We analyse the 2025 Dutch snap parliamentary election results with Noortje Thijssen, Director of the Wetenschappelijk Bureau GroenLinks, the political foundation of GroenLinks, the Dutch green party.

We analyse Czechia's 2025 parliamentary election results with Adéla Jurečková, Director of the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Prague office.

We analyse Poland's 2025 presidential election results with Maciej Makulski, Head of Europe and International Politics at the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung's Warsaw office.

We analyse Germany's 2025 snap parliamentary election results with Dietrich Herrmann, Head of the Government, Administration and Political Parties Division at the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung's headquarters in Berlin.

We analyse Kosovo's 2025 parliamentary election results with Granit Gashi, Kosovo Contact Point at the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung's Belgrade office.

In 2025 we are launching this new Böll·Europe Podcast series focusing on national and federal elections taking place in Europe and around the world.

In this episode, Roderick Kefferpütz and Reinhard Bütikofer delve into his insights on evolving global challenges, the trajectory of Green EU policies, and the future of EU-China relations, in a conversation filled with reflections, and strategies for addressing pressing global issues.

In 2023, Javier Milei, a self-described “anarcho-capitalist” surprised Argentina’s political establishment and won the presidential elections. What is going on in Argentina and what are the implications for human rights, digital rights and the environment? We explore these dimensions with 3 Argentinian civil society representatives.

The fertile soils in which our food thrives are threatened. Not only is arable land being sealed for road construction and settlements, but the nutrient-rich humus layer in the fields is also dwindling. Politicians in Berlin and Brussels now want to address soil health, but are the measures sufficient?

Land is becoming an increasingly scarce commodity. Land use demands for housing and transportation but also solar energy production are making arable land scarce. Land speculation is on the rise all over Europe and the purchase and lease prices for arable land are skyrocketing. With dire consequences: small, family-run farms can barely survive on their agricultural yields. Democracy is also weakened when rural areas change so much and more and more farmers are on the brink of going out of business.

Chemical inputs - such as fertilisers and pesticides - disrupt soil health in the long term, and the carbon footprint of synthetic nitrogen fertilisers is devastating. Despite this, more and more artificial fertilisers are being used in many regions of the world to increase crop yields in the short term, but what is the true price we are paying for this?

This Böll·Europe Podcast episode explores the often overlooked link between international climate politics and gender perspectives. We discuss how climate change impacts women and marginalised communities, the inclusion of gender in global initiatives, and the crucial role of intersectional feminism in climate justice. We also examine the urgent measures governments should take in this super election year 2024.

The European Parliament elections might be over, but that doesn’t mean that the constellation of power in the EU is all set in stone. In this episode, we’re looking at what the European election result means for the EU and the future of the Green Deal, how the Greens in the European Parliament are doing, what their priorities are and whether the Greens just might be a new power broker that’s necessary for the conservatives, social democrats and liberals to hold a stable majority. Roderick Kefferpütz, Director of the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung's EU office, discusses this with Bas Eickhout, long-standing Member of the European Parliament from the Dutch Greens, and Co-President of the Greens/EFA Group.

More than 400 million people are expected to vote in the European elections on 6-9 June 2024, and decide on the next European Parliament. According to the polls, a shift to the right is expected in many EU countries, with populist, radical far right parties gaining votes and seats across the EU. What impact would this have? Conversation with Roderick Kefferpütz and Sophie Pornschlegel.

Why is legal migration useful to address the EU's most pressuring challenges? What can be done to improve the current policies and to strengthen the respect of human rights, when addressing migration?

20 years after the Thessaloniki Summit, where European Union leaders promised EU membership to Western Balkans countries, the prospects of the region joining the EU in the near future are vague. The EU's credibility has been weakened by constant obstacles, unjustified delays and Member States' vetoes. The Western Balkans, on the other hand, show an obvious stalemate in the EU-related reform process, in addition to ongoing bilateral disputes, unresolved issues of the past and democratic backsliding. Our host Gail Rego talks with members of the Western Balkans Strategy Group about the role of the EU on Bosnia and Herzegovina, and about Kosovo-Serbia relations: Agon Maliqi, a policy analyst, activist, and media writer. His most recent work has focused on political risk, growing democratic backsliding, and resilience to authoritarianism, based in Pristina and Tirana Lejla Gačanica, Programme Officer at Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation, Bosnia and Herzegovina; independent legal counsel and researcher, Sarajevo Read the position paper "Enlargement uncertainty: Reframing EU-Western Balkans relations" by the Western Balkans Strategy Group. Listen to our previous Böll·Europe Podcast episode #4 | Europride in Belgrade and LGBTIQ+ rights in the Western Balkans Read all our content on Western Balkans.

