Episode 60: Summer stories — Tattoos to potatoes — Bridge blame game




POLITICO's EU Confidential show

Summary: 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.