EU Decoded

What does the future hold for Europe in the next five years?   Former MEP Maria da Graça Carvalho and MEP Rasa Juknevičienė discuss the critical areas of energy, digital innovation and security.  Tune in!  

Geopolitical tensions are rising, from China's assertiveness to Putin's agenda.    Tune in to this episode for a conversation between David McAllister and Tomas Tobe as they discuss navigating the path toward security. 

If you don't know much about Critical Raw Materials, answer this:  Do you drive a car? 🚗   Or use a cell phone? 📱  If so, then you should know more about the topic.  Tune in to the conversation between Hildegard Bentele and Tom Berendsen. 

If you want to know more about:   🔵 The EU’s business environment   🔵 The EU’s international trade  ... then you cannot miss this new podcast episode with Martine Kemp and Jorgen Warborn. Tune in!   

It’s time to talk about health.  Join @peterliese and @TomislavSokol for an in-depth conversation on:  European Health Union  Medicine shortages  Cancer and cardiovascular diseases  Don't miss it!

Get ready for a great conversation between Maria Walsh and Magdalena Adamowicz in this episode of our MEPchat series!  They discussed pressing issues - from mental health awareness to media freedom; they tackled it all.  Don't miss out! *This episode was originally recorded in February as a part of a video series. Watch the whole series on our YouTube channel.

In the first episode of our MEPchat series, Siegfried Muresan and Andrey Novakov discussed the following topics:  🔵 Recovery and Resilience Facility   🔵 Cohesion Policy   🔵 a bigger EU budget   🔵 Schengen expansion  This episode was originally recorded in February as a part of a video series. Watch the whole series on our YouTube channel.

EPP Group Parliamentarians joined Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya in calling for more opposition support and more pressure on the Lukashenko regime.     In this podcast, we look at how the European Parliament event highlighted the plight of over 1,500 political prisoners in Belarus. These include Nobel Peace Laureate Ales Bialiatski and Tsikhanouskaya's hu...

Figures on violence against women are shocking. Every day, two women are killed at the hands of a partner or family member in the EU, and sexual harassment affects one in two women.  In this episode of our "A Europe that Protects You" series, we delve deeper into the decisive steps the EU is taking to combat this pervasive issue.  We believe that criminalising gender-based violence every...

With the EU accounting for 14% of global trade in goods and around 38 million jobs in Europe depending on European exports, the importance of international trade cannot be overstated. In this episode of the EPP Group podcast series ‘ A Europe that Protects You,’ we look at global trade's impact on the EU regarding innovation, competitiveness and job opportunities. In this episode, however, we not...

Over 70% of businesses in the EU lack staff with adequate digital skills, which hinders investment.  How can we fix the imbalance between unemployment, job vacancies and the skills needed to fill them? The first step towards bridging this gap is to offer further training programs for our workforce. Upskilling and lifelong learning are key parts of this transformation.   In this epis...

Healthcare is a key concern across the EU27. In fact, two out of three Europeans would like to see a common European Health Union, according to a Eurostat survey. This would ensure quality care for all Europeans.        In this episode of our "A Europe that Protects You" series, we delve into the major achievements of this legislative term and the EPP Group's unwaveri...

How to combat organised crime in the EU?    Organised crime is a major threat to the internal security of the European Union and Europeans.          In 2019, criminal activities like drug trafficking, human smuggling and cybercrime cost the EU a staggering €139 billion. The EPP Group proposes a targeted strategy to 'follow the money' – freezing and...

Higher energy prices squeeze both consumers and businesses. This is due to a green transition toward renewable energy, and a drive toward an EU Energy Union with more dependable supplies from home and abroad. In this episode of the EPP Group podcast series ‘’A Europe that protects its people,’’ we talk to some key players in the European Parliament. They are helping shape Europe’s energy future ai...

More than 300.000 people crossed European borders illegally in 2022.   Member States' reception capacities are at their limits, and serious action is needed.   In our latest episode, we discussed the European migration crisis and the benefits of the newly adopted Pact on Migration and Asylum. We also discussed the grim reality of migrant smuggling.   With MEPs Tomas Tobé, Lena Düpon...

We are only a few days away from the beginning of the COP28 in Dubai where the EU arrives leading the fight against climate change with over 30 laws that aim pushing us closer to achieving the Paris Agreement goals. But as it was said many times before, Europe can't do it all on its own. We need others to step up, mainly USA, India and China. Tune in to our latest episode with MEPs Lidia Pereira a...

Almost 800 young people from all corners of Europe gathered in Brussels for EPP Group Youth Week. They attended topical workshops with experts and debated with MEPs and European Commissioners. They eventually suggested their own campaign on a topic they found crucial at the EU level.    We spent some time with them and asked them what they see as the most significant issues in the EU. We...

Irregular entries into the European Union rose about 20% in the first eight months of this year to over 230.000. Within that number the crossings across the central Mediterranean nearly doubled. The UN International Organization for migration lists 2800 dead or missing, mostly in the central Mediterranean so far this year. The situation is, obviously, very serious and we need a solution. In our la...

How can we make the EU function better? How can we make sure it will be able to take action more decisively on the challenges we face today? Is adapting the Treaties the answer? In which way? In our latest episode we talked to MEP Sven Simon of European Parliament's Committee on Constitutional Affairs on these topics. Don't miss it! And if you have a topic you would like to hear discussed in this...

The European Union needs 10 billion euros more in emergency spending for Europe's recovery from the pandemic, strategic autonomy, the Ukraine war, migration and natural disasters, say EPP Group MEPs in this episode. The funding is to expand on the European Commission's nearly 66 billion-euro proposed top-up of the EU's budget through 2027. Recent fires, floods, a migration crisis have compounded t...

With close links to Putin’s war machine, Russian and Belarusian athletes should be barred from the Paris Olympics next year, say former star athletes and EPP Group MEPs.   In this podcast episode, we talk to them at a roundtable event in the European Parliament. They say that while Russia’s military is killing thousands of Ukrainians – including hundreds of athletes - it is unacceptable...

Russia's invasion of Ukraine is speeding up what the EU has been trying to do for a long time: building a common defence.   In this episode, MEPs Sara Skyttedal and Michael Gahler discuss how the EU is buying and building more weapons together to arm Ukraine, with a programme they negotiated in the European Parliament called EDIRPA – European Defence Industry through Common Procurement Act.&n...

Lithium, graphite, cobalt, and nickel are just a few from the long list of Critical Raw Materials essential to today's technology and industry. They are needed for batteries, robotics, solar and wind power. According to current assessments, by 2040, we will need six times more of these minerals than today. But Europe doesn't have many of them; we depend on getting them elsewhere. So where do we ge...

25 years of intercultural and interreligious dialogue in the EPP Group. That's what this episode is all about, marking a quarter century of bringing Europe's faiths together. As we'll hear from religious leaders and MEPs, it's helped in the healing after the Balkan wars, after terror attacks, and in shaping the Future of Europe. We talked to our MEPs as well as leaders of different religious commu...

In a moving tribute to the victims of Soviet deportations, EPP Group MEPs join with victims and their relatives as well as a Ukrainian diplomat in the European Parliament to mark the Kremlin’s atrocities then and now. In this podcast, we hear the stories of how Stalin deported tens of thousands of East Europans to Siberia during and after World War II. And the shocking parallel with Putin’s ethnic...