Talking Europe
Talking Europe is a France 24 English program in which politicians, activists and researchers debate the issues facing the European Union. Each episode also features a long-format interview with a guest of the week, offering deeper insight into the topic at hand. The show airs Saturdays at 7:15pm. It is produced by France 24's English-language newsroom.
Épisodes
Europe faces threat of organised sabotage, terrorist attacks: Estonian FM Tsahkna
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
EU member states wrangle over all-important budget: Is a deal this year feasible?
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
'America, with this president, is not our ally. Trump is a liar': French MEP Bernard Guetta
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
EU and Canada seek closer ties: Will Canada become the EU's first associate member?
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
EU's Covid recovery fund was 'absolutely a success': European Court of Auditors' Pierre Moscovici
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
Falling test scores in schools startle EU countries: Why are standards going down?
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.
'We have to close defence gaps urgently': EU Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee chief McAllister
We sit down with David McAllister, the chair of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee. He talks to us about the security threats facing Europe, and what defence gaps the EU urgently needs to close. For McAllister, the EU is "not at war with the Russian Federation, but we are no longer at peace with Russia". He also believes that the EU is not, as yet, capable of making sovereign deci
A grim winter ahead? EU states asked to prepare gas and electricity savings
Alarm bells are ringing about fuel prices across the EU. The average cost of diesel per litre is well above €2, whereas in October of last year it was around €1.50. Even before this latest spike, the cost of living was already biting, and it seems that the conflict in the Middle East is not going to give Europeans much respite as the winter draws closer. We review what EU member states have done t
'Moldova is the best performer in my class': EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos
The EU has gone through seven waves of enlargement since 1973, but there has not been one since Croatia joined in 2013. Indeed, there are not likely to be any new members in the club before 2028 – some 15 years after Croatia entered. But 2026 undeniably has momentum, and is on track to be a record year in terms of opening and closing new chapters for existing applicants. That is why our guest, EU
Climate breakdown: Is the EU adapting to the new normal? Europe's summer of disasters
It has been called Europe's disaster year. 2026 has seen more than 30,000 excess deaths linked to heatwaves, along with mega wildfires, nuclear power plants having to shut down, gas plants under pressure, droughts reducing hydropower generation from rivers and wild fluctuations in electricity prices, not to mention major disruptions to crops and farming in general. So is the EU adapting effectivel
We’re ideally placed to chair EU budget negotiations, says Irish Minister of State
Ireland is managing a jam-packed agenda as the current holder of the rotating presidency of the EU. We caught up with the country’s Minister of State for European Affairs, Thomas Byrne, who was in Strasbourg for the 2026 State of the Union speech and debate with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. We discussed key points from that address, such as a proposed ban on social media access fo
Ursula von der Leyen’s sixth State of the Union speech: A grand sweep, but thin on details?
In this episode, we debrief one of the key annual events in the EU calendar: the State of the Union speech. It was Ursula von der Leyen’s sixth such address as President of the European Commission, and the second State of the Union speech of her second mandate. We home in on the key innovations since the 2026 address: a potential associate membership for Canada with the European Union, a proposed
I'm extremely worried by extremists that win elections in Europe: Luxembourg's PM Luc Frieden
"European strategic autonomy" is a buzz phrase in Brussels and in EU capitals these days. What does it mean for space policy? That was one of the central points that we raised with the Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Luc Frieden, during his visit to Paris for the International Space Summit hosted by the French government on September 9 and 10. Major American aerospace companies were noticeably absen
French far-right leader polling ahead for 2027 election: should the EU be afraid?
In Brussels, opinion polls coming out of France have not escaped attention. Two polls see far right leader Marine Le Pen beating all her likely rivals in the French presidential election, which is set to take place in April and May of next year. Le Pen, the head of the far-right National Rally party, is projected to beat out the competition in a second round against far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélen
Strengthening Africa is an investment in Europe's future: EU Commissioner Jozef Sikela
Are great-power politics back, at the expense of smaller countries? In an age of strongmen, is multilateralism in retreat? Not according to Jozef Sikela. The EU Commissioner in charge of International Partnerships insists that traditional multilateralism is alive and well, especially in the EU's approach to Africa and to the Arctic. We sat down with him for an interview at the European Commission
Struggling to make its voice heard: Can the EU forge a true foreign policy?
