POLITICO's EU Confidential

Ukraine, the Balkans, MEPs' expenses, fake news and fallout from the Salzburg summit are all on the menu this week. Our main guests are Thomas Greminger, head of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and Montenegrin Foreign Minister Srdjan Darmanovic. News editor Andrew Gray stands in again as host for the honeymooning Ryan Heath. But Ryan still features in the podcast, with an interview he recorded with Greminger, secretary general of the OSCE, at the European Forum Alpbach in Austria. Greminger talks to Ryan about the OSCE's role in keeping a lid on the conflict in Ukraine — and what it will take to create a lasting peace there. Before that, POLITICO's chief Europe correspondent Matthew Karnitschnig talks us through his interview with Montenegrin Foreign Minister Darmanovic at another gathering with a mountain backdrop — the Bled Strategic Forum in Slovenia. Darmanovic talks about Donald Trump suggesting World War III could start in Montenegro, relations with Russia and his take on a possible Kosovo-Serbia land swap. And our podcast panelists, Lina Aburous and Alva Finn, chew over big stories from the last seven days, including the European Court of Justice ruling that members of the European Parliament don’t have to account for €100 million worth of expenses every year. Will anyone dare to defend that?

EU watchdog Emily O'Reilly is our main guest this week. Before heading off to get married, regular host Ryan Heath sat down for a candid chat with the European ombudsman in Strasbourg. Among the many topics covered: the Irish former journalist's investigation into the European Commission’s promotion of Martin Selmayr — Jean-Claude Juncker’s right-hand man — and why O'Reilly believes that Donald Trump shows transparency has its limits. News editor Andrew Gray steps into Ryan's shoes to host the show and chats to Christian Oliver, POLITICO's competition and trade editor, and Nick Vinocur, technology editor and former Paris correspondent, about some of the week's big stories. They discuss EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager's move against German carmakers and Amazon — and ponder Emmanuel Macron's advice to an unemployed gardener.

This week, a bona fide music mogul. Lyor Cohen has been in the business for 37 years, working with musicians who define memories and eras — think the Beastie Boys, Run DMC and Public Enemy, all signed by his iconic Def Jam label. These days, Cohen is YouTube’s global head of music. He spoke to EU Confidential ahead of this week’s big vote on copyright in the European Parliament. He talks about how the music business has changed and how he sees its future. Also this week, we talk to Alain Deneef, the founder of a new festival of European democracy called Jubel, taking place on September 22 in Brussels. Deneef explains the ideas behind the festival — and promises that, even though it’s in the European quarter, there will be no men in suits.

Dimitris Avramopoulos, the European commissioner for migration, sets out how the Commission plans to fighting back against populist attempts to hijack the migration agenda. Avramopoulos outlines controversial tactics: working with hardliners to achieve one of their goals, controlled migration flows, but with different means. The Commission plans to propose next week a "genuine border police" to ensure a “controlled and orderly” migration system, and to increase returns of people whose applications for asylum are rejected. He calls populist leaders like Italy's Matteo Salvini “smart,” but says they "do not offer practical European solutions on migration.“ Our podcast panel discusses the EU watchdog's conclusion that the Commission possibly "overstretched" the rules in appointing Martin Selmayr as its top civil servant. And we also look at the latest maneuvering as the European election campaign gets into gear.

This week's episode revolves around two political hot topics: how Europe should manage the growth of far-right politics across the continent, and whether to support redrawing the borders of Serbia and Kosovo along ethnic lines. Julia Ebner, author of The Rage, is a fascinating interview: she takes you inside far-right parties and networks, how they organize, why they appeal to certain people, and what we can expect from Steve Bannon's "ability to be a chaos agent” as he moves into the fringes of European politics ahead of the 2019 European election.

This week we hit peak Barnier — the height of the EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier's influence — and the U.K. published its Brexit no-deal contingency plans. We run through the dangers and the dramas ahead with Jill Rutter and Joe Owen from the Institute for Government in London. On the podcast panel with Lina Aburous and Alva Finn, we discuss their reactions to a Swiss holiday accommodation business that's decided to ban women who wear headscarfs.

