The EU Matters Podcast

In this episode, EU Watch speaks with Lithuanian MEP Petras Auštrevičius, a leading voice on European security and foreign policy. Now serving his third term in the European Parliament, Auštrevičius shares his insights on Russia’s war against Ukraine, the EU’s defense strategy, and what strategic autonomy really means for Europe’s future - and its relationship with NATO.

Helmut Brandstätter is an Austrian journalist, author, and politician. He was elected to the Austrian National Council (the lower house of Austria's parliament) in 2019 as part of NEOS – The New Austria and Liberal Forum. Now, he's a member of the European Parliament, part of the Renew Europe Group. We talked with him about EU foreign policy, migration, enlargement and the Western Balkans, as well as media freedom in Europe.

Urmas Paet is a former Estonian foreign minister and a current member of the European Parliament since 2014. He is the Vice-Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee and is a member of the Subcommittee on Security and Defence. Paet is the lead candidate for the European Parliament’s elections for the Estonian Reform Party, headed by Kaja Kallas, the current Prime Minister of Estonia. We talked with him about the threat of Russia to Europe and the West’s support for Ukraine, as well as the recent developments in the Middle East between Israel and Iran. Host: Avital Grinberg, EU Watch.

A conversation with the chair of the Subcommittee on Human Rights and veteran Socialist MEP Udo Bullmann.

David McAllister is the chairman of the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs. We sat down with him to assess the work of his committee, the role the European Parliament plays in EU foreign policy and whether or not the European Union carries enough weight in international affairs.

The Taliban came back into power after the fall of Kabul in August 2021, twenty years after a U.S.-led intervention ousted the group from power. Hosna Jalil was born in Ghazni province in 1992. She was the first woman to reach a ministerial position in Afghanistan's Ministry of Interior Affairs, at the age of 26. We spoke with Hosna about growing up under the Taliban regime and on her path into politics. Hosna also shared her views on what the European Union should do vis-à-vis the Taliban regime and how can it help Afghans on the ground in the current circumstances.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, more than 500 Iranians were executed by the Islamic regime in 2022. Since January 2023, over 200 individuals have been executed, averaging 10 per week. The European Union has urged Iran to cease this gruesome practice and has imposed sanctions due to the excessive use of force against protesters who have taken to the streets following the death of Mahsa Jina Amini while in the custody of Iran's 'morality police'. We spoke with Arash Hampay, an Iranian human rights activist who endured a tough upbringing in Iran. When he was 12 years old, his father was killed by the forces of the Islamic regime. His older brother was executed. Arash himself has been jailed multiple times for his activism and has experienced the harsh conditions of Tehran's notorious Evin prison, where political prisoners are detained. During his time there, he was subjected to both physical and psychological torture. We asked Arash about his assessment of the nature of the Iranian regime and wanted to know from him what steps he thinks the EU should take to support the Iranian people.

In May 2023, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan won the Turkish presidential elections for the third time since 2014 and has been the most powerful Turkish politician in a generation. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the opposition candidate, had pledged to restore trust with Brussels and Washington and seemed eager to unfreeze the country's EU accession process. However, Kılıçdaroğlu lost to Erdogan by more than 2 million votes. We wanted to find out if and how will this election impact Turkey's relations with the European Union. In this episode, the executive director of EU Watch, Michael Thaidigsmann is hosting Dimitar Bechev, lecturer at the School of Global and Area Studies at the University of Oxford. Bechev is also a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe, focusing on Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. He is the author of the books "Turkey Under Erdogan: How a Country Turned from Democracy and the West" and "Rival Power: Russia in Southeast Europe".