Friends Of Europe Podcasts

The results are in and Germany chose its new chancellor. To the surprise of no one, Friedrich Merz will succeed Olaf Scholz and Europe can finally get to work after being on hold since November. The challenges are plenty and Germany’s new chancellor has his plate full: not only he has to deliver on migration and the economy, he must do so to avoid even bigger electoral gains for the far-right AfD next time around. In today’s episode of Policy Voices, host Catarina Vila Nova speaks with Liana Fix, Fellow for Europe at the Council on Foreign Relations. Fix is a historian and political scientist and an expert in German and European foreign and security policy based in Washington. If you want to comment on this episode you can send us an e-mail: press@friendsofeurope.org

Today marks the end of what was perhaps the most consequential week for the future of Europe’s security and defence since the beginning of the Ukraine war. Still reeling from a shocking security conference in Munich over the weekend, European leaders then gathered in Paris to attempt a coordinated response to America’s provocations. Host Catarina Vila Nova is joined today by Jamie Shea, senior fellow for Peace, Security and Defence at Friends of Europe and former deputy assistant secretary general at NATO. If you want to comment on this episode you can send us an e-mail: press@friendsofeurope.org

This year, the European Union will be working on amending the European Climate Law. The importance of this law cannot be understated: it is the European Climate Law that defines the goal set out in the European Green Deal to become climate-neutral by 2050. Of the many ways possible to become climate-neutral, in this episode of Policy Voices we are focusing on what is a rather niche topic: carbon dioxide removal. Host Catarina Vila Nova speaks with Anna Costova, Senior Policy Analyst at Carbon Gap, an organization focusing on scaling up just and effective carbon dioxide removal. They talk about what carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is and disentangle the concepts surrounding this conversation, such as net zero and climate neutrality. Anna also explains the different ways CDR occurs – from trees to the most technologically advanced methods – and what is the cost of not doing CDR. If you want to comment on this episode you can send us an e-mail: press@friendsofeurope.org

How to stay hopeful on the fight against climate change during Trump 2.0? Well, a great first step is listening to Helen Mountford. Helen Mountford is the President and CEO of ClimateWorks Foundation, a global platform for philanthropy to scale-up climate solutions, and my guest for today’s episode. Before joining ClimateWorks, Helen worked at Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) for 16 years, advising governments on policy reforms and oversee work on things like green fiscal reform, climate change finance, and green growth. In this episode of Policy Voices, host Catarina Vila Nova spoke with Helen who helped put things into perspective but also left some serious homework for EU leaders. If you want to comment on this episode you can send us an e-mail: press@friendsofeurope.org

In just his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed a number of executive orders that threaten American democracy and are already being challenged in the courts. With the system of checks and balances in question and a Democratic Party still trying to get back on its feet, in what state is American democracy left? On what is perhaps the most difficult episode of the series on how to not lose hope under Trump 2.0, host Catarina Vila Nova is joined by Greta Bedekovics. Bedekovics is the Associate Director of Democracy Policy at the Center for American Progress, an independent, nonpartisan policy institute based in Washington. Before joining American Progress, Bedekovics worked on the US Senate as a policy advisor on voting rights and election security. If you want to comment on this episode you can send us an e-mail: press@friendsofeurope.org

With Trump back in power it is all too easy to lose hope. As the guest in today’s episode of Policy Voices says, the next few years are going to be “a wild ride”. Nonetheless, there may be some silver linings when it comes to peace, security and defence. For example, as Rose Gottemoeller puts it: NATO countries are in a much better place than they were in 2016 when Trump first took office. Listen to the first episode of the series of Policy Voices on How to Not Lose Hope Under Trump 2.0 where host Catarina Vila Nova sat down with Rose Gottemoeller, former deputy secretary general of NATO, and former under secretary for arms control and international security at the U.S. Department of State. If you want to comment on this episode you can send us an e-mail: press@friendsofeurope.org

In June, Admiral Pierre Vandier became NATO’s new Supreme Allied Commander Transition. A few days ago, Admiral Vandier came to Friends of Europe for a conversation with our senior fellow Jamie Shea, who is also the former Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges at NATO. In this conversation, Jamie asks the Admiral about the role of Supreme Allied Commander Transition and what exactly transition means nowadays. And, of course, about the war in Ukraine. If you want to comment on this episode you can send us an e-mail: press@friendsofeurope.org

