Why rich countries want to join the EU

Brussels Playbook Podcast

POLITICO

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.4 • 202 Ratings

🗓️ 30 March 2026

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

For two decades, aspiring EU members wanted to join the bloc to get richer. Now, that’s changing. With conflicts raging at Europe’s doorstep and NATO shaky under Donald Trump, even rich countries want to join the bloc, hoping it’ll help them feel safer. Zoya and Nick unpack this shift on today’s episode. Also on the show, we trace Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s political journey from a liberal dissident to MAGA darling. As the leader continues to antagonize the EU, we ask what options the bloc has to minimize his influence in European political decision-making if he’s reelected in the upcoming election. Finally: Russia is recruiting informants to spy on dissidents abroad. POLITICO got its hands on a cache of text messages and recordings between two intelligence agents and a student blackmailed into spying for the Kremlin. We discuss what the correspondence tells us about Moscow’s efforts to infiltrate opposition groups in Europe. Send any questions or comments to us on our WhatsApp: +32 491 05 06 29. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:28.6	Gamblingware.org.
0:29.7	Good morning.
0:31.0	It's Monday, March 30th, and this is the Brussels Playbook podcast.
0:40.9	The virus is the Brussels Playbook podcast. The vibe in town today is, well, it's topsy-turvy, because for decades aspiring
0:46.4	EU members wanted to join the bloc to get richer, and now they want in to get safer.
0:52.6	Also on the pod, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has gone from being a liberal leader to a
0:57.5	maga darling and Putin buddy.
0:59.8	How did he get there?
1:01.2	And Russian intelligence agents have used an informant, we're calling him Ivan, to spy on dissidents
1:06.6	living outside of the country.
1:08.0	And we have had a look at their text messages.
1:29.2	With me today is Nick Vinikor, our chief foreign affairs correspondent. Hey, Nick, how was your weekend? It's been okay. Thank you. I was in an Uber crash, so, you know, I've had better. We're lucky to have you at this moment. Yeah, we absolutely are. Thank you to whoever is looking at for me, up there, in here, out wherever they are.
	...

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