The fourth podcast in the 2025 F.E. podcast series was an interview with Thomas Byrne, Minister of State for European Affairs and Minister of State for Defence by Barry Colfer, Director of Research at the Institute of International and European Affairs in Dublin.

In this podcast, which is part of the IIEA’s Future-Proofing Europe Project and kindly supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, IIEA Researcher Dylan Marshall engaged with Judge Baker in a conversation on the link between the European Democracy Shield and safeguarding the integrity of elections.

Kersty McCourt, Senior Advocacy Advisor at Liberties EU, a membership-based human rights organisation, joins Heather Burke, IIEA Researcher, to discuss the European Commission’s much-anticipated Rule of Law Report 2025 and to highlight the role that civil society organisations play as watchdogs and defenders of the rule of law in Europe.

Judge Regan has been Ireland’s judge on the European Court of Justice since 2015. In these past ten years, the Court has issued a number of judgments that stress the value of judicial independence; however, in this podcast, Judge Regan explains how this area is not a novel one for the Court, which has judged on matters relating to judicial independence for over two decades.

This podcast explores the importance of the rule of law as a fundamental value of the EU and its role in ensuring the future of the EU. In conversation with IIEA Researcher, Heather Burke, retired Supreme Court Judge, John MacMenamin discusses the internal and external issues facing Europe and its liberal democratic model. He emphasises that a healthy democracy relies on active participation in the democratic project, not only passive acceptance of the rule of law as an abstract principle.

Ahead of the European Parliament elections on 6-9 June 2024, Pat Cox, former President of the European Parliament, engaged in a wide-ranging podcast interview with Dylan Marshall, Researcher on the IIEA's Future-Proofing Europe project. Over the course of the discussion, Mr Cox shared his views on the impact of the rise of the right in Europe on the European Parliament elections against the background of a changing and challenging geopolitical landscape. He identified climate change and migration as key policy areas of pan-European interest ahead of the elections.