Lisa Burke Show

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• Western Balkans EU Enlargement: How Long Can Europe Keep Its Neighbours Waiting?, 17/07/2026 17.07.2026 55мин

  North Macedonia has waited 21 years at the EU’s door. Zoran Dimitrovski and Linas Kojala ask what delay now costs Europe. Look at a map and the unresolved logic is striking. Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia are almost entirely surrounded by EU and NATO members. These countries are not on some distant European frontier. They form an enclave within the Union’s own geography. In 2003, at the Thessaloniki summit, the EU promised the Western Balkans a European future. More than two decades later, Croatia remains the last country to have joined, back in 2013. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, enlargement has shifted from a slow technical process to an urgent geopolitical question: what happens when Europe leaves a space inside its own borders unfilled? My guests brought two unusually powerful perspectives to that question. Zoran Dimitrovski, North Macedonia’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, spent 35 years as a journalist before entering government. He edited some of his country’s leading newspapers, reported from Washington, wrote more than 1,500 articles and investigations, and continues to teach critical thinking and analytical writing. Alongside him was Linas Kojala, CEO of the Geopolitics and Security Studies Center in Vilnius and a lecturer at Vilnius University. A Fulbright scholar with studies at Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard, Kojala has written about Lithuania’s own journey into the European Union and has been ranked among his country’s most influential public figures. Twenty-one years at the front door North Macedonia became an EU candidate in 2005, around the same time as Croatia. Yet it still has not opened substantive accession negotiations. The country first faced a long dispute with Greece over its name, eventually resolved through the Prespa Agreement and the adoption of the name North Macedonia. That opened the way into NATO. A second dispute then emerged with neighbouring Bulgaria, involving language, identity, history and the recognition of a Bulgarian community within North Macedonia’s constitution. Zoran Dimitrovski did not deny the work still required within his own country. North Macedonia must continue aligning its laws with the EU, strengthening the judiciary and fighting corruption. His argument was that these shortcomings were not the principal reason the country had been stopped. This describes one of the demands that, in Dimitrovski's view, reach beyond the Copenhagen criteria governing democratic institutions, human rights, the rule of law and a functioning market economy. There is, however, responsibility on both sides of the border and both sides of the accession table. The European Parliament’s latest assessment expresses regret at North Macedonia’s lack of progress, calling for the constitutional amendments, stronger cross-party cooperation and deeper reforms. Yet that same resolution warns that bilateral disputes over language, culture and national identity should not be used to obstruct accession. This is the uncomfortable heart of the story: the EU must remain demanding enough for membership to retain meaning, while remaining fair enough for its promises to retain credibility. The rules were written for a different Europe Kojala argued that the enlargement machinery itself must adapt to a radically altered security landscape. The process still requires unanimity at critical stages, allowing one member state to hold up another country’s progress. Under normal circumstances, such caution might be defensible. These, he stressed, are not normal circumstances. The EU’s decision-making can be painfully slow because 27 governments must agree on decisions touching sovereignty, money and national interest. Kojala compared it to 27 friends attempting to choose a restaurant, except that several of them may not be friends and the decisions are monumental. The central question is therefore whether procedures devised 20 years ago are still adequate for a Europe facing war, cyber-attacks, sabotage, disinformation and growing competition from authoritarian powers. Railways, bridges and the architecture of security EU enlargement may sound abstract, but it rapidly becomes concrete. It is about railway lines, bridges, roads, energy systems and digital networks. Dimitrovski pointed to Corridors VIII and X, which cross North Macedonia and connect the Adriatic, Black and Aegean Seas with wider Europe. These routes matter for trade and daily life, but also for NATO’s ability to move personnel and equipment across the continent. A bridge too weak to carry military vehicles is simultaneously an infrastructure problem, an economic weakness and a security vulnerability. Kojala offered a useful challenge to the language of cost. Security spending is often discussed as money disappearing from productive use. Yet roads, schools, housing, communications and transport capacity remain in the communities where they are built. The same is true of enlargement: investment in the Western Balkans is not charity at Europe’s edge. It is investment in the resilience of the continent as a whole. A vacuum rarely stays empty Russia remains an influential force in Serbia and parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, while Chinese lending and infrastructure investment have expanded across the region. Dimitrovski was careful not to suggest that the Western Balkans would simply abandon Europe for Moscow or Beijing. His warning was more subtle. Prolonged uncertainty can produce weaker institutions, frustrated populations and a region increasingly exposed to financial pressure, political manipulation and disinformation. Europe therefore faces a choice that is larger than whether another flag appears outside the institutions in Brussels. It must decide whether the Western Balkans are genuinely part of its future, and demonstrate that belief through fair conditions, credible timelines and visible results. Kojala described the European Union as something close to a “boring miracle”: cumbersome, imperfect and endlessly predicted to collapse, yet remarkably capable of adapting and surviving. That miracle now requires another act of political imagination. The Western Balkans have spent more than 20 years hearing that their future lies inside the European Union. Europe may now need to ask a harder question of itself: how long can a promise remain credible before waiting becomes its own form of rejection?
