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Is Global Europe the answer to shifting alliances? MEPs debate in The Ring
In this edition of our weekly debate show The Ring, Damian Boeselager (Volt/Greens) and Helmut Brandstätter (Renew) discuss whether Europe can lead in a changing world order.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2026/05/13/is-global-europe-the-answer-to-shifting-alliances-meps-debate-in-the-ring
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In this edition of our weekly debate show The Ring, Damian Boeselager (Volt/Greens) and Helmut Brandstätter (Renew) discuss whether Europe can lead in a changing world order.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2026/05/13/is-global-europe-the-answer-to-shifting-alliances-meps-debate-in-the-ring
Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages
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NewsTranscript
00:08Hello and welcome to The Ring, Euronews' weekly debate show broadcasting from the European
00:14Parliament here in Brussels. I'm Stefan Grobe. On The Ring, members of the European Parliament
00:20go face-to-face on some of the biggest issues facing Europe. Today, we want to talk about
00:26how greater Europe is coping with global instability and shifting alliances. Luis Alberto has more.
00:34The European political community's first meeting in the South Caucasus reflects the stretching
00:40contours of Europe geographically, politically and strategically. The meeting in Armenia was
00:47a response to global instability of which increasing trade tensions with the United States are a
00:52familiar part. Donald Trump's threat of 25% tariff on European cars has left Brussels scrambling
00:59to save a fragile transatlantic deal negotiated last summer. As global alliances shift, Europe
01:05is becoming a space others may want to join, align with or orbit around from Canada to the United
01:11Kingdom, from Iceland to the Balkans. Is Europe truly becoming an independent global power?
01:17Should the EU respond to external pressure with deeper unity? And is Europe ready to lead?
01:26A lot to unpack here for our debaters, and here they are.
01:31Damian Böselager, a German MEP from the Greens European Free Alliance Group and co-founder of
01:37Volte Europa. He is the vice-chair of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and a member of the
01:42delegation for relations with Canada in the European Parliament. A strong advocate for deeper
01:47European integration, he said, Europe has finally seen that national politics are not enough to
01:53handle crises that don't know of or care for borders between our nations.
01:58Helmut Brandstetter, an Austrian MEP from the Liberal Renew Europe Group. He is the vice-chair of the
02:04delegation to the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Association Committee and a member of the Committee on Foreign
02:09Affairs in the European Parliament. A strong supporter of transatlantic cooperation, he argues that Europe
02:15must respond to growing geopolitical instability with greater coordination, saying, free trade and
02:20open societies are part of the same liberal democratic project.
02:27So let me welcome to the Ring Damian Böselager and Helmut Brandstetter. Great to have you here.
02:33Good to see you. Now at the Ring, we want to offer our viewers a glimpse of how members of
02:39the
02:39European Parliament debate each other. So you should feel right at home. And let's get started.
02:46Helmut, I want to start with you. Why should anyone see Europe as a hard power rather than simply a
02:52regulatory power? There's a lot of talk about geopolitical power and we should be strong or
02:58something like that. That doesn't really interest me. What's important is security and wealth for
03:03people living in Europe. And there's one thing is for sure. There is no sovereignty of one nation.
03:09So we only or as Henry van Spack said, in Europe there are small nations and small nations who don't
03:15know yet that they are small nations like I'm sorry to say the Germans. So that's the way it is.
03:21So we
03:21have to cooperate for the security, for the wealth of our people. That means common defense, common trade.
03:27These are the basics. And of course, a better cooperation between the nations and less nationalism.
03:34I mean, he mentioned Germany. Is Germany ready for this new task?
03:38Yes. Germany has a huge issue. We have a chancellor that always said he wants to be, you know, the
03:43foreign
03:44chancellor, but also the Europe chancellor. And he hasn't yet understood that running around in the world as
03:49basically a foreign policy chancellor, while not strengthening Europe, while not using his chance to make his
03:55additions to European integration as his predecessors, for example, Helmut Kohl did. That's a problem.
04:00And I think Germany hasn't understood that they're a very small nation. Sadly, we often have national
04:05egos of people that lead nations that maybe stop them from strengthening Europe.
04:11And is there a discrepancy between hard power versus regulatory power?
