Episode list

For his very first European Council as president in December 2019, the ambitious Charles Michel wants to strike hard. He is proposing that the 27 Member States commit to climate neutrality by 2050. The vast majority of member states are in favor, starting with Paris. But Poland, which is 80% dependent on coal, is blocking the proposal and is demanding substantial financial assistance. After a tour of the capitals and a real seduction operation in Warsaw to prepare the negotiation, the President of the European Council his first big test confident. But nothing is going to happen as planned - Beneath his timid exterior, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki will prove to be a formidable negotiator. As a teenager, the Communist secret police threatened to have him dig his own grave and rape his sister.

When the virus hit Europe in March 2020, masks were confiscated on the tarmac, borders were closed without consultation, and there was such a lack of mutual aid that Italy had to rely on Chinese aid. In the image of this sanitary chaos, the negotiation of a European recovery fund to deal with the economic consequences of the virus will be terrible. On the one hand, the countries of the South, hit hard by the virus and in agony, and on the other, the "frugal" countries of the North, stuck to their budgetary principles. Provocations, insults, alliances: all means are good. A dramatic turn of events occurred when Angela Merkel made a 180-degree turn to save Europe and accepted the principle of debt mutualization. It was then the Dutchman Mark Rutte who became the "Mr. No" of Europe. After three months of discussions by video conference, the 27 Member States met in Brussels to begin a 92-hour tug-of-war over the amount of the recovery plan, which finally led to a historic agreement described as a "Hamiltonian moment.