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With a hot sheet
This week, Mika Aartola, Finnish MEP representing Dorota Baurek, a veteran EU correspondent at the Central Right European People’s Party and Polish Broadcasting Station TVP, and Finnish MEP representing Ian Lesser, vice president of the German Marshall Fund.
EU-US trade tensions
It is emphasized that the new trade attacks by US President Donald Trump have rather hit Brussels with tariffs that have hit European steel, aluminum and automobile exports, as well as future threats.
European trade commissioner Malossyvchovich is trying to ease the crisis and warns that retaliation EU measures could begin as early as July 14th.
MEP Mika Aaltola has denounced the US approach as “unfair treatment.”
The OECD warned this week that Trump’s tariffs have dragged global growth to its weakest levels since the Covid-19 pandemic.
Poland’s presidential election
In a very tough presidential election, Poland elected the nationalist and euroskeptical conservative Karol Naulocki, narrowly defeating the pro-EU candidate and Warsaw mayor, Rafau Truzaskowski. The results mark a blow for Prime Minister Donald Task, who asked for a vote of confidence in his government earlier next week.
Nawrocki’s rhetoric – highlighting national sovereignty, anti-immigration policies and rejection of “Brussels Dictat” – is wary of the Eurofile. However, his nationalist platform resonated with a rather divided voter.
“He’s not much of a president,” Dorota Baurek told the panel, adding that history shows Paul prefers “a normal guy.”
EU rejects Spanish bids for more official languages
Finally, the panel discussed the diplomatic retreat of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez after the EU Council rejected his proposal to create official EU languages for Catalonia, Basque and Galicia. The move, which was promised to Catalan separatists in exchange for political support, was rejected by member states for fear of a domino effect involving languages in other regions.
Watch the complete episode with the players above.
