Today I’m joined by author and political commentator, Yannis Karamitsios. Originally from Thessaloniki in Greece, since 2006 Yannis has been living in Brussels and is a legal officer at the European Commission. Yannis dedicates a considerable part of his public action to the promotion of European and international federalism and has recently written book on the subject. I thought it would be good to have him on our podcast today and talk about his new book and his views on the current issues in Europe, so I hope you are sitting comfortably and happy to stay with us.
Our conversation started around Yannis’ early life in Greece and his reflection on how much has changed there since his youth in the 1980s (01:53). Within this discussion, we explored the membership of Greece in the European Union (04:15) and his country’s relationship with its neighbours (05:33). I asked Yannis about his time serving in the Greek military and his stationing in Cyprus (08:25) before moving on to the role of the European Union and its different departments (11:44). Next, our conversation on his book began with me asking Yannis how the situation around Ukraine may have been different if Europe was a united federal state (19:02). I followed up by asking Yannis about the benefits of a more closely integrated Europe ( 20:30). We then discussed the path of the Europe of today, in particular, around economies, society, and its relationship with its neighbours (27:20). Finally, we ended with a detailed chat about the genesis of his book and why he was moved to write it (38:36).
Show notes
- Time for a European Federation by Yannis Karamitsios
- Yannis at The European Network
- Yannis on Twitter
- Yannis at Euractiv
If you enjoy this podcast, please subscribe, review and rate: Spotify and Apple Podcasts
The Comfortable Spot Podcast 