04:16I think they're a bit different. So regulatory power often looks at the internal market and how
04:22companies can operate. We can, of course, talk about whether economic strength translates into
04:28foreign policy strength as well. Whereas the question of hard power is really, is Europe able to
04:34have its voice heard basically across the world as well, especially in a world that is getting more
04:40insecure. So I think hard power is more questions of like, what is Europe's military capacity look like?
04:46Do we have one united voice in foreign policy? Are we even listened to when we speak to partners outside
04:51the European Union? Good point. That brings me back to this conference in Armenia a few days ago.
04:59Was this the beginning of what we could call global Europe?
05:03I think the most positive and the greatest event was that the Canada prime minister Carney was there
05:09because what he said was very clear. We have to cooperate. We are no superpowers. But if all the
05:15middle powers work together, we can be very strong. Again, not to be a superpower, but to do everything
05:22for the security of our people. And that brings me because it was said, I'm pro-transatlantic. I used
05:27to be pro-transatlantic. But if you listen to Mr. Trump, you are not even sure, does he mean it
05:33seriously? He really wants to take Venezuela as the fifth ever first. He wanted Greenland. What else? He wants
05:39Canada. It's that's thinking of the 20th century. It's not about borders. I mean, Putin is, I mean,
05:46of course, he's a war criminal, but it was stupid enough to think I have a few more square meters
05:51and
05:51then I'm more powerful. No, it's the brains. It's research and it's cooperation. Putin doesn't
05:57understand it. Trump doesn't understand it. We understand it. And the Canadians understand it.
06:02So we have to work together, of course, with Canada, with Armenia, because we know there's a lot of
06:06pressure again from the Russians against the democracy there. So global Europe, is that is
06:12that a feasible, reasonable concept? I mean, first of all, Europe is a continent, so it's difficult
06:20to make it global. I think what Europe shows is that when nations work together, they can be more
06:26successful if they actually transfer some power to a higher level, which which is, I think, a great
06:32example for other regions of the world if it works. And that's why it's so important for us to show
06:36that this idea that nations can only be strong if they expand the territory, if they subdue their
06:42neighbors, that this is a wrong notion and that in the end it's about cooperation and agreements in
06:48a house like this, like the European Parliament, basically a democracy that is a bit supranational.
06:53And I think this is where we need to go. But our global voice, again, will only be strong if
06:58we are
06:58a good example of cooperation and of success. So the world order is shifting, obviously. A lot of things
07:04are happening that were unthinkable a few years ago, like Sweden and Finland joining NATO,
07:10Norway and Iceland now considering joining the EU. Is Europe becoming the last beacon of hope,
07:18the last beacon of democracy in the world?
07:20I mean, we know there are less and less democratic liberal countries. And Europe is a hope for many
07:27people. That's the first thing. And the second thing that's, again, it's not about power, but it's
07:32about our future. We should talk more about Africa. If you see how strong the influence of Russia is
07:40there, just talk to an African journalist and he explained to me how they organize migration from
07:46Africa to Europe just to destabilize. And it's the Wagner Group, you know, they organize it.
07:51They want Russia and China. China is interested, of course, in the raw materialists. Russia to
07:57destabilize. Where's Europe? And here is one strength of Europe. If you think about Austria, small
08:02country, even Germany, we don't have a strong, we don't have a colonial past like the Brits or the
08:11Holland or even, of course, France. So we should be stronger there and explain to them, we want, we don't
08:18want to grab anything. We want to cooperation because Africa is very close to us and we should
08:24cooperate with them. Again, it's not about global power. It's about better life for people in Europe and
08:29secure life. Would we at this point, would we be at this point, Damian, without Donald Trump and
08:35Vladimir Putin? It's true that sometimes, let's say, instability in the world can help us understand how
08:41precious our stability is in Europe and our living standards are good. I hoped always that Europe would
08:50just be a project that integrates further and further, that builds a foreign policy that is
08:54actually coherent and that we understand that this is not a project that is done. This house here is not
09:00readily built. It's not done. It's not finished. It's a hybrid between, let's say, an intergovernmental
09:05situation and parliamentary European democracy. And I think we need to finish the pieces. I do think
09:11that some crazy leaders outside of the European Union are accelerating this process or to put it
09:16differently. They put in front of us a challenge and either we live up to this challenge and actually
09:21build a Europe that is able to live in the future or we will fall apart because we are unable
09:27to actually
09:28come together as one. So Putin and Trump, the drivers of European integration. And are we,
09:35in addition to that, are we ready for this? Is Europe living up to this ambition? That's the point.
