In the Balance - Europe's Rocky Road Ahead

Will 2017 be the year that breaks Europe? With geo-political risk at the top of everyone's radar, we focus on one region that's going to be increasingly in the spotlight in the coming months - Europe. It's not just the high-stakes elections due shortly in France, the Netherlands and Germany, there's also the migrant crisis, the potential death of the open border Schengen agreement, and the wide-ranging challenges presented by America's new administration. Could the challenging politics undermine the economics of the European project? In the Balance weighs up the issues with a panel of guests.

Ed Butler talks to Maria Demertzis, Deputy Director at the Bruegel think tank in Brussels and a visiting professor at the University of Amsterdam; Professor Ngaire Woods, Dean of the Blavatnik School of Government and Professor of Global Economic Governance at the University of Oxford, and Ruth Lea, Arbuthnot Banking Group's Economic Adviser.

(Picture: The US and European Union flags fly in Berlin, November 2016. Credit: TOBIAS SCHWARZ/AFP/Getty Images)

Published on Saturday, 4th February 2017.

Available Podcasts from In the Balance

Subscribe to In the Balance

We are not the BBC, we only list available podcasts. To find out more about the programme including episodes available on BBC iPlayer, go to the In the Balance webpage.