"Who do I call if I want to speak to Europe?" The famous quote attributed to Henry Kissinger still resonates today. There is in fact a Mrs Europe on the world stage: Kaja Kallas, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. She is actually the sixth high representative. But ever since that post was created, rivalries between different centres of power have diluted the EU's a
Heat domes test Europe's climate resilience: Is the EU ready for a hotter future?
The European Parliament declared a climate emergency in 2019, yet the EU still appears to be caught off guard by increasingly severe heatwaves and heat domes. With temperatures this summer set to break records and expose millions of Europeans to dangerous heat, we ask whether the bloc has neglected the short-term measures needed to protect people from extreme heat. Programme prepared by Isabelle R
Sustainable transport key to Europe's 'strategic independence', EU Commissioner Tzitzikostas
Our guest this week is Apostolos Tzitzikostas, the European Commissioner for sustainable transport and tourism. Cancellations, delays and unventilated trains… Europe’s recent heatwave exposed some of the weaknesses of the bloc’s rail network. Despite ageing tracks and rolling stock, EU Transport Commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas insists the system is improving. He says the Commission has carrie
EU ‘tech sovereignty’: Uncoupling from the US and China?
The EU is trying to assert its strategic independence in an unstable world – a world of bullies, as some members of the EU Parliament describe it. That means independence in matters of defence and energy supplies, but also in the whole field of tech. The European Commission says non-EU companies provide more than 80 percent of the EU’s digital products and services. One of the key proposals aimed
'We hope the member states will recognise our effort' to join the EU: Moldova's President Maia Sandu
FRANCE 24’s Europe editor-in-chief Caroline de Camaret hosts Maia Sandu, the President of Moldova. This in the context of an EU-Moldova summit held on June 22, 2026, in Brussels. The ex-Soviet republic of nearly 3 million people that borders Ukraine has opened its first “cluster” of negotiations to join the European Union. But, as it moves closer to the bloc, Moldova is becoming an intense battleg
Treating energy crisis with fossil fuels is like giving a diabetic sugar: EU Commissioner Jorgensen
EU leaders have cautiously welcomed Donald Trump's signing of an interim agreement with Iran, after nearly four months of war in the Middle East. But it is only a Memorandum of Understanding, and Europeans know the US president too well to celebrate prematurely. The conflict has led to the most severe disruption in energy supplies in decades, and the EU has scrambled to contain the costs. It's the
EU-UK relations, 10 years after the referendum: Brexit or Regrexit?
It has been a decade since British voters made the momentous decision to leave the European Union. The EU referendum result on June 24, 2016 led to a profound transformation of British politics, and to Brexit-related infighting that refuses to go away. But if the UK has not truly moved on, what about its former partner in this divorce, the EU? And what does Brussels think when the British governme
'We need more clean, homegrown, cheap European energy': EU Climate Commissioner
With Europeans sizzling in a record-breaking heatwave in May, and lands and rivers facing severe drought conditions in April, the effects of extreme climate-related events are becoming increasingly obvious. We sit down with the EU's Commissioner for Climate, Net Zero and Clean Growth, Dutch politician Wopke Hoekstra, to talk about the EU's carbon emissions reduction targets, the next COP summit, a
EU reaches provisional deal on migrant returns: An effective and fair system?
The EU Parliament and EU Council have provisionally agreed to simplify and speed up the return of migrants staying in the bloc unlawfully. Backers of the deal say it is urgent to do something about the low enforcement of deportation orders: 27 percent last year, and just 24 percent the previous year. But critics say governments are giving in to anti-migrant sentiment as they face pressure from ris