• African disapora in Luxembourg & global finance, 11/07/2026 11.07.2026 1ч 9мин

  Four Africans living in Luxembourg share why the future of Africa-Europe capital is ownership, not aid, & the people structuring it are already in the room There is a moment in the conversation when Cheikh Ndiaye, a fund lawyer at Elvinger Hoss Prussen who was born and raised in Senegal, describes his job in one word: plumbing. He designs the structures that let capital move across borders, legally and at scale. It is an unglamorous metaphor for a profound idea, and it reframes everything the African diaspora in Luxembourg is trying to do. Around the studio table at RTL City sat four people whose journeys began in Cameroon, Algeria, Mauritania and Senegal, and converged in one of the world's largest fund centres. Burrel Ngatcha, founder of the African Luxembourg Community (ALC), brought them together. Sonia Brahmi runs a boutique tax advisory firm. Dr. Leila Kamara builds sustainable investment funds. What they share is a conviction that the old story about Africa and money has expired, and that they are the ones positioned to write the new one. Why all of Africa, not just the countries? Luxembourg holds roughly 700,000 inhabitants and an outsized share of the world's investment funds. Ngatcha arrived in 2023, joined Société Générale, and quickly noticed how hard it was to find people who shared a common history. So in May 2025 he launched a LinkedIn group. It has since grown into a network of more than 1,400 professionals. "Africa has 54 countries, from the north to the south, the east to the west. It was making sense for me to create something for all the continent, not only for Cameroon." Crucially, the ALC is not a closed door. Ngatcha is direct about who belongs: the point is not heritage but curiosity about the continent's dynamics. "It's not about being African who matters the most. It's about being conscious and curious about the dynamics that happen in Africa." The diaspora's real asset is proximity The sharpest idea of the conversation came from Ndiaye, who pushed back on the reflex to equate diaspora capital with remittances. Money sent home, he argued, is love, but it is not leverage. The leverage is something far rarer. "We're not standing outside of global finance. We are in the machinery, right here." There are people of African origin in Luxembourg structuring funds, running compliance and sitting on management committees who understand both European regulation and the reality back home. That double fluency, Ndiaye said, is the whole game. "The lever is turning that proximity into vehicles, people who can make an African asset legible to European capital and root it back as ownership, not aid." The numbers most investors are missing Ask anyone to picture African investment and they tend to picture risk. Ndiaye offered a corrective that should make any allocator pause: ten of the twenty fastest-growing economies in the world are African. He pointed to Niger growing at around 11 percent a year, precisely the kind of country most European investors would never consider. His point was not naivety about risk. It was that treating a continent of 54 distinct economies as a single block is itself the error, and that local knowledge is a competitive advantage hiding in plain sight. "If you have boots on the ground, if you know the country, there are a lot of opportunities. There are a lot of success stories, but you don't know them." Blockchain as a bridge, not a buzzword Brahmi, who grew up in a third-generation Algerian family in France and now works heavily in crypto and tax, made the case for digital assets as practical infrastructure rather than speculation. Banking access across much of Africa is expensive and slow, and the continent's many currencies complicate even neighbourly trade. Stablecoins, she argued, lower the friction. She and Ngatcha recently ran a conference on exactly this, titled Digital Assets Without Borders. Her argument is that transparency, not hype, is the real promise, since transactions on a public ledger can