Tunisia, we always insist on transparency," she replies. "We insist on registering migrants, which is not the case at the moment. So this is something that we are working on with them, not only me, but also my colleague, Commissioner Brunner. There is space for improvement. But at the same time, if we are not there, who will be there? We don't want other players, be it Russia, be it China. We want to be there as the European Union."

Demography is part of Suica's portfolio, and we touch on the declining fertility rates in the EU. "When we mention fertility and fertility rates, it's a competence of the member states, not of the European Union," Suica explains. "But we are trying to create an environment for families to thrive, to have housing, to have jobs. We need more kindergartens, nursery homes and so on. In order for people to eventually have more kids. But this is a very serious situation in Europe. When you look at the southern Mediterranean, you see a boom. And in Europe we have a shrinkage."

We sit down with Valdis Dombrovskis, EU Commissioner for Economy and Productivity and a former prime minister of Latvia. He comments on the recent drone incursions into EU airspace. He also discusses France's budget deficit, which is around 5.4 percent of GDP, meaning it is well over the criteria set out in the EU's Stability Pact. 

 

Programme prepared by Perrine Desplats, Oihana Almandoz and Isabelle Romero

We sit down with two MEPs to discuss France's ballooning debt and deficit, both of which are much higher than the limits set out in the EU's Stability Pact. France being the second-largest economy in the EU, its current political and economic instability could also have an impact on the other member states. So how concerned should Europe be? 

Programme prepared by Oihana Almandoz, Perrine Desplats and Isabelle Romero

 

We sat down with Theodoros Rousopoulos, the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the continent’s oldest political body. The assembly, also known as PACE, is sometimes called the driving force of the whole organisation, bringing together parliamentary delegations from 46 member states. But is this parliamentary diplomacy successful in pushing back against the democratic backsliding that is evident within the Council of Europe itself? And what instruments does PACE have to deal with members that do not uphold the core values of human rights, democratic norms and the rule of law? 

Rousopoulos is clearly worried about the rise of populism and authoritarianism, and the attitudes of young people especially. “There is a recent survey which gives us this worrying information that Generation Z does not trust democracy anymore. And it is about 32 percent of Generation Z people in Europe, and about 52 percent in the UK, that believe that the prime minister should not give a damn about parliament. So this is very worrying. The problem is that politicians are keen on flattering the people. They try to be very close to the people in the wrong way. We have to speak the truth to the people. We have to say less during our pre-election periods, and then maybe we will gain the credibility that it is now lost for at least 10 or 20 years.” 

Rousopoulos sees democratic backsliding within the Council of Europe itself. He cites Azerbaijan and Georgia as examples. “In January 2024, the Parliamentary Assembly decided that we are going to challenge the credentials of the Azeri delegation,” he recounts. “That means that we put a strict rule there and we said, if you don't change your behaviour, if you do not release political prisoners, as President Aliyev is doing, then you cannot belong to this assembly. For Georgia, we decided to ratify their credentials. But they didn't like the idea that we asked them to do more. And the prime minister, Mr. Kobakhidze, decided not to attend the assembly. And he said, ‘we don't care about the assembly.’ This is the most dangerous part, because if member states are being allowed to do what I call cherry-picking – staying in the committee of ministers, but not in the assembly – then the next step is that they will not follow the decisions taken by the European Court of Human Rights.” 

“We need to reconsider, because populism is prevailing,” Rousopoulos sums up. “We have authoritarian regimes as member states of the Council of Europe, who believe that they can do everything.” 

We touch on the immigration debate in the UK, and how that impacts calls for the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights. “If we take the cases which have been examined by the European Court of Human Rights, we will see that it is a small percentage – 5 percent, no more than 10 percent – of situations which are related to immigration issues,” Rousopoulos notes. “I understand that there are some (political) problems caused by the decisions taken by the court. But on the other hand, if we do not respect the court's decision, then what is the message that we give to judges in the UK? If a government or an opposition says that we do not respect the decisions taken in Strasbourg, then how can they persuade the people to respect the decisions taken in their own courts?” 