09:41That's the big question. I think we've understood it. But now it's about doing something. And when I saw
09:46Ursula von der Leyen, you know, with Trump and then the shake hands, she should have known that he
09:52doesn't take it seriously. So it's not about shaking hands. It's not about talking. It's about doing.
09:58So now with the 25 percent on European cars, we have to react immediately. And we know they are soft
10:05apart. And that's that's the platforms. You know, that's the reason why Musk is friend and why they're
10:12all friends with with Trump, because they are afraid of us. We could be much stronger against them.
10:18We have to explain to them. If you want to make business here, you've got to follow European laws.
10:25So we have to be more not more outspoken, more out doing. You know, it's as Schumann said,
10:32Europe will grow in the solidarity of action, not of words.
10:38Very good. Let me stop you here as we're just getting warmed up.
10:47Now it's time for our viewers to get a real flavor of the European Parliament chamber where members ask
10:53each other questions. That means it is time for you guys to challenge each other directly,
10:59just as you do in the hemicycle behind us. So let's get started. Damian, I'm starting with you.
11:05So the first question to you, Hamid, would be your party was also in government and promised the United
11:10States of Europe. What have you done to actually make them a reality?
11:14That's a very good point, because as you know, coalitions are very difficult to build.
11:20And with the social democrats, conservatives and liberals like us, there are a lot of differences.
11:26But what we have done, we have a very strong foreign minister. And she, her first trip was to go
11:31to Ukraine.
11:32She explained to the Austrians, it's important that Ukraine also defends us.
11:37We were always part, as a neutral country, always part of supporting Ukraine.
11:42And we expressed that and did much more than the others.
11:46So is it enough? No. But there were very important first steps we did take.
11:52Are you happy with this?
11:53I mean, I think the realities are what they are.
11:56It seems like we all, all of us, all the different nations have to do more to actually push for
12:02more European integration.
12:03I think what I'm missing from all the members of the councils of the 27 national governments is to take
12:08actually up the challenge of the European Parliament to change the treaties of the European Union.
12:12So I was just wondering if there were any initiatives coming.
12:14No, a short answer. Going to the past, there was a European Parliament, and you can see it in the
12:20Austrian Parliament.
12:21It was the old Reichsrat of the Habsburgs.
12:24And why did it fall apart? Because of nationalism.
12:29Nationalism first killed Europe and then killed many, many people.
12:33And that's, we have to explain again.
12:35So I invite everybody to go to the Reichsrat in Vienna and visit it.
12:39There you see a European Parliament. But you are right, we have to do more, yes.
12:43Yeah, I remember François Mitterrand in Strasbourg saying nationalism is war.
12:47Yeah, yeah.
12:47Nationalism is la guerre, oui.
12:49I have another...
12:49Your question to Damien.
12:50Can I ask another one?
12:52No, first him.
12:53No, they don't.
12:53My question is very simple.
12:56What I hear in Austrian companies is bureaucracy.
12:59There's the Austrian bureaucracy and there is the EU bureaucracy.
13:02What did you do?
13:04And people, and you know, the companies, especially SMEs, they are drowning in bureaucracy.
13:08What did you do for more competition and less democracy?
13:11Yeah, my dream would be is that we are actually following small entrepreneurs in different
13:16sectors to understand how much is actually communal, how much is regional, how much is
13:21national, and how much is European bureaucracy.
13:24And can we put that on a matrix of like the most annoying and most useless ones that we
13:28can actually look at?
13:29What I did personally is that in almost all the laws I negotiated, I tried to include the
13:34minimis clauses, meaning for smaller companies, SMEs, startups that are starting off, that
13:41they excluded from many of the rules that we write, because it's always an issue with
13:46regulation that it hits the smallest companies first, because they don't have the big legal
13:50departments to deal with it.
13:51And the second thing that I really want to underline is, because this is missing in the
13:55debate, we often talk about simplification, reducing the regulatory burden.
