Caught between wars

Brussels Playbook Podcast

POLITICO

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.4 • 204 Ratings

🗓️ 3 March 2026

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Europe is no longer watching the conflict in the Middle East from a distance — it’s directly entangled. Iranian missiles flying over Cyprus. EU leaders divided over messaging. Von der Leyen and Kallas on parallel tracks. And Germany’s chancellor in Washington trying to shape the transatlantic line. Zoya Sheftalovich and Ian Wishart break down the EU’s crisis response, the battle over who speaks for Europe, and the ripple effects for Ukraine — from enlargement to defense. And finally — is Brussels a haven or a punchline? On that last one — we’d love to hear from you. Are you a Brussels enthusiast, a skeptic, or somewhere in between? Send us a voice note or a message on WhatsApp at: +32 491 05 06 29. **A message from Amazon: Across Europe, businesses are growing with the AWS Cloud to build innovative, scalable products. From Europe’s largest enterprises and government agencies to the continent’s fastest growing startups, learn more about how AWS Cloud is helping businesses across Europe grow at AWS.eu.** Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Today's episode is presented by Amazon.
0:03.4	60% of sales on Amazon come from independent sellers.
0:07.3	Across Europe, over 280,000 small and medium enterprises
0:11.9	partner with Amazon to grow their business.
0:14.7	Learn more at aboutamazon.e.u.
0:18.1	Good morning. It's Tuesday, March 3, and this is the Brussels Playbook podcast.
0:29.1	The vibe in Brussels today is entangled.
0:32.5	An EU member country finds itself in the line of fire amid the Middle East crisis, but the EU is distancing
0:38.7	itself from the whole melee. Also on the pod, what the crisis in the Middle East means for
0:44.9	Ukraine? And Brussels, is it a haven or a hellhole? Ian, I don't know. What do you think?
0:50.4	We'll find out at the end of the podcast. I'm Zora Shafelarovich Politico's chief
0:54.6	EU correspondent and with me today you may have guessed is our senior EU politics editor, Ian. Weshad, hey Ian. Nice to see you back in the studio, Zoya, after your trip to Ukraine. Yes. I'm sure our fans will be glad we're back together. I can just hear the cacophony of voices applauding us as we speak.
1:10.8	But you were supposed to be in Cyprus today, weren't you?
1:12.9	But the General Affairs Council got cancelled.
1:14.8	I know. I can just hear the cacophony of voices, applauding us as we speak.
1:10.9	But you were supposed to be in Cyprus today, weren't you?
1:12.9	But the General Affairs Council got cancelled.
1:14.8	I was, yes.
1:15.6	So the informal General Affairs Council, not cancelled, postponed, as they're very keen to point out.
1:20.2	But basically, because of this crisis in the Middle East and because Cyprus found itself
1:24.6	on the receiving end of some drone strikes at the UK airbases on the island.
1:30.0	The decision was made to cancel or to postpone at least and we're yet to see what's going to happen with that.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from POLITICO, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of POLITICO and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.