We're back after our summer break, and celebrating a milestone this week: our 200th episode! To mark the occasion, we're joined by a special guest, former Finnish prime minister Alexander Stubb. Now that he's training the next generation of leaders at the European University Institute in Florence, we asked him to grade the current batch on their handling of everything from the war in Ukraine to the energy crisis. We're also talking about Sweden's election, an ill-advised decision by Bosnian football bosses, and how sheep can help to fight forest fires.

Alexander Stubb is Director of the School of Transnational Governance at the European University Institute.  You can follow him on Twitter here.

Back in 2020 we interviewed another former Finnish PM, 16-year-old Aava Murto, after she held the job for a day. You can check out that conversation in this episode.

And Aleksandar Brezar's reporting on Bosnia and Herzegovina's planned friendly against Russia can be found here.

This week's Isolation Inspiration:

'Take A Chance' - DOMi & JD BECK, feat. Anderson .Paak

'Thou Wilt Keep Him In Perfect Peace' - Samuel Sebastian Wesley

'The short unhappy life of Elizabeth Windsor' - Politico Europe

Thank you so much to all the listeners who have helped us reach 200 episodes. If you enjoy our podcast and would like to help us keep making it, we'd love it if you'd consider chipping in a few bucks a month at patreon.com/europeanspodcast (many currencies are available). You can also help new listeners find the show by leaving us a review or giving us five stars on Spotify. 00:22 We're back, and it's our 200th episode!

03:36 Good Week? Sweden's elections

20:27 Interview: Alexander Stubb grades Europe's leaders on their handling of various current crises

36:33 Isolation Inspiration

41:04 Happy Ending: Firefighting sheep and goat(s)

Producers: Katy Lee and Wojciech Oleksiak

Music: Jim Barne and Mariska Martina

This podcast is part of the Are We Europe family. Find more like-minded European podcasts at areweeurope.com/audio-family.

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