I4C Trouble with Daly and Wallace

Mick and Clare discuss all things foreign policy- What is the EU’s role in foreign affairs and why does it matter?  They talk EU military spending and the European Parliament’s total obsession with Russia and the Navalny saga, which is getting more airtime than the serious humanitarian crises happening elsewhere. There are some positive developments in the Parliament’s stance on the conflict in Ye...

All eyes on the EU (for once) as details begin to emerge of the bungling of the vaccine rollout… In other news, Clare discusses EU policing cooperation with Israel, how Russian interference is being used to justify increased EU arms expenditure, and we have some spectacular stream-of-consciousness musings from Mick, bringing us from the Common Agricultural Policy to why the western media is so obs...

Vaccines are still the rage as the 'thick begins to plotten' and Europe and the UK head towards a trade war. A busy week in the Parliament - Clare is dealing with MEP's who are obsessed with electoral interference and Mick is looking for degrowth to save the planet...

Life goes on in the Parliament, while Europe is getting lost in the COVID mist. The EU is under pressure as it finds itself at the mercy of Big Pharma Elsewhere, Clare discusses European Arrest Warrants and Julian Assange, while Mick believes he has more support in Ireland than Alexander Navalny has in Russia and therefore the EU should back Wallace to run Ireland.

Mick is coughing, which he blames on the heat, but he plans to stick around for a while yet. However, the ignoramus Trump won't be sticking around, and with Biden only barely alive what's the future for the US after the riots on Capitol Hill? Did Europe get its Covid-19 vaccine order right? Mick and Clare discuss the corona virus and how biodiversity loss will create more virus problems in the fut...

Brexit is boring Mick and Clare to death, so much so that people think they may actually be dead because RTE covers nothing from Europe these days other than Brexit. However, it doesn't stop the two Irish MEP's discussing everything from the Balkans, to Iran, to human rights to the leaky water pipes in Dublin that Mick wasn't allowed fix. Oh, and of course their new book - "The Coalition of the Un...

The great bastion of democracy, the European Union, claimed the recent elections in Venezuela were a fraud, even before they took place. Unlucky for them intrepid travellers Mick and Clare were two of four MEPs who bothered to journey to Caracas to observe proceedings for themselves. This is their account of what really went down in Venezuela.

Mick believes Damien is attempting to cancel him - well, at the very least his stories of gratuitous sex. Meanwhile, Clare discusses "The Joy of Sex", her Fundamental Rights Report, the pleanary speech that made headlines across Spain and Catalunya, and being compared to a rapist by a far right headbanger. And Mick provides more background to the trouble brewing in Ethiopia.

Mick is in a state of shock after being called "the MEP who looks like the bass player from Jethro Tull" during a committee meeting with a neo conservative journalist. The two MEPs discuss their amendment to the report on stocktaking of the European Elections, where they aim to establish a free EU-wide TV channel for streaming proceedings from the European Parliament. Mick reminisces about the sca...

Clare and Mick give their reaction to the US presidential election and discuss what changes the world is likely to see under Biden and Harris. Meanwhile, The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees has run out of money at a time that the new US vice president, Kamala Harris, has promised to provide $70 million a week to Israeli security. Elsewhere, the fallout from CAP is sti...

Mick's 96-year-old mother Maureen has sadly just passed away. Exiled in Brussels and unable to return home for the funeral, Mick remembers his late mother with a couple of interesting stories. Elsewhere, the European Parliament is getting locked down and the MEPs are about to get locked out. Clare rallies against the mistreatment and push backs of migrants and refugees on the European borders. Mic...

We all heard of Jacinda Ardern's electoral win in New Zealand, but not a peep from the media about the landslide win in the Bolivian elections. Clare, Mick and Damien discuss the democracy in action which brought about the monumental win of MAS (Movement Towards Socialism party) in Bolivia, and the rejection of last year's right-wing coup. We've all read about the protests in Belarus, but who has...

