EU-Views: Joaquín Almunia
Name: Joaquín Almunia
Nationality: Spanish
Occupation(s): Politician; EC Vice President and European Commissioner for Competition (2010-2014); European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs (2004-2010); Spanish Minister for Employment (1982-1986) and Public Administrations (1986-1991)
Connection to Europe: European citizen; prominent Spanish politician in favor of the Eurozone and the EU (Europhile); leader of the opposition as secretary general of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (1997-2000), lost in the 2000 Spanish general election; Member of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), Advisory Council member of the European Policy Centre (EPC), member of the Friends of Europe Board of Trustees
Date of interview: April 11, 2016
This episode is a conversation with Joaquín Almunia, a Spanish politician, about the impact of the migration crisis on European economic, political, and social policy. Almunia discusses the challenges at Europe’s peripheries and the rise of xenophobia and populism as a reactionary response against the handling of the migrant crisis by EU leadership. He describes the confusion, frustration, and lack of confidence many EU citizens feel regarding democratic processes, at both the EU institutional level and within the national governments of the individual Member States.