13:59What we don't talk about is harmonization.
14:02We need to finish the internal market, meaning there shouldn't be any sectoral legislation
14:07on the national level stopping us from growing from one country to the next.
14:11I want startups and scale-ups in Europe to be able to grow across borders as if there was
14:15no border.
14:15And I don't think we're there.
14:17Why?
14:17And this is something you actually mentioned earlier, because there are hard choices to
14:21be made.
14:21And I'm unhappy at the moment, because there's only a fake single-market program at the moment
14:26in the European Union, whereas harmonization would be the solution.
14:30One law can replace 27, and we should do that.
14:33And we need a capital market.
14:35This is luckily something I work on in the Econ Committee.
14:38How lucky you are for this.
14:41Now it's your time to ask Hemund another question.
14:44Yes, there's a range of questions.
14:46Maybe I'll start with one on nationalism again, because I had a panel with Robert Menasse,
14:52who's an Austrian writer.
14:53And it was very interesting, because I felt he was much more against the nationalism and
14:59the nation-state as a whole.
15:00He was much more for regional identities, whereas for me, I think there can be regions, nations.
15:05But what's really important is that the European Union functions well as an actual democratic
15:11government elected by the European Parliament.
15:13So where do you stand?
15:14Do you think the nations need to be abolished, or do you don't care?
15:17That's interesting, because I know Robert Menasse since our Common Times at the University
15:21of Vienna, and we discussed it before the last elections.
15:24And he said, I'm against your program, because we said United States of Europe.
15:28And he said, no, no, we don't need United States, we only need one Europe.
15:32And I said, you see, in the United States, it's also United States, and there are regional
15:37identities, as we know, between Texas and Massachusetts, great difference.
15:41But it's foreign policy, it's the dollar, it's defense.
15:46That's important.
15:47So I think there is sometimes it's a regional identity, there is also national identity.
15:53I don't fight national identity.
15:55I just want to explain chauvinism, so one country thinks or one nation thinks they are
16:00better.
16:01That's the problem.
16:02Plus, I think that what Robert says is a little bit of a dream.
16:06I think we should think in steps.
16:07And the next step is more likely to be the United States of Europe than only one European
16:13state.
16:14All right, we have heard the views from our guests.
16:17And at this point, I would like to introduce a new voice.
16:25For our quote of the week, let's bring in Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who was
16:30mentioned already.
16:31He participated in the conference in Armenia.
16:34And here's what he said.
16:35Take a listen.
16:36We're here because of the moral and security imperatives of our cooperation in the Caucasus,
16:43in the Baltics, in Ukraine, across Europe, and also because of the immense potential for
16:49our partnerships to build a better, more prosperous, sustainable, and just world for our citizens.
16:54And I'll close with this.
16:55It's my strong personal view that as the international order will be rebuilt, but it will be rebuilt
17:04out of Europe.
17:05The international order will be rebuilt out of Europe.
17:09Do you agree?
17:09I think we have a potential.
17:12I think the world is looking at this block right now, seeing how we react to this challenge that
17:17Donald Trump and that Putin actually confront us with.
17:21And we have a chance, especially if we follow Mark Carney's advice and start building real
17:26relationships, deep relationships with other partners to diversify our trade away, but
17:32just make it more resilient, but also, yeah, to work with partners on eye level.
17:37And I think we have the opportunity.
17:38We just need to do it.
17:40And I don't see it happening right now.
17:41It's interesting that this comes from the Prime Minister of Canada, a country of British
17:45political traditions and French culture.
17:47What can this country bring to the table?
17:51British tradition, French culture.
17:53And German immigrants.
17:54German immigrants in danger from the US.
17:56You know, because what Trump said about Carney and also about Canada is also very important.
18:02So that's probably also part of it, that he thinks cooperation will help us.
18:06But I want to add one more thing.
18:08We didn't talk about migration yet.
18:10When I talked to the Canadian ambassador in Vienna about migration in Canada, they said,
18:14OK, we also have a problem.
18:15So we developed a system that if there is a family coming, we find another family and they
18:21have to be, you know, like a partner family and they have to do something for them.
18:25And I think that's a good idea.
18:26And what I would say is, for me, one of the most important things is Europe, we learn
18:31from each other.
