European Commission / PODCAST

EU leaders agree on top jobs, but will it stick?

After a marathon Council meeting, EU leaders finally settled on a new leadership team for the bloc, picking German defence minister Ursula von der Leyen as Commission president, Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel as president of the Council, IMF’s Christine Lagarde as president of the ECB, and Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell as the new High Representative for foreign affairs and security policy.

In this episode, EPC Director of Studies Janis A. Emmanouilidis lifts the curtain on what was going on behind closed doors at the summit and explains how von der Leyen became the Commission president candidate everyone could get behind (sort of). He also covers what this means for the Spitzenkandidaten process, lessons learnt (introduce transnational lists, pick your Spitzenkandidat carefully, and Parliament, take the initiative!), and what will happen next.

With

European elections / PODCAST

Post-election analysis

Analysts Janis A. Emmanouilidis, Corina Stratulat and Fabian Zuleeg shared their views on the results of the European Parliament elections at an EPC post-election briefing.

Their in-depth analysis covered, among other things, the implications of the splintering of the European vote, the emergence of a new political alignment that goes beyond the traditional left-right paradigm, the different scenarios for a new coalition agreement in the Parliament, the race for the EU top jobs and what the election results in the UK mean for Brexit.

With Fabian Zuleeg , Corina Stratulat , Janis A. Emmanouilidis

Populism / PODCAST

A look ahead at 2019: Can the centre hold?

In our last podcast of 2018, Director of Studies Janis A. Emmanouilidis and Junior Policy Analyst Paul Butcher take stock of where the EU stands after the December summit but also look ahead at what’s in store for Europe in 2019.

Next year promises to be another turbulent year, as a divided and polarised EU will head to the polls in May. The stakes are high. Many analysts predict – or fear is the better word – that Eurosceptic, anti-globalist parties will take over the European Parliament and blow up the Union’s traditional consensus-building politics. Emmanouilidis and Butcher talk about what the growing polarisation means for the upcoming political transition and address the threat of disinformation and fake news ahead of the elections.

With Paul Butcher , Janis A. Emmanouilidis