In this episode, we discuss the relationship between the EU and China, how this relationship is shaped by national strategies adopted by EU Member States, and whether it is possible to imagine a European approach to China. Gail Rego talks to: Jacob Mardell is a research  analyst with six years’ experience exploring China’s global impact. Jacob is the author of the Heinrich-Boll-Stiftung EU's study "Towards a common European China strategy? Mapping EU Member States’ policy documents on China".   Dr Janka Oertel is the director of the Asia programme and a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. Janka has published widely on topics related to EU-China relations, US-China relations, security in the Asia-Pacific region, Chinese foreign policy, 5G and emerging technologies, as well as climate cooperation. Check out our web dossier "Towards a common European China strategy? Mapping EU Member States’ policy documents on China". All our content on China.

Climate change and disinformation on social media: at the very first sight, these topics  may appear unrelated. However, fostering the ecological transition in Europe, requires substantial effort  in terms of shaping  public discourse. Notably, debates occurring on social media are part of the public arena where citizens can be convinced about the need for  an ecological transition. And, therefore, disinformation can have a huge impact on climate change-related attitudes. What is online climate change mis- and disinformation? Where does it take place and why? How does EU policy making play into all of this? In this Böll·Europe Podcast episode, our guests explore the concerning rise of climate change disinformation on prominent social networks. It highlights how social media has exacerbated the weaponisation of climate change within the context of culture wars and revealing the pivotal players who amplify climate misinformation and disinformation within online communities. Our guests also shed light on the climate disinformation policies implemented by very large platforms and describe the objective of the Digital Services Act in this regard. To uncover this complex and fascinating topic, our host Gail Rego talks to Jennie King and Ana Romero-Vicente: Jennie King is Head of Climate Research and Policy at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD). She has spearheaded investigations on climate denialism and ‘discourses of delay’ and is the co-author of ISD’s flagship reports such as ‘Deny, Deceive, Delay’.  She currently manages the COP Intelligence Units on behalf of Climate Action Against Disinformation’. Ana Romero-Vicente analyses and counteracts disinformation at EU DisinfoLab. She is apprised of the Spanish disinformation landscape and has published several international investigations on the monetisation of disinformation. She currently addresses climate misinformation and monitors audio-visual social media such as YouTube and Tik Tok. For more information: Check out the recording of the webinar “Polluting the truth about climate change”, an event jointly hosted by the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung European Union and EU DisinfoLab Read the factsheet "Platforms' policies on climate change misinformation" by Ana Romero-Vicente Read more content on Disinformation | Misinformation  

The U.S. and Europe have entered a new trade era under Biden's administration. A new cooperation agenda is being developed to tackle today's challenges, such as climate change and emerging technology, focusing on consumer protection, competition, digital issues, and energy. Despite the positive shift, trade rules are still used by some to influence domestic policies, often weakening regulations. For the citizens, this means that trade rules affect the E.U.'s efforts to protect consumers in the digital market and combat climate change. How to prevent trade rules from creating barriers to regulatory action? Is the new transatlantic cooperation agenda enough? To uncover this complex and fascinating topic, Gail Rego interviews: Calli Schroeder, Senior Counsel and Global Privacy Counsel at EPIC, the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, D.C. Calvin Manduna, Senior Trade Policy Analyst at IATP, the Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy, also in Washington D.C. They have both visited Brussels in June 2023, invited by the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue, a forum for transatlantic discussions on intellectual rights, internet society, and food between and among consumer organisations in the US and the EU. Read also the commentaries: Regulating at a glacial pace: barriers to progress written into our trade regimes Civil society proposals to reconcile trade rules with the need for regulatory action

In February 2023, the European Commission presented a Green Deal Industrial Plan to enhance the competitiveness of Europe's net-zero industry and support the fast transition towards climate neutrality. Among other things, the Plan appears to foster the EU’s willingness to lead globally in the race for development of cleantech. Crucially, however, the Plan came in after US legislators passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in 2022. And, meanwhile, China has also demonstrated its capacity to act on cleantech. This Böll·Europe Podcast episode takes stock of EU actions in the global race for cleantech leadership and what else needs to be on the agenda to achieve a 100% renewable Europe. Gail Rego interviews: Thomas Pellerin-Carlin, Director - EU Programme at the Institute for Climate Economics Suzana Carp, Deputy Executive Director at Cleantech for Europe