This is Paul Adamson and I'm in conversation with Anthony Gardner.

Anthony Gardner was the United States Ambassador to the European Union from March 2014 to January 2017.

Tony, we're obviously going to talk about transatlantic matters. That will not be a big surprise to you.

But let's start, first of all, since you're still living in Europe, you haven't gone back to the United States just yet.

Your current assessment as a friend of Europe where the European Union stands at the moment,

it's obviously facing a number of crises.

But are these the current combination of crises?

Are they different in kind from the past or are they just more of the same?

Well, I'm at the College of Europe right now in Bruges and enjoying every minute for the next three months.

And I'm there enjoying it because I'm surrounded by young, optimistic, energetic students who are looking at the future in a very different way.

Now, clearly there are a growing number of crises, some of which are

existential crises. And I think this series of crises is indeed different from the past, both in terms of the number, the complexity, and the seriousness, and are all happening at the same time.

I think it's fair to say that, yes, Europe has grown through crises in the past.

It's an overset dictum. But what's changed is that now Europe is facing so many at the same time,

some of which I mentioned are existential. I'm thinking of Brexit. I'm thinking of the French elections,

and I'm thinking, of course, of uncontrolled immigration, which so far has been dealt with, but could come back to haunt Europe.

Now, given this series of interlocking serious crises, I think the European institutions,

the EU institutions, are on the whole doing quite well.

The issue, as is often pointed out by President Juncker, is that member states also have to

shoulder their responsibility. It's no good just pointing to the EU institutions and

saying they haven't done enough and they haven't done it quickly enough. The member states have to be clear that the EU has assets to bring to bear

and they have to invest in the EU as if it were a common project in which they believe.

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