Ep 189: Message to Moscow — Frontier fracas — Euro English

Brussels Playbook Podcast

POLITICO

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.4 • 204 Ratings

🗓️ 25 February 2021

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

EU foreign ministers this week gave the go-ahead for sanctions on Russian officials in response to the jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. POLITICO's David M. Herszenhorn, Andrew Gray, Rym Momtaz and Matthew Karnitschnig debate whether this will have any impact on Vladimir Putin. Citing concerns about new strains of the coronavirus, multiple EU countries including Germany have imposed border restrictions, leading to big bottlenecks and tailbacks. Will Brussels get them to back down? And how much is domestic politics driving the new measures? Our special guest is Marko Modiano, a professor of English at Gävle University in Sweden. He makes the case for the EU to define and embrace its own form of English — Euro English. We also hear from a former senior translator at the European Court of Auditors, Jeremy Gardner, who takes a different view on how English should be used in the EU and its institutions. And what about the chances of a French comeback? (Voici un spoiler: They're not good.) The podcast panel returns with lockdown recommendations. Rym's attention has been captured by a fledgling superstar podcast. In keeping with this week's language theme, Matt suggests a classic documentary series from the U.S. And Andrew takes up a recommendation from a listener, who says this Brussels-based novel is a must-read. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	In response to events around the situation of Mr. Navalny, we reach a political agreement to impose
0:08.2	restrictive measures against those responsible for his arrest and sentencing and persecution.
0:17.0	Welcome to EU Confidential. I'm Andrew Gray, Politico's EU editor in Brussels, and you just
0:22.8	heard Joseph Borrell, the EU's foreign policy chief. He was announcing that EU foreign ministers
0:28.5	this week gave the go-ahead for sanctions on Russian officials over the jailing of opposition
0:33.9	leader Alexei Navalny. We'll talk about that and whether it will have any impact on
0:38.8	Vladimir Putin in just a moment, as well as taking a look at more COVID-related trouble on
0:44.4	the EU's internal borders. And later, stay tuned as we explore a big question. Should we all get
0:52.0	used to speaking Euro-English? We'll examine whether English is here to
0:56.7	stay as the lingua franca of EU institutions and Europe more generally, even though Britain has left
1:03.3	the building. And if it is, what kind of English should it be? But first, let's get to our
1:09.7	podcast panel. So it's welcome to Riem in Paris. Hi,
1:13.7	Riem. Hello, everyone. Matt in Berlin. Hi, Matt. Hello. And joining us from near the European
1:21.5	Commission's Berlimont headquarters, fresh out of a briefing, our Chief Brussels correspondent,
1:26.3	David Herzenhorn. Hi, David.
1:28.2	Hey there.
1:34.1	So listen, let's get right to it. I thought we would start by talking on Russia, also to draw on your expertise, David, your former correspondent in Moscow. And this week we saw EU foreign ministers
1:40.4	give the green light for more sanctions against Russian individuals, probably Russian
1:45.8	officials. We don't know exactly who yet in response to the jailing of Alexi Navalny. David,
1:53.1	I wondered from your experience in Moscow, do you think any of this will, you know, make any
1:59.5	difference? Will it have any impact on Vladimir Putin,
2:02.7	whoever they end up sanctioning? Well, we don't see any evidence so far from sanctions that have
	...

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.