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Brussels Playbook Podcast

Spy affair — Laschet litmus — Former Irish President Mary Robinson

Brussels Playbook Podcast

POLITICO

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.4204 Ratings

🗓️ 3 June 2021

⏱️ 32 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Claims that Denmark helped the U.S. spy on European leaders, demands for the EU to step up on defense and bellwether state elections in Germany's Saxony-Anhalt all feature in this episode. Mary Robinson is our special guest. POLITICO's Rym Momtaz and David M. Herszenhorn analyze new revelations by Danish media that the country's intelligence service reportedly helped the NSA spy on European leaders during the Obama administration, and how the news could impact U.S. President Joe Biden's visit to Europe later next week. They also debate the implications of this report by the Center for American Progress, a Washington think tank with close ties to the Biden administration, calling for the EU to become a global military power. Rym is then joined by POLITICO's Laurenz Gehrke to break down state elections this Sunday in Germany's Saxony-Anhalt, and what the result could indicate about the way the political winds are blowing heading into the country's federal elections in September. We're also joined by Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland and currently chair of The Elders, a group of distinguished figures formed by South Africa's former President Nelson Mandela in 2007. In a conversation with POLITICO's Sarah Wheaton, they cover everything from coronavirus vaccines and climate change, to the geopolitical "rift" between the United States and China, and where Europe should fit in. Finally, Robinson recommends her own podcast — which she hosts, along with comedian-writer, Maeve Higgins, and series producer, Thimali Kodikara — to our listeners, Mothers of Invention. 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

EU Confidential will get started right after this short message.

0:04.2

Today's episode is presented by Google. Hi, this is Karen from Google. Today, people are using

0:10.0

artificial intelligence to tackle climate challenges. Through our impact challenge on climate,

0:15.7

Google.org commits 10 million euro to fund technology projects for a greener Europe.

0:21.5

I'm concerned at the stepping up of a kind of rift between China and the United States.

0:28.5

And I think Europe has a real role to play of focusing on a human rights people-led approach,

0:34.7

a responsibility-sharing approach.

0:38.0

Welcome to EU Confidential, Europe's number one politics podcast. I'm Mirim Muntas in Paris,

0:44.2

filling in for Andrew Gray this week. And that you just heard at the top of the podcast was

0:49.1

Mary Robinson. She's the former president of Ireland, who also served as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights,

0:55.6

and she's now chair of the elders, an independent group of global leaders working to solve

1:00.4

some of the biggest challenges we face. You'll hear her conversation with Politico Sarah Wheaton

1:06.2

later in the podcast on everything from the EU's response to the coronavirus, the climate crisis,

1:12.2

and where Europe stands in the rift, as she calls it, between the United States and China.

1:17.9

We'll also give you a primer on everything you need to know about state elections happening

1:22.9

this weekend in Germany, Saxony and Alt-region, and why it matters for Germany's big federal elections in September.

1:30.2

That's coming up in just a moment.

1:32.3

But first, let's welcome our Chief Brussels correspondent David Hirshenhorn.

1:36.3

Hey, David.

1:37.2

Hey, there.

1:38.3

So we're doing a fun, different way of panel this week where it's just the two of us.

1:43.1

So basically, we're taking our

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