Macron's US stance — Western Balkans summit — Dark EU lobbying

Brussels Playbook Podcast

POLITICO

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.4 • 204 Ratings

🗓️ 7 October 2021

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week: The EU's place in the world — and the Western Balkans' place in the EU. And we dive deep into the murky world EU lobbying. POLITICO's David M. Herszenhorn and Lili Bayer join Andrew Gray from Slovenia, where EU leaders met for a dinner discussion about the bloc's role on the international stage and held a summit with their Western Balkan counterparts. David talks us through what French President Emmanuel Macron told him about whether France and the United States can patch things up after a big blow-up over a scuppered submarine deal. Lili and David also discuss the divisions within the EU over letting Western Balkan countries into the club and the region's frustrations with the bloc. And Lili outlines a recent in-depth story she and POLITICO's Zosia Wanat published about concerns that the EU's enlargement commissioner, Olivér Várhelyi of Hungary, has been favoring Serbia’s EU bid and playing down democracy concerns, according to officials and internal documents. Then we turn things over to our Chief Technology Correspondent Mark Scott, who brings us up to speed on his series of investigations into European politics news sites that promoted the interests of governments, companies and wealthy individuals without disclosing connections to them. The first story looks at Brussels news outlet EU Reporter and its blend of reporting and political advocacy, where it's often been impossible for readers to tell which is which. The second examines EU Reporter’s relationship with Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications giant. And the most recent article examines the wider web of individuals within the Brussels Bubble who blur the lines between journalism and pushing the agendas of commercial clients. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Mr. President, are you confident that Joe Biden now remembers the importance of France as an ally?
0:06.4	We will see. I just believe in fact. I do hope. I do think it's feasible. I do think it's more productive for both of us. I will see.
0:17.0	Welcome to EU Confidential Europe's number one politics podcast.
0:21.4	I'm Andrew Gray, Politico's EU editor, coming to you this week from a secret location outside Brussels,
0:27.7	where Politico managers are plotting to conquer the world, one post-it note at a time.
0:33.4	And you just heard French President Emmanuel Macron answering a question from Politico's own David Herzenhorn
0:39.0	about whether France and the United States can patch things up after the big blow-up over that scuppered submarine deal.
0:46.9	Macron was one of 27 EU leaders who met in Slovenia this week for a summit with their counterparts from the Western Balkans.
0:54.8	But EU leaders also used the occasion to talk among themselves about Europe's place in the world,
1:00.6	its defence capabilities, and about rising energy prices. We'll dive into that in just a moment
1:06.5	with Politico's Summit team. And later in the podcast, our chief technology correspondent, Mark Scott, tells us the story
1:13.9	of investigative reports he's been working on about the hidden side of EU lobbying.
1:19.5	So stay tuned for that, but first let's get to our podcast panel.
1:24.2	Let's switch to Slovenia now and link up for our podcast panel with two of our political reporters who have been out there reporting on various pieces of summatory. Let's put it that way. Hi to Chief Brussels correspondent David Hersonhorn. Hi David. Hello. And to Lily Beyer, a reporter in our Brussels politics team. Hi, Lily.
1:44.9	Hi, everyone.
1:45.9	So let's get right to it. Maybe just set the scene for us, David.
1:50.0	Kind of two back-to-back events, if you like, a dinner of EU leaders on Tuesday evening,
1:55.6	followed by a summit of EU leaders with their Western Balkan counterparts on Wednesday.
2:02.4	But where has all of this been taking place? Paint a picture, if you like. Sure. So we're here in Slovenia, which is quite
2:07.8	a green country, and the leaders gathered outside of the capital, Ljubljana, about 45-minute
2:13.8	drive into the hills at a conference center in Berto near a castle, but they were actually
2:19.0	in a more modern conference center. They had an initial gathering by the castle itself on Tuesday
	...

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