Politics are driving a growing culture of secrecy at the European Commission, warns European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly in this week’s episode of EU Confidential.

In an exclusive exit interview with host Sarah Wheaton, O’Reilly shares her frustrations over obtaining documents and holding European Union institutions to account. From Pfizergate to investigations into deadly migrant shipwrecks, the former journalist reflects on how her faith in the EU’s ideals has fueled her determination to ensure its institutions live up to them.

Her advice to her successor? Schmooze more.

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This week's episode of EU Confidential takes you inside the POLITICO 28 gala, where we revealed our list of the people who will drive the year ahead. Host Sarah Wheaton is joined by POLITICO Editor-in-Chief Jamil Anderlini and senior reporter Aitor Hernández-Morales to discuss how a vacuum in the EU's traditional power centers and growing disillusionment with traditional parties is giving rise to a new class of influential Doers, Dreamers and Disrupters in this year’s power ranking. Among them: EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, who Sarah interviewed at this week’s P28 gala. 

Be sure to check out the full 2025 ranking here.

Then, we’ll check in on Romania, where a court recently cancelled a presidential election that drove ultranationalist Călin Georgescu into the second round. The court cited malign interference on TikTok, but opposition figures say it’s just the establishment trying to hold on to power. POLITICO’s Carmen Paun and Pieter Haeck unpack how it’s playing out in Bucharest and Brussels.

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Finally. After months of paralysis, the new leadership team in Brussels is up and running. Then again, the power trio of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President António Costa and foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas might already be out of date, reflecting centrist majorities that don’t really exist anymore and pushing for support for Ukraine that’s already on the wane in the age of Donald Trump.

Host Sarah Wheaton is joined by POLITICO’s own power trio of reporters — Barbara Moens, Aitor Hernández-Morales and Nick Vinocur — to debate whether the new dynamic in Brussels can face the challenges ahead and avoid devolving into petty pitfalls like the so-called sofagate scandal.

Next, the latest installment of the Berlaymont Who’s Who series looks at Marta Kos, the new gatekeeper for aspiring European Union members. 

Lastly, we listen in to a clip from our sister podcast Power Play about the political crisis in Paris. Anne McElvoy talks to POLITICO's Editor-at-Large in France Marion Solletty and Alexandre Kouchner, political analyst and lecturer at the Sciences Po university. Listen here to the full episode: "French connection: Trump meets Macron in free fall"

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Romania’s presidential election delivered a TikTok-fueled political shock, with pro-Russia, far-right candidate Călin Georgescu winning the first round. His unexpected rise has stunned the establishment and raised serious questions about NATO, Ukraine, and Europe’s future.

EU Confidential host Sarah Wheaton speaks with former NATO spokesperson and Romanian native Oana Lungescu to unpack what Georgescu’s victory means for European security, and how Trump’s return to the White House could fuel the far-right and Euroskeptic wave spreading across the continent.

Later, POLITICO’s Max Griera breaks down the final vote on Ursula von der Leyen’s new European Commission and the backroom deals that made it happen, revealing shifting power dynamics in Brussels.

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While Donald Trump is filling out his top team, the EU faces a leadership vacuum. Thank Germany, where Chancellor Olaf Scholz has been on the phone with Vladimir Putin and faces gloomy prospects in likely snap elections. EU Confidential host Sarah Wheaton is joined by Gordon Repinski, POLITICO’s executive editor for Germany and host of the Berlin Playbook podcast, and Liana Fix, Europe fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, to unpack how domestic chaos in Berlin translates to transatlantic chaos for the rest of the bloc.

Then, Sarah checks in with Eric Bazail-Eimil, POLITICO.com’s expert on U.S. foreign policy, to learn more about Marco Rubio, Trump’s surprisingly conventional pick to serve as Washington’s top envoy. Are the sighs of relief in Brussels justified? 

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Europe’s energy system is entering a period of radical change. The net-zero transition will require a significant overhaul of our infrastructure and our supply chains, right when geopolitical tensions are forcing the continent to find new sources of oil and gas and develop new networks of energy collaboration with allies. In this special podcast episode produced by POLITICO Studio for Equinor, we explore these changes and their impact on energy policy across the continent.

Vulnerabilities of Europe’s energy supply range from cyberattacks on energy infrastructure, to securing access to critical minerals – but crises can be turned into opportunities. Building overall energy resilience requires not independence, but interdependence, as countries pool resources to ensure security through international cooperation and diversified energy supplies that will bring them closer to net zero and secure long-term energy supply.

Hear from Alberic Mongrenier, executive director at the European Initiative for Energy Security; Jeppe Kofod, Denmark’s former Minister of Foreign Affairs; Evan Fuery, senior vice president for corporate security and crisis management at Equinor; and James Appathurai, assistant secretary general for innovation, hybrid and cyber at NATO, on the ambitious steps countries are taking to future-proof their energy systems.

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There were 26 hearings and 72 hours of questions, answers and non-answers — and in the end, none of it mattered. Politics clearly trumped policy as MEPs grilled the aspiring new commissioners, with partisanship reaching new heights.

EU Confidential host Sarah Wheaton unpacks the Commission confirmation hearings with some of POLITICO’s top policy journalists: Senior Reporter for Iberian Affairs Aitor Hernández-Morales; Senior Defense and Space Reporter Josh Posaner; Playbook co-author Eddy Wax; and Tech and Competition Editor Aoife White.

