My guest is Anna Kavatsini.

Anna Kavatsini is a member of the European Parliament from the German Green Party and chairs the influential committee on the internal market and consumer protection.

And this is the lead committee amongst many other dossiers for the Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act.

Welcome to the podcast, Anna.

Hey, I'm good that you have me. Right. Okay, let's get cracking. So just a week ago,

we're recording this on the 20th of November. Just a week ago in the European Department,

there was quite a controversial vote on sustainability reporting and due diligence

and the requirements for companies to show due diligence

in their supply chains. And it was seen as controversial because the so-called alliance coalition

of groups around the centre of the parliament were discarded by the EPP. And then the EPP,

the European People's Party on the centre of right, chose to team up with groups on the right.

May I ask you as a starting point, has that left such a big mark on the European Parliament now?

The atmosphere, even in the few days since that controversial vote,

changed inside the European Parliament, as far as you can see?

Yes, Paul, I would say the atmosphere in the European Parliament changed completely because it was

kind of a, it never happened before that the EPP willingly relied on the extreme right

to change the legislation. Before we always tried to have this cordon sanitaire,

this so-called firewall, to make sure that we build majorities in the center,

majorities with pro-European and pro-democratic forces. And in this parliament with changing

minorities, the EPP, the European Conservatives have in fact two options.

They have a majority with the centre, but they also have a majority with a far right. And

they're using it more and more to blackmail the more progressive groups, basically saying,

...