It has the potential to revolutionise Europe’s AI future but in the midst of all the political drama from the past weeks, you probably didn’t hear about it. Announced in Von der Leyen’s political guidelines for the next Commission, officially it’s called the European AI Research Council, but the Commission President referred to it as the CERN for AI. CERN, of course, being one of the world’s largest centres for scientific research. But what is this CERN for AI? To understand the significance of this announcement, host Catarina Vila Nova sat down with Aaron Maniam, Senior Fellow for Advanced AI at the International Center for Future Generations. Aaron also teaches at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford and chairs the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on the Future of Technology Policy and the OECD’s Expert Group on AI Futures. For Maniam, this CERN-like structure for AI may well represent a “watershed” moment for Europe. It is a chance for the EU to get ahead of the curv

It wouldn’t have been COP if the negotiations had been completed by last Friday – the last scheduled day of the conference. It was a long and drawn out process that only ended when many negotiators were already with their suitcases packed and ready to fly out of Azerbaijan. The petrostate was the stage for the 29th United Nations Climate Change Conference and expectations were high for a finance deal. The final agreement came in the form of 1.3 trillion dollars a year until 2035 in funds to developing nations but only 300 billion of that will come in the form they mostly called for – grants and low-interest loans from the developed world. For this week’s episode of Policy Voices, host Catarina Vila Nova spoke with Olumide Idowu, Executive Director of the International Climate Change Development Initiative Africa, just a few days after he left Baku where he spent two weeks attending COP29. Idowu is a climate activist from Nigeria and known on social media as Mr. Climate. If you want to comment on this epi

In this episode of Policy Voices, host Catarina Vila Nova speaks with Alberto Alemanno, Jean Monnet Professor in EU Law at HEC Paris, Founder of The Good Lobby, Trustee of Friends of Europe and 2014 European Young Leader (EYL40), about the “horse trading” that delivered Europe its new Commission. This conversation was recorded before the Parliament finally confirmed the last seven commissioners-designate putting and end to the deadlock. It is the end of an era. As the new European Commission is all set to take office on 1 December, prepare to say goodbye to the majority that has been governing Europe for decades. As Alemanno puts it, the European People’s Party (EPP) wants to have its cake and eat it: it is being supported by the historical alliance of the Socialists, Liberals, and even the Greens, while slowly but steadily shifting to the far-right. The new team of commissioners features as an Executive Vice President Raffaele Fitto who hails from the far-right European Conservatives and Reformists and the

Final results are in and are devastating for US Democrats. Republicans not only won the White House but they also regained control of the Senate and held on to the House achieving the government trifecta. In the end, Donald Trump won the election by only 2 percentage points but looking at the electoral map it certainly doesn’t look like that. The US map has been swept by a red wave as Trump succeeded in winning in all seven battleground states. Democrats have spent the last week enwrapped in a blame game starting with the US President himself. Would things have been different if Biden had stepped down earlier? Was Kamala set up for failure as she was given only 100 days to make her bid for President? In today’s episode, we are bringing you a collection of reactions to Trump’s victory from all over Europe. We talked to people from Romania, Denmark, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, and the UK at last week’s event from Friends of Europe State of Europe. What you will hear in today’s episode are fresh reactions to the

With COP29 starting in just a few days, world leaders are heading to Azerbaijan with images of Spanish towns wiped out by water and cars piled up on streets that hide the true devastation of one of the worst floods in Europe of this century. In this episode of Policy Voices released ahead of COP29, host Catarina Vila Nova speaks with two European Young Leaders (EYL40) from this year’s class: Lubomila Jordanova, Founder & CEO of Plan A, and Heïdi Sevestre, Glaciologist and Deputy Secretary of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP). From Svalbard, an archipelago located 650km north of the North Pole, Heïdi is experiencing and documenting the very unique ways climate change is impacting the Artic, which will inevitably trickle down to the rest of the world. On a mission to fight climate change, Lubomila founded Plan A in 2017, developing ground-breaking software that enables businesses to monitor and reduce emissions, while improving their environmental, social and corporate governance (ESC) pe

Mark Rutte has officially survived his first month in office. To take stock of what Rutte has been up to since his new job started, host Catarina Vila Nova sat down with Jamie Shea, Senior Fellow for Peace, Security and Defence at Friends of Europe, and former Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges at NATO. They go over Rutte’s pivot to the Asia Pacific and what has been his biggest challenge so far: reports of North Korean troops fighting in Ukraine alongside Russia. If you want to comment on this episode you can send us an e-mail: press@friendsofeurope.org

