Trojan horses of Europe?

European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) is an international think tank with offices in Brussels, London, Berlin and Warsaw. ECFR focuses over mainly European affairs; but also offers analyses on Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Americas. ECFR is also very active in presenting their work in the form of podcasts; a novelty for think tanks. 

In this episode of their regular podcast series "World in 30 Minutes", ECFR's co-founder and director, Mark Leonard speaks with Susi Dennison, director of ECFR’s European Power programme, and Pawel Zerka, programme coordinator for European Power. They focus over the upcoming European Parliament elections and the possibility of a surge in Euro-skeptic parties. 

Zerka and Dennison, has recently compiled a report on the European elections, and they note that:

...ECFR conducted a study in the 27 member states that will go to the polls in May 2019. Our network of associate researchers in EU capitals interviewed political parties, policymakers, and policy experts, while analysing opinion polls, patterns in voter segmentation, and party manifestos. Even though Europe is still in the early stages of preparing for the election, it is already clear that this will be the most consequential parliamentary vote in the EU’s history.

The report itself reads more like a policy proposal for politicians and those active in the political arena as experts, activists etc. All in all, the report is drawing attention to "what might be done" in the face of an imminent rise in the numeric representation of populist parties. The podcast itself leans more on the analytical side; framing the importance of this particular EU parliament election-and hence, more interesting for the general audiences. 

By the way, the podcast series of "World in 30 Minutes" also come up with a further reading list for the audience who want to dive deeper into the topic.