Brussels my love? The Putin-Xi bromance & the EU’s banking environment

The Euronews Brussels bureau brings you its latest episode of a talk show that aims to break down European news and politics to make it more accessible to viewers.

This week, we are joined by the Belgian MEP Philippe Lamberts who is the President of the Greens group in the European Parliament. We are also joined by Czech MEP Ondrej Kovarik from Renew Europe and Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, a senior fellow with the German Marshall Fund.

Panelists discussed the recent banking collapses, and their impact on European banks and savers. Despite the dramatic headlines, all were certain that Europeans had nothing to worry about, that the situation was under control as Europe took measures years ago after the Lehman Brothers crash and the Greek debt crisis.

The panel also commented on the Chinese president’s trip to Moscow this week. Despite the strong images, panelists did not think the trip should seriously concern Europe.

“Russia is China’s lapdog now, they have no choice. China is not going to give Putin weapons, because Europe will sanction them as the US has”, said Jacob Funk Kirkegaard.

“I would really urge the European Union to look after its own interests. Now, we have seen what hyper-dependency from Russia meant to us, to our strategic autonomy. And in a way and I would say, especially when I look at the German mercantilism, we are overdependent on China as well,” said MEP Philippe Lamberts.

Watch “Brussels, my love?” in the video player above.