Fact-checkers in the United States have been under harsh scrutiny during the US Presidential election regardless of what they choose to do. To fact-check or not to fact-check seems to be the question but for Angie Drobnic Holan, Director of the International Fact-Checking Network, journalists should never compromise on their commitment to the truth nor should they negotiate away their right to fact-check to secure an interview. In this episode of Policy Voices published during the Global Media and Information Literacy Week, host Catarina Vila Nova and Angie Drobnic Holan discuss fact-checking in the era of misinformation. If you want to comment on this episode you can send us an e-mail: press@friendsofeurope.org

As much as this US presidential election has been dominated by domestic affairs such as the economy and reproductive rights – the current most consequential foreign policy issue is without a doubt the risk of a regional war in the Middle East. In this week’s episode of Policy Voices, host Catarina Vila Nova sits down with Gilbert Achcar, Professor of Development Studies and International Relations at the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London. They discuss the differences between the approaches of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, if any, and Europe’s limited role in the conflict. This conversation was recorded on 10 October. On 15 October, the US gave Israel an ultimatum that it would limit its military aid to Israel if humanitarian aid to Gaza doesn't dramatically increase in the next 30 days. If you want to comment on this episode you can send us an e-mail: press@friendsofeurope.org

Throughout this special series on AI & Democracy brought to you by Debating Europe we covered a lot of ground: from the impact on elections, to rules and regulations, ethics, and media literacy. In this episode of Policy Voices, host Catarina Vila Nova speaks with Sebastian Hallensleben, Head of Digitalisation and AI at VDE Association for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies, to look ahead and understand what an ideal world looks like where AI is working for the benefit of stronger democracies and economies. In this episode, you will also hear from Lindsay Gorman, the Managing Director & Senior Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States’ Technology Program, one of the speakers at Friends of Europe’s AI & Society Forum. If you want to comment on this episode you can send us an e-mail: press@friendsofeurope.org

With the United States winning the AI race and the EU leading on legislative power, could this be the perfect match on global collaboration? It does seem like it but there might be some unintended consequences to the EU’s regulation force with the US taking a bit too personally Europe’s take on digital sovereignty. Bu despair not as this week’s guests remain optimistic nonetheless to the outlook of EU-US global collaboration on AI. After all, with the threat that China poses to both powers, there are, after all, good enough reasons to collaborate. In the fifth episode of the special series on AI & Democracy brought to you by Debating Europe, host Catarina Vila Nova speaks with Andrea Renda, Director of Research at the Centre for European Policy Studies, and Geoffrey Gertz, Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security, on what a global collaboration between the EU and the US on artificial intelligence looks like.

When regulating artificial intelligence, we want to make sure that the policies in place are conducive to innovation and don’t become a straightjacket. But as AI becomes a part of our daily lives, the worries that it will infringe on human rights are ever more present. In the fourth episode of the special series on AI & Democracy brought to you by Debating Europe, host Catarina Vila Nova speaks with Hanne Juncher, Director of Security, Integrity and Rule of Law at the Council of Europe, who was involved in the negotiations of the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence and human rights, democracy and the rule of law – hailed as the first-ever international legal binding treaty in the field of artificial intelligence and democracy – and Justin Reynolds, Director for Tech Policy at the US Department of State.

Soon enough, you will be able to send an AI-generated version of yourself to that Zoom meeting you’ve been dreading or ask it to stay on the phone for hours with customer service to cancel that gym subscription. It sounds like a dream, right? But this also means that, soon enough, we will no longer be able to distinguish fact from fiction when watching the news. In this third episode of the special series of Policy Voices on AI & Democracy, brought to you by Debating Europe, host Catarina Vila Nova sits down with Ben Hammersley, Founder of Hammersley Futures and European Young Leader, and Ramesh Srinivasan, Professor of Information Studies at UCLA, to discuss the importance of media literacy when navigating the AI era.

When it comes to artificial intelligence, two narratives dominate: it will either be catastrophic or the solution to all of humanity’s problems. The reality is not so black and white and we are actually operating in a much greyer terrain. However, there are real concerns surrounding ethics and artificial intelligence but there are ways to preserve democratic principles in the AI era we find ourselves. In this second episode of the Policy Voices series on AI & Democracy brought to you by Debating Europe, host Catarina Vila Nova speaks with Olivia Gambelin, AI ethicist and founder of Ethical Intelligence, and Erika Staël von Holstein, Co-Founder and Chief Executive of Re-Imagine Europa. They answer what are the main ethical challenges when AI is inserted in politics and how to overcome them for a healthier democracy and brighter AI future. If you want to comment on this episode you can send us an e-mail: press@friendsofeurope.org