We discuss other specific countries and situations, including Ukraine, and the steps towards the setting up of an international tribunal that the Council of Europe is supporting. “The Claims Commission is the latest decision that we have taken,” Rousopoulos says. “We have, of course, the Registry of Damages.  More than 15,000 people or organisations have appealed to this registry damage list. Now we have the Claims Commission, which is a new treaty which will be decided soon in our assembly. And this follows and complements the registry of damages. The next step is to ask for the money. Will that be from the frozen assets of Russians in Europe? Or another way? We will see. But it is very important to build the basis for the next step.” 

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

As the academic year begins, many students will embark on what has become a rite of passage: studying abroad for part of their course. However, the Erasmus+ programme is not limited to university undergraduates and postgraduates. Since its expansion in 2014, apprentices, trainers, job-seekers, and others have also benefited from these international exchanges. Founded in 1987 as Erasmus, the scheme has supported the personal and professional growth of more than 16 million people. Currently, 33 countries participate fully in Erasmus+ activities, including all 27 EU member states. Yet, Erasmus+ faces challenges, particularly regarding social inclusion. We discuss these issues with our MEPs, who serve on the European Parliament’s Committee on Culture and Education (CULT).

Programme prepared by Isabelle Romero, Perrine Desplats and Agnès le Cossec

 

 

Read more about the work of the Culture an Education Committee in the European Parliament (CULT)

Amid the doom and gloom about France's political crisis and the public deficit, our guest maintains that the country is still economically attractive and still the second power in the European Union. Clément Beaune is France's High Commissioner for Strategy and Planning, a former secretary of state for European Affairs and a former minister-delegate for Europe in French governments. He supposes that the current political fragmentation will not disappear with elections in the years to come, and urges French political forces to find the kind of compromises that have enabled coalition governments to function in other European countries.

Beaune recaps how France has burned through three prime ministers in the space of a year, and offers his analysis. "Since the snap elections in 2024, we have a parliament which is fragmented into basically three big political forces: on the left, in the centre and on the right or far right," he explains. "And in any parliamentary democracy across Europe, there would be a kind of a toolkit or toolbox to discuss, to find compromises, maybe to have a roadmap for a few months, at least on the budget in particular. In Germany, in Italy, in Spain, in the Netherlands it would be kind of normal, natural. In France it's new, but we have to get used to it because I think that this fragmentation will not disappear, even if we would have elections in the years to come. This is not our political culture and habit in France, and we have to find a way through."

Is the French budget deficit harming France's standing in the EU? "I'm hearing a narrative now which is 100 percent negative in the French debate and in our neighbours' press or political debate," Beaune answers. "Of course we face difficulties. But between saying there are difficulties and saying that everything is wrong ... it is not true that we have problems in all economic areas. We remain a country with a strong attractiveness. We see that with foreign investment remaining high in France. France is still the second power of the European Union. Of course we also need to be humble and lucid about our difficulties. We are in a difficult situation regarding public accounts in comparison with other EU countries. And we have to reduce the burden of public debt."

We turn to the work of Beaune's commission, which he concedes has been impacted by the political crisis and paralysis in the French parliament. "I think having a long-term policy unit is very important in these times of instability or short-termism across France and Europe," Beaune asserts. "In this political instability, it's important to have some places across government where you try to make proposals. To give you an example, I think we have made a very clear analysis of the demographic crisis that we are going through. I think the French public is not sufficiently aware that, for the first time since the Second World War, we will have more people dying than births in France this year. And this is a very strong wake-up call. We are making proposals for a pro-birth policy, if I can put it like that. We are also making proposals on economic migration, which is a sensitive issue but a necessary issue. We are also talking about competitiveness, because if we have a workforce which is more limited, we need to find other ways, including robots and so on, to be more competitive, to face international economic competition."

Beaune explains that his Commission makes proposals with the European dimension in mind, "because we cannot think only nationally about demographics or reforms. We saw with the Covid crisis that we would not have saved as many jobs and companies in 2020, in 2021, if we had not delivered a European recovery plan for our economies. We need [European] sovereignty in terms of health and production of key equipment and medicines. The same for AI, the same for electric vehicles. I have this European DNA."