In the twenty-seventh episode of I4C Trouble Clare explains why fundamental rights in Bulgaria were on the plenary agenda in October and why the largest group in the Parliament learned to regret it, while Mick discusses the strong position the Parliament has taken in the Climate Law. In other news, an Irish campaign to free Julian Assange was launched last week by the Galway Alliance Against War,...

This week on I4C Trouble, Mick spills the beans on the hearings for the new Irish commissioner-designate, Mairead McGuinness. Clare reports on Europol's troubling aspirations to become a European FBI, and describes the interesting parliamentary politics around the first Rule of Law resolution, which centre on Bulgaria. The European Parliament discusses returning refugees to Afghanistan against the...

As Mick gets noticed in Belarus, our MEPs discuss the ongoing weaponisation of human rights. The EU’s New Pact on Migration and Asylum has been unveiled, but besides lots of talk of solidarity, it seems less designed to help refugees and asylum seekers than it is to send them back where they came from and pander to the anti-migrant member states. In a review of recent legislation and developments...

Clare and Mick conduct a post mortem on President Ursula von der Leyen's "State of the Union" address. Finally we're talking about a coordinated European COVID response, but is it too late? Why is the European Union legislating shipping emissions, but letting top polluters like the navy run rampant? Civil unrest in Belarus is being used to push for a change in the way the EU Council makes decision...

As Damien returns to the European Parliament after the summer break Clare and Mick have a wide ranging discussion on security and defence issues in Brussels, taking in the arms lobby and security contractors, the EU cybersecurity strategy, the European Defence Fund and the European Peace Facility. Things are on the move everywhere, in Libya, Mali and the Balkans, in Belarus, Turkey and Cyprus. Cla...

As Irish media coverage of Brussels wanes in the wake of Commissioner Phil Hogan's resignation over Golfgate, the real story of what goes on in the EU and further abroad remains untold. The people of Lebanon suffer the aftermath of a devastating industrial and economic crisis. The war on Syria rages on. The EU-MERCOSUR trade deal continues into law, and workers in the aviation industry suffer the...

With Damien yet to return from the summer recess Clare and Mick sneak into the studio to discuss the Galway society dinner scandal that seized Irish politics for a week, stampeded all the way to Brussels and claimed the head of Ursula von der Leyen's biggest commissioner. What did it all mean? What did it achieve? And as Alexander Lukaschenko's days begin to look as if they are numbered, Mick asks...

In an episode recorded on the last day before the summer recess, which seems like a lifetime ago now, Clare and Mick discuss the controversy in Ireland over Barry Cowen's dismissal by Taoiseach Micheál Martin. They review the hearing for the candidate for the head of the European Medicines Agency and recount their confrontation over increased military spending with the head of the European Defence...

Germany has taken over the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union. Having had a chance to grill several German government ministers in committee hearings, Clare and Mick give us the lowdown on what to expect in the next six months of politics in Brussels. Presented by Damien Thomson.

Clare and Mick explain tough calls on haulier's rights this plenary week in the monolithic Mobility Package of legislation. Our MEPs discuss the successful completion of a progressive "Wallace Report" at the environment committee, recognizing how the climate crisis affects the Global South. Also: what is it with the European Parliament's obsesssion with regime change in Venezuela? What do Clare an...

As the moment of truth approaches for the formation of an Irish government back home, Clare and Mick discuss the enormous defence spending at the EU, the visit of the Director of the World Health Organisation to the environment committee to discuss COVID-19, the publication of the annual Europol Terrorism Report, and the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Yemen.

Hot on the heels of the June plenary Clare and Mick compare notes on the big votes of the week, including their motion on the Black Lives Matter movement, the EU-Israel Euro-Mediterranean Aviation Agreement, and yet another human rights debate on Hong Kong. And, as the Green Party membership gears up to vote on whether to form a coalition with Fianna Fáil & Fine Gael, our MEPs get down to brass ta...

Besides looking at arms exports in the security and defence committee and the environmental impacts of European agricultural policy, Clare and Mick speak about the uprisings against systemic racism stateside and worldwide, the murder of George Floyd, the brutal crackdowns by militarized police, and the poor response from the European Union's foreign affairs minister Josep Borrell.