Ideas on Europe

Every Friday, a member of the international academic association ‘UACES’ will address a current topic linked to their research on euradio.Simon Usherwood you are Professor at the Open University and chair of our partners UACES, and we are delighted to have you back for the end of the season!When we talked for the opening of the season in September, elections were far off. And now, right after the European elections we find ourselves in the middle of national campaigns on both sides of the Channel! Politics is both something that you can shape and something that happens to you, and both Rishi Sunak in the UK and Emanuel Macron in France have demonstrated this by their decision to call a vote. In neither case did they have to, in legal terms.

Every Friday, a member of the international academic association ‘UACES’ will address a current topic linked to their research on euradio.The mini-publics are an innovative method we used with the transnational REGROUP project. REGROUP stands for “Rebuilding governance and resilience out of the pandemic”. The project is based on the assumption that involving citizens in decision-making enhances transparency and trust in governance, as well as ensures that policies reflect the diverse needs and perspectives of the community. Especially in times of crisis, such as the Covid-19 pandemic...

Every Friday, a member of the international academic association ‘UACES’ will address a current topic linked to their research on euradio.How nice to have you back on Euradio! You are Senior Lecturer in Comparative Politics at the University of Surrey, in the UK, and you have already shared with us on several occasions your research on the role of women in the early stages of European integration.

Every Friday, a member of the international academic association ‘UACES’ will address a current topic linked to their research on euradio.While the commemoration of D-Day on the beaches of Normandy is dominating the news this week, you want to tell us the story of a simple tree.

Every Friday, a member of the international academic association ‘UACES’ will address a current topic linked to their research on euradio.Very pleased to have you back with us. You are Lecturer in Comparative Politics at the University of Augsburg, in Germany. As an expert on the European Parliament, what are your expectations towards the forthcoming elections?

Every Friday, a member of the international academic association ‘UACES’ will address a current topic linked to their research on euradio.Jannik Jansen, you are Policy Fellow at the Jacques Delors Centre in Berlin, and together with your colleagues, you express serious doubts about the famous anti-green backlash among European voters. Tell us where this narrative comes from in the first place.

Every Friday, a member of the international academic association ‘UACES’ will address a current topic linked to their research on euradio.Nick, You have studied the European far right parties over decades now and you shared your findings several times in our programme, most recently on how these parties respond to the climate crisis. With the European elections less than one month away, let me ask you what you think of all the media speculation about the rise in support for Radical Right Parties.

Every Friday, a member of the international academic association ‘UACES’ will address a current topic linked to their research on euradio.This week, we celebrate 20 years of Slovenia in the EU with Ana Bojinović Fenko, professor of international relations at the University of Ljulbjana.

Every Monday, a member of the international academic association ‘UACES’ will address a current topic linked to their research on euradio.This week, we celebrate 20 years of Cyprus in the EU with Phoebus Athanassiou, Associate Professor at the Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt.

Every Monday, a member of the international academic association ‘UACES’ will address a current topic linked to their research on euradio.

Bonjour, Natasza Styczyńska, very pleased to have you back at Euradio. Today, in 2024, you are Professor at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. But what were you doing when Poland became a member of the European Union, twenty years ago, on the 1st of May 2004? I was a student, in my fourth year of political science studies! Membership negotiations and the opening prospects for education and work across Europe made a huge impression on my generation but also intimidated us. We didn’t quite believe that we would really become part of the world we knew only from our holiday escapades or from literature.

Bonjour, Ramūnas Vilpišauskas, you are Jean Monnet Professor at the Institute of International Relations and Political Science of Vilnius University, in the capital of Lithuania.How old were you when your country became a member of the European Union, twenty years ago, on the 1st of May 2004?In 2004, I was 32 years old, working as an associate professor at Vilnius University, teaching and researching EU-related subjects. Actually, I also remember quite well how I spent that day. I took part in a couple of official ceremonies organised on this occasion by our state institutions and then went to a party at a friend’s place to celebrate in private.

Petr Kaniok, you are professor of political science at the Masaryk University of Brno, beautiful city in the South-East of the Czech Republic. And you recall the moment when your country became a member of the European Union, twenty years ago, on the 1st of May 2004.May 2004 – that is a long time ago! Twenty years is a small step for mankind, but it is a remarkable period for one person. Anyway, I still remember what I did and what the atmosphere was in the society. Why? Because this time was very special, vibrant and unique.

Simon Usherwood! I’m very pleased to welcome you back on Euradio. Your are professor at the Open University in Britain, and Chair of our partners UACES. Less than three months left until the elections to the European Parliament. What are your expectations? Do you think these elections actually matter?Whether these elections matter is a great question and one that often gets asked.45 years after the first direct elections, it is still a key problem for the European Parliament that most people don’t know much about what it actually does. Instead, their main reference point is national politics.

Bonjour, Emilija Tudzarovska, you are Lecturer in Contemporary European Politics at Charles University, in Prague, and your research focuses on the democratic legitimacy of the European Union. How do you evaluate it today?Let me start with going back to the economic crisis that struck the world in 2008. This crisis revealed deeper problems plaguing representative democracies and party politics, but also effected a profound change in EU member states’ political and economic systems...

It has learnt some painful lessons, but I also think there is hope in this learning process.To start with, it was forced to rediscover that war is not a faint memory or a minor disturbance that happens in some distant countries on other continents. And the war that has been raging for two years now in its immediate neighbourhood brought with it a whole list of other very unpleasant truths. 

Camila Villard Duran, you are a law professor at ESSCA School of Management, and as a lawyer, you would like to take the defence of a not very popular “suspect”. Yes, I would like to speak in defence of the trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur.You realise that many European farmers are protesting against such an agreement right now!I am aware of this resistance and can understand it. The simple fact that the trade negotiations with Mercosur have been going on since 1999 exemplifies the complexities and challenges inherent in forging international trade pacts among blocs with diverging interests.

Dorina Baltag, you are researcher at the Institute for Diplomacy and International Governance of Loughborough University, in London. And you speak to us about Moldova today, our future EU partner we know so little about. Yes, it’s a historic moment for Moldova. Together with Ukraine, it is now taking part in accession negotiations initiated by the European Council just before Christmas. It is not exaggerated to call this a “milestone” in the EU’s enlargement strategy, a decision of geopolitical significance, in a region shadowed by war. 

Daniele Saracino, good to have you back in our programme! You are lecturer in European Studies at the University of Essex, working on migration, asylum and solidarity. We can say that these three topics have given rise to much contention for almost a decade now. During the migratory movements to Europe in 2015/2016, the dysfunctionality of the so-called Dublin regulation and by extension the whole European asylum system was under display. The political crisis was exacerbated when some Member States, like Poland and Hungary, refused to implement a temporary relocation scheme that aimed at sharing the responsibility for refugees more equally, even after the European Court of Justice had confirmed the duty to apply this measure. These countries then escalated the crisis by continuing to break EU law.