18:32There are some things better in Germany, in France, in Ireland, wherever.
18:35And there's something which is better in Canada.
18:37So if we cooperate as far as that's concerned, if we learn from Canada, wonderful.
18:42And I think if you listen to Carney, you have to love him.
18:44He's wonderful.
18:44Will this new order be rebuilt without the United States, knowing that Donald Trump will
18:51not be president forever?
18:53I think at the moment it's clear that the United States or at least the president has no interest in
18:58building lasting, deep relationships with Europe.
19:00It's quite the opposite.
19:02His security strategy says clearly that Europe needs to be dismantled.
19:05Why?
19:06Because it's actually a functioning union of democracies.
19:09This might change.
19:10I'm a transatlanticist as well.
19:11I lived for two years in the United States.
19:14I love the United States.
19:15But it's also true that at the moment we need to understand we have an over-reliance on the United
19:19States and we need to diversify our reliance,
19:21which means more trade relationships with different geographies, more deeper ties with others, a functioning European defense.
19:28And then we can also, of course, we have to also work with the United States as productively as we
19:35can.
19:35But at the moment, with the tariffs that also Helmut mentioned, we are in a situation that is quite negative
19:40and that might need a friend that is a bit more strict from the European side now rather than like
19:46open arms.
19:47All right, let's take a break here on The Ring.
19:50We'll be back with more after this.
20:01Welcome back to The Ring, Euronews' weekly debate show.
20:04I'm Stefan Grobe, and I'm joined by two members of the European Parliament.
20:08From Germany, Damian Böselager, representing VOLT Europe, caucusing with the Greens.
20:14And from Austria, Helmut Brandstetter from Renew Europe.
20:18I'd like to bring in the voices of the European sovereign now, the people who send you here.
20:24It's the latest Eurobarometer polling on the general satisfaction of citizens with the European Union.
20:31And here we see that nearly three quarters believe their country has benefited on balance from being a member of
20:39the EU.
20:40More than half, 57 percent of EU citizens are satisfied with the way democracy works in the EU.
20:46And 51 percent of Europeans trust the EU.
20:5251 percent trust.
20:53Is that number too low?
20:55Yes, of course.
20:56It is too low.
20:57We are not good enough.
20:58We are not good enough in explaining what we are doing.
21:01But of course, also, the democracy is not perfect.
21:04I think the system, that the nation states are too strong, that's a problem.
21:09But the second thing is, we learned a lot about Russian desinformation here.
21:13And there are, you know, the right-wing groups, they are the puppets of Putin.
21:17And they, you know, they say the same things like parrots.
21:21Sometimes their propaganda is better than our truth.
21:24We have to work on that.
21:25So the first question I always ask is, do you think there's stuff we need to do on the European
21:29level?
21:29And everybody says something, you know, defense, internal markets, climate, whatever is on their minds.
21:36They understand that we need to cooperate.
21:38And then I ask, how would you like to cooperate?
21:41Do you think it should be the 27, you know, national leaders sitting in a room like in the medieval
21:44times?
21:45Or do you think there should be a functioning government?
21:47And a lot of people actually are happy with, you know, a functioning government.
21:51And we actually have one number in the Eurobarometer, which you didn't mention,
21:54which is that there are 90, I think it's 80-something percent of people, you can fact-check,
21:59they want more European integration, they think we could actually do more on the European level together.
22:04So how does it work with the mistrust number that you have just mentioned?
22:07The truth is not, I think, that we're not explaining well enough.
22:10The truth is that around 60 percent of the laws are already coming from the European level
22:14that goes through the German Bundestag, for example.
22:17But people don't know.
22:19And the reason for that is very simple.
22:21It's national parties.
22:22So we are actually, it's our own fault as national governments, it's our own fault
22:29that people don't really understand how Brussels works because we're not fixing it.
22:34Helmut, is the European public at large ready for a huge overhaul of sort of Europe's vision?
22:41We mentioned global Europe at the beginning.
22:43I think not yet.
22:44And, you know, there's one reason the enemies of the European Union, they are very strong emotionally.
22:51We are very strong here and they are here.
22:54We have to be way more emotional about Europe.
22:58Of course, it's not always talking about the past.
23:00But, you know, the generation of my father or his grandfather, they were in the war or in resistance.
