ULB partners with Euronews for a series of Spitzenkandidaten debates

The news show Raw Politics, hosted by Tesa Arcilla and Darren McCaffrey, put together five special interviews with a live audience from the ULB. In the context of the academic year devoted to Europe of Knowledge, the ULB took part in all of the Spitzenkandidaten debates with the participation of students, alumni, academics and staff. Professor Ramona Coman, director of the IEE-ULB coordinated the project.

Ska Keller: focus on climate change

The series kicked off on April 24 with Ska Keller, one of the Spitzenkandidaten from The Greens/European Free Alliance, who focused on climate change. “We need to make sure we get the bigger polluters to pay more, that’s companies and the richer people,” said Keller, who believes it’s about time a woman head the European Commission.

Frans Timmermans: austerity must end

The Spitzenkandidaten debates continued on April 26, Frans Timmermans, vicepresident of the Commission and lead candidate for the Party of European Socialists took the stage.

“I think it’s time we put an end to austerity politics,” said Timmermans, who denies being a mere continuation of Juncker’s policies. “We need to make sure the biggest corporations actually start paying taxes” and to get there, said Timmermans, a strong, progressive alliance is needed.

Violeta Tomić: wars must stop

One of the leading candidates for the Party of the European Left, Violeta Tomić said Europe was failing on humanity, as thousands die on the water trying to reach it. The solution, she said, is ending the wars where they are. “Why do Germany and France want to export a lot of weapons and earn on people’s misery? They can export something good, build factories”

Guy Verhofstadt: more Europe to tackle migration

On May 13^th, the ULB participated in the interview of one of the lead candidates for the European Commission’s top job: Guy Verhofstad. The former Belgian prime minister represents the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe in the European Parliament and proposes to tackle what he calls the “political migration crisis” with European-wide solutions. He would work to establish “a European border and coast guard, a common European asylum policy and criteria, and at the same time a European economic migration policy” to make a difference between refugees and economic migrants, he said.

Jan Zahradil: less Europe as a solution

The Spitzencandidat for the European Conservatives and Reformists Group, Jan Zahradil, said that less Europe could sometimes be a solution. “We need to find an equilibrium between what can be better executed on a national level and what can be better executed on the European level… I don’t believe that for each and every case we should find a European solution.”

His interview, on May 14th, concluded the special edition of Raw Politics for Euronews that allowed dozens of IEE-ULB students, alumni, academics and staff to be on the first row, asking questions to the candidates to the European Commission’s presidency.