This week, we mix the format up: not one guest, but many. We've asked POLITICO reporters to talk us through stand-out stories they've produced this summer. Ginger Hervey and Jillian Deutsch talk about the EU getting under the skin of the tattoo industry, and its 4,000 unregulated chemicals. (https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-tackles-tattoo-ink-safety-regulation-inking-european-chemicals-agency/) Carmen Paun discusses her postcard from Romania, reflecting on how emigration has changed a village she's known since childhood. (https://www.politico.eu/article/intorsura-romania-village-migration-feels-the-countrys-emigration-pain/) Kait Bolangaro goes on a field trip: to visit a potato farmer who's had his crop wiped out by the heat, threatening supplies of the national dish of frites. (https://www.politico.eu/article/belgian-frites-fry-in-the-heat-summer-drought-french-fries/) And Simon Marks walks us through his investigation revealing Greece's lifeline to the Syrian regime through the import of phosphates, a fertilizer ingredient. (https://www.politico.eu/article/syria-europe-greece-throws-lifeline-bashar-al-assad-by-buying-phosphates/) And of course we also hear from our regular panelists, Alva Finn and Lina Aburous, with our roundup of EU WTF moments of the week, including the political blame game surrounding the Genoa bridge collapse.

This week's interview is with Constanze Itzel, the director of the EU museum, the House of European History, in Brussels. Listen to hear her views on fake memory, conscious distortion of history, and her battle with people who think the museum is too critical of the EU. The panel discusses the heatwave, green churches and Swedish police shooting dead an intellectually disabled man who was holding a toy gun.

In this week's main interview, we hear from Sue Duke, the global head of public policy for LinkedIn. She reveals the labor market lessons to be learned from data on the company's 167 million users in Europe. We also talk about how to handle — and how not to handle — the topic of pregnancy in the workplace. The podcast panel of Lina Aburous and Alva Finn debate cost-shifting in Belgium: The country is apparently happy to pay for a new school for the children of EU officials — but wants to charge Belgium-based journalists to attend EU summits.

Johannes Hahn, European commissioner for enlargement negotiations and neighborhood policy, talks us through the Western Balkans. It's a region whose countries desperately want into the EU club, but which still has a lot of work to do in overcoming the legacies of the wars of the 1990s, including corruption and organized crime. Hahn warns against China using countries like Montenegro as a Trojan Horse to get into EU decision-making, and pushes back against Emmanuel Macron's view that the EU needs to focus on cleaning up and renovating its own house, rather than enlarging. Did you know? Hahn, like President Donald Trump, takes Coca-Cola at the meeting table and holidays in Scotland. (But the similarities end there.) His job will also grow with Brexit: the U.K. will become part of Hahn's remit as a "third country" in Europe's own neighborhood. Trump and Juncker's love-in: Our podcast panel weighs in on peace breaking out at the White House, Steve Bannon's plan to conquer Europe and the latest satellite launches for Europe's Galileo program.

Amélie de Montchalin, a French member of Parliament with Emmanuel Macron’s En Marche party explains why its undemocratic to finalise the EU’s next seven-year budget ahead of the 2019 EU election. European agriculture commissioner Phil Hogan talks about how farming needs to change, Brexit, and trade deals. The panel discusses the EU's €4.3 billion fine against Google, and how to handle a leader when they stumble, literally and politically.

A special defense-themed episode take you inside this week’s tense NATO summit and discusses the new specialism of 24/7 POTUS management. The stellar line-up includes United States Ambassadors Alexander Vershbow and Daniel Fried; Beatrice Fihn who leads ICAN an anti-nuclear and Nobel Peace Prize-winning campaign group; Brookings Institution’s Constanze Stelzenmüller and journalist Paul Taylor.

A bumper episode featuring NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg who’s got a present for Donald Trump ahead of next week’s NATO summit in Brussels, and Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who has presided of the sacking of 27 Polish judges this week, but who is at pains in our interview to explain what he likes about the EU and Jean-Claude Juncker. The podcast panel discussing a whirlwind of good deeds, hypocrisy and protest at the European Parliament this week.

It’s summit week: crammed with migration and Trump and eurozone and Brexit and will-Merkel-stay-or-go drama. One man who could benefit greatly from Merkel going is Wolfgang Schäuble, her long-time rival and finance minister, now president of the Bundestag, the German Parliament. He’s our first interview guest, followed by Danny McCoy, the head of the Irish business lobby Ibec, who talks Brexit and why Ireland has upped its lobbying game in Brussels The podcast panel tries to unpack why so much of what EU leaders are saying about migration is either unrealistic or not addressing some of the key problems.

This week’s theme is Women Rule! Our feature interview is with Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, executive director of U.N. Women, who’s got passionate views about violence, #MeToo and more. Mlambo-Ngcuka spoke to POLITICO reporter Ginger Hervey, who joins us to put the conversation in context. Our podcast panel gets into the World Cup spirit with a series of "EU kick-offs" and "EU red cards" as we chew over the Italian government’s views on its Roma communities, and the political strategy of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.