23:06They had to fight for their life.
23:07We live in peace here together.
23:09So we are not strong enough to explain how great emotionally this Europe is, that it's
23:15never been before.
23:16And today we can live here, we can discuss, but we don't, there's a war between France
23:21and Germany, Austria, it's impossible.
23:25But emotionally, we are not good enough to explain that.
23:28Is that right?
23:29No.
23:30I think now we can actually debate, you know, because there's one question, you know, is
23:34it, are we not doing a good enough job as Europeans explaining to everyone what's happening?
23:40I don't think, honestly, I don't think it's on us this time.
23:43I, you know, like when my grandfather and your father's generation basically started
23:48to build the European Union, they were starting in a moment of hate towards each other, of
23:53hate.
23:53So they didn't have the emotions to carry this project, but they understood as leaders,
23:58especially the political leaders, that they need to explain this and that they need to
24:02make this happen.
24:02I don't see a single European leader, being like the national leaders, currently making
24:08the step of explaining why Europe needs to integrate further.
24:11So I don't think, very clearly, I don't think we can defend the status quo.
24:16We shouldn't even try saying like this hybrid between national and European, no, we should
24:19actually say there's a vision of where it will go and we will fix the issues.
24:22Let me, on this emotion, and I think this is a very powerful point, hate certainly is
24:28an emotion, but reconciliation is also an emotion.
24:32So are we not emotional enough?
24:34And that was his point.
24:36I feel that like saying we somehow need to convince the hearts of the people, while at
24:41the same time national petitions constantly lie about what's happening in Europe, while
24:46citizens are not being properly informed about what's happening in Europe, where people
24:49hate like the idea of front of line because she's not elected by them.
24:53I think this is an uphill battle that we will not win.
24:57We need the national level.
24:58She was elected.
24:59She was elected by the European Parliament.
25:00Who was elected by the people, right?
25:02Like Mr. Merz.
25:03So, but the issue here is that she did not campaign, neither for the first time nor for
25:07the second time, as the lead candidate of her party.
25:11People didn't have the feeling that they can change.
25:13So what is important in elections?
25:14The feeling of being able to change the future.
25:16This is something that people do not connect.
25:18They vote for a regional party in Germany for the European Parliament elections.
25:23That's absolute bullshit.
25:24That makes no sense.
25:25Now it's time to move on to our fifth and final round.
25:32You want to do something different here.
25:34I'm going to ask you a set of questions and you can only answer with yes or no.
25:40Okay.
25:42Damian.
25:43Has Europe for a long time confused moral leadership with geopolitical power?
25:50No.
25:53Yes.
25:54Yes.
25:55Should Europe create a joint European army?
25:58Absolutely.
25:59Yes.
26:00By the way, in what language is that army going to operate?
26:04English.
26:06Just a thought.
26:09I mean, which language are we speaking here?
26:11Should defense spending rise above 3% of GDP across Europe?
26:18At the moment it seems necessary, yes.
26:21Look, if we would actually pool the money, we would have much more and we could potentially spend less.
26:25But we are spending it very inefficiently.
26:27Okay.
26:28Is the EU currently capable of acting as a true global power?
26:32No.
26:32No.
26:34Has Europe become too risk averse to act like a great power?
26:39Yes.
26:40We never tried.
26:42Okay.
26:45Will Canada join the EU someday?
26:47I absolutely hope so.
26:50I hope so.
26:52Okay.
26:53And in European elections, should voters across the EU vote for any candidate anywhere they like?
27:00Yes.
27:02There should be list elections, so no.
27:04No.
27:05So I could not vote for somebody I like in Italy, for example.
27:08Look, there should be two votes, one for a European list for the party you like and one for a
27:12regional representative.
27:14So it's a bit of a yes-no.
27:16Okay.
27:17That final answer brings us to the end of this edition of The Ring.
27:20Thanks again to Damian Böselager and Helmut Brandstetter for a very interesting, lively conversation here from the European Parliament.
27:29Thanks to our audience at home.
27:30If you like, you can continue the conversation by sending us your comments to thering at euronews.com.
27:37That's it for today.
27:39I'm Stefan Grobe.
27:40Take care and see you soon here on Euronews.
27:42We'll see you soon.
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