Our guest recently described the EU's action on cohesion – levelling up Europe's diverse regions – as "more than a policy: rather, a guiding principle to strengthen and unite Europe" in an op-ed. Elisa Ferreira has been the EU Commissioner in charge of Cohesion and Reforms since 2019. On Talking Europe, we discuss the outcome of the European electi…

In the end, the centre held. The far right's gains in this month's European elections, while historic, were not the continent-wide romp that some Europe-watchers had predicted. After the nail biting, the groups that set the agenda in the old European Parliament are not much different from those in the newly elected body. But nationalist conservativ…

Pascal Lamy, a 77-year-old "globalist" Frenchman who has staked his decades-long career on the idea that more Europe is always better than less, has told FRANCE 24 he's hopeful that the solid gains by hard-right and Eurosceptic parties in the EU elections will spur Europe's 500 million citizens to build more bridges. Speaking to Douglas Herbert, La…

Charles de Gaulle famously complained that governing a country with 246 kinds of cheese was all but impossible. Less known is what De Gaulle said just before that: "Only peril can bring the French together". President Emmanuel Macron had peril on his mind when he stunned his compatriots by calling a snap national election after the far right routed…

Polls have opened in the Netherlands, where four days of voting have kicked off across the EU in the 2024 election for the European Parliament. In our series of portraits of young voters in the EU, we talk to Dina, a 24-year-old actress from the Netherlands.By FRANCE 24 English

In pioneering Lithuania, the first all-women list in the country’s political history has been unveiled. The Lithuanian Greens are hoping that this list will help more women get elected to the European Parliament, where men still make up around 60% of the members. The candidates are also trying to draw attention to other gender issues, such as the p…

In Poland, officials say the number of attempted illegal border crossings from Belarus has shot up. The ruling Civic Platform – which is in a tight election race with the former governing party, Law and Justice – says Belarus and Russia are using migrants as a tool of hybrid war against Poland, something Minsk and Moscow deny. We look at how the is…

In Italy, the main political parties contesting the EU election have held their last major rallies, outlining very different visions of the European Union. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has denounced an “increasingly technocratic and undemocratic Europe" while her main opponent, Elly Schlein of the Democratic Party, has called for a “federa…

He's been seen campaigning on empty beer crates in pubs and playing table tennis. Talking Europe catches up with the lead candidate of the Party of The European Socialists (PES) and asks him what he has learned in this EU election campaign, away from the buttoned-up confines of the Berlaymont building in Brussels. We ask him if he will block the no…

Five years after the fall of the so-called Islamic State caliphate in Iraq and Syria, the EU's anti-terrorism coordinator sees a more diffuse threat, coming from many different directions and spreading online. This is what Bartjan Wegter calls "mutant jihadism". With FRANCE 24's Armen Georgian, he discusses Afghanistan, IS-KP (Islamic State – Khora…

We take the political temperature in Hungary, where the state broadcaster has hosted an EU election debate – the first of its kind in nearly 20 years. Public television gave each party candidate a total of 11 minutes on four selected topics – a format which opposition activists said did not allow for a genuine battle of ideas. Our ENTR portrait pro…

Nicolas Schmit, the lead candidate for the Party of European Socialists (PES), speaks to FRANCE 24 about the dangers, as he sees them, of a potential alliance between the right and the far right. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has called for Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and French far-right leader Marine Le Pen to work together – while the conserv…

We start with the police searches this Wednesday at the Brussels and Strasbourg offices of an employee of the European Parliament. Authorities say the raids are linked to an investigation into whether some MEPs were bribed to promote Russian narratives in order to undermine public support for Ukraine in the EU.…

In our second Europe Votes show, we zoom in on farmers in Brussels and in France. Milk producers have rallied in the Belgian and EU capital, drawing attention to the struggles they face in being paid a fair price for their produce. And in France, the main political lists competing in the June 9 election have been courting farmers as they meet with …

We look at the start of the EU election campaign in France, where posters advertising the candidates have been slow to go up, adding to the impression of a (so far) low-profile election. We also take you to Sweden, where our reporter Clovis Casali explores the Swedish social model and how immigration has led some to question that model.…

Voters under 30 account for a sixth of Europe's electorate. That's an important group for political parties to win over during this EU election season. Young people are less likely to take part in European elections than older generations, which makes them a prize for parties that know how to clinch their votes. But those aged 18 to 30 aren’t just …

A Polish prime minister saying he's ashamed of his Polish identity. A flood of migrants assaulting people on the streets of Bulgaria's capital. The grandmother of a top European official shaking hands with Adolf Hitler. All of these are fake stories; part of what European officials say is a surge in disinformation ahead of next month's European ele…

This week we take a closer look at the Green Transition in Europe - from the invaluable invertebrates in the soil beneath us, to the end of obsolete coal mines and the revolution in transport, our show investigates just how fast Europe is becoming greener - and how to ensure no-one is left behind in the race to decarbonise.…

Another edition of our EU election series, on individual countries and regions in the EU: The Republic of Ireland is considered to be one of the most pro-EU member states, and the Eurobarometer poll that came out this spring bears that out: 67 percent of respondents said that the EU conjures up a positive image. But being pro-European does not nece…

With just a few weeks to go before EU elections, the far right in France is on track for a comfortable win, if the polls are correct. The National Rally only just beat France's ruling party, Renaissance, in the last EU elections in 2019. This time, a wide gap has opened between the two, potentially striking a serious political blow to President Emm…

It has been called an invisible epidemic. Every year, around 300,000 people in Europe die prematurely because of air pollution, according to the European Environment Agency. Those of us living in cities are particularly exposed to unsafe levels of fine particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide. The EU is trying to bring air quality closer to World He…

Is the EU's single market failing? Faced with growing competition from China and the US, the bloc is falling behind. The union has been relying on the single market to guarantee the free movement of goods, capital, services and people for more than 30 years. But inertia is creeping in, and it’s time for a new single market, says our guest Enrico Le…

Georgia has erupted in protest once again, as the ruling Georgian Dream party pursues a "foreign agents" bill in parliament – something that has left a question mark hanging over the country’s European ambitions. The EU granted the ex-Soviet nation candidate status to join the bloc last December. We speak to Georgia's President Salomé Zourabichvili…

Talking Europe sits down with one of the European Parliament’s most prominent veterans, Co-chair of the Greens Philippe Lamberts. The Belgian MEP has served in three legislatures since 2009 and says he has seen a big difference in both awareness and action on environmental issues in that time. Lamberts, who is stepping down from the EU Parliament, …