The panel separates the theatrics from the serious policy discussion, teases out how Europe is gearing up for Donald Trump’s second presidency (and how it is not), flags which of the bloc’s priorities are set to change, and speculates how new alliances in a right-leaning Parliament could reshape the EU. 

And don’t miss the latest episode of our sister podcast, Power Play, coming to you this week from COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan. Host Anne McElvoy talks with Ali Zaidi, the White House National Climate Advisor, who shares his concerns about what might happen to the Biden administration’s climate legacy under a second Trump presidency. It’s worth a listen, here.

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After Donald Trump’s election victory, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is breaking out the Champagne. Germany’s government, meanwhile, is breaking up.

In this week’s episode of EU Confidential, we look at how Trump Round 2 is already reshaping European power dynamics. POLITICO editor-at-large Nicholas Vinocur dials in from Budapest, where Orbán is hosting European leaders for a strategy session on transatlantic relations. Then, host Sarah Wheaton hosts two high-ranking German MEPs, Parliament Vice President Katarina Barley and Foreign Affairs Committee Chair David McAllister for a debate about how to respond to Trump — and about the future of German politics. 

Finally, as MEPs hold confirmation hearings for the European Commission nominees, the Berlaymont Who’s Who series continues with mini-profiles of Glenn Micallef and  Ekaterina Zaharieva, care of tech reporter Pieter Haeck. 

For more on Trump, and how he’ll transform America’s role in the world, check out the Power Play podcast from POLITICO: Trump returns: The whole world is watching.

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For a fresh view of the U.S. election in its final days — and what it means for Europe — this week’s episode of EU Confidential gets a ground-level take from the campaign trail. POLITICO’s Jakob Hanke Vela, usually based in Brussels, has been dispatched to the U.S. to meet voters and cover the campaign from a European perspective. Francesca Chambers, White House correspondent for USA Today, has been hitting the trail with Kamala Harris after covering the Obama, Trump and Biden presidencies. 

They join host Sarah Wheaton to analyze the closing arguments of Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, as well as to parse what’s quirky about campaigning in America — and what it has in common with other votes around the EU. (We’re all MAGA on migration now.) We also look ahead to potential ripple effects in Europe: Would another Trump White House be more of the same — or would it be Trump unchained?

You can find Jakob’s American dispatches here: https://www.politico.eu/section/dc-decoded/

Further reading:

Kamala Harris is warning Polish Americans not to vote for Donald Trump. Many will, by Emilio Casalicchio

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A vote that was supposed to be a slam dunk in favor of the EU turned into a nail-biter: barely 50 percent of Moldovans backed the country’s accession ambitions in last week’s referendum. Does a massive Russian interference campaign of vote-buying and lies explain the result — or is Brussels’ tepid support for Ukraine’s resistance to Russian aggression also to blame? Ahead of a vote with similar stakes in the Republic of Georgia, EU Confidential host Sarah Wheaton is joined by POLITICO reporters who’ve lived and traveled extensively in the region: Eva Hartog, Gabriel Gavin and, dialing in from Kyiv, Veronika Melkozerova. 

Next, we listen in on a POLITICO Pro Connect session (usually off the record and invitation- only) with our top policy editors unpacking the Commission’s new “Jenga tower” structure. Policy Editor Joanna Roberts discusses which commissioners have actual power — and which just have fancy titles — with Aoife White, Cory Bennett, Jan Cienski and Douglas Busvine. 

The event was part of POLITICO Pro Connect “In Conversation With” series, which you can learn more about here.

Further reading:

Moldova and Georgia ring alarm bells for the EU, by Gabriel Gavin and Eva Hartog

Pro-EU campaign won in Moldova despite ‘unfair fight,’ president says, by Gabriel Gavin

The man who bought a country, by Dato Parulava and Eva Hartog

Ashes of Our Fathers. Inside the Fall of Nagorno-Karabakh, Gabriel Gavin’s book, will be released in January 2025.

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This week’s episode of EU Confidential is a show about nothing.

As in: Brussels’ endless lame-duck inertia. Sure, there’s still lots of yadda yadda yadda, but no real action coming out of the EU institutions despite multiple global crises (leaders at this week’s EU summit discussed migration, sure, but left Brussels having taken no concrete decisions on how to tackle it).

Host Sarah Wheaton dissects the reasons for the hold-up — and why it matters — with POLITICO’s Barbara Moens and Nick Vinocur, as well as with Aaron McLoughlin, a seasoned Brussels lobbyist with deep experience working in the Parliament and the Commission. 

Meanwhile, there’s lots happening in the U.S. ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election. Earlier this week, POLITICO Live and the American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union hosted a debate about what candidates Kamala Harris or Donald Trump could mean for Europe. Facing off: former Republican Congressman Jack Kingston; Finnish MEP Aura Salla; and Bart M.J. Szewczyk, a former State Department official and Biden-Harris campaign insider. We bring you a juicy recap.

Finally, our Berlaymont Who’s Who series looks at the unusual political trajectory of Belgium’s commissioner-designate, Hadja Lahbib, and her dual responsibility for crisis management and equality.

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