be tracked and proven in ways paper never could. "We don't need ink signatures, because everything is documented. It should lead to better governance in the end." Sustainability as a financial strategy Kamara relocated from Paris five years ago, having grown up in Mauritania, and recently founded Kamara Advisory after three years of doctoral research into socially responsible investment. Her conclusion reshaped her career: the real gap is not in avoiding heavy emitters but in financing their transition. That insight became NZiFund, a Net-Zero Innovation Fund built to channel capital toward green technology and toward the high-emitting companies that most need to change. Her framing rejects the idea that sustainability is a compliance cost. "We really need to support them in their transition, rather than divesting from them when we are practising sustainable investment." She is candid that climate finance has a long way to go, a view shared by the wider industry. Private money, she and the table agreed, is still far from where it needs to be, and de-risking it remains the central challenge. The thread that ties it together What emerges across these four stories is a single argument made four ways. Identity is something you choose and carry rather than something assigned to you. Africa is plural, not monolithic. And the diaspora's true value is that it sits inside the machinery of global capital while understanding the ground back home. At 29, Ngatcha has built that bridge faster than most. As Brahmi put it, watching her younger colleague work, the energy and commitment to bring African voices to a platform is rare. The conversation has moved decisively away from aid and toward ownership, and these are some of the people doing the plumbing. Guests and links Burrel Ngatcha, Founder and President, African Luxembourg Community Sonia Brahmi, CEO, Kairō (LinkedIn) Dr. Leila Kamara, CEO, Kamara Advisory (LinkedIn) Cheikh Ndiaye, Counsel, Elvinger Hoss Prussen (LinkedIn)
• When Books Become Lifelines, 07/07/2026 07.07.2026 55мин

  From testicular cancer to children’s stories, book clubs and summer reads, this episode celebrates the healing power of books and community. Books can entertain us, educate us and carry us away for a few precious hours. But sometimes, they help us survive. In this edition of The Lisa Burke Show, Lisa is joined by writer, translator and lifelong bookworm Tom Weber, Mariana Mendes, founder of Between the Lines, and Maïté Ademes and Hendrik Dennemeyer from Luxembourg City Library’s children’s projects team. Together, they explore summer reading, Luxembourg’s open-air library D’Stad liest, the magic of book clubs and the inner strength that reading can give us when life turns serious. The conversation begins with Tom Weber’s courageous account of being diagnosed with testicular cancer very recently aged just 29. What began as pain and a visit to his GP rapidly became blood tests, a urologist appointment, emergency hospital care, surgery and confirmation that two tumours had been found. “Earlier this month, I was diagnosed with testicular cancer. And that came a bit out of nowhere. I didn’t see this coming at all,” Tom's candour is striking. The surgery went well, scans showed the cancer had not metastasised, and he is now waiting to see whether chemotherapy will be needed. But his most urgent message is clear: men and boys need to check themselves. “If you do have testicles, do a self-check once a month. And if you feel any sort of hardening, or anything that’s unusual, you should immediately go to your GP.” What makes Tom’s presence so moving is the way he holds fear without being consumed by it. Having previously spoken on the show about his late autism diagnosis, he explains that his philosophy is to focus on what can be done, rather than spiral into what cannot be controlled. “There’s not really any point in worrying about things that you have no control over, because at that point, you’re just adding to it” From there, the conversation turns naturally to reading, as a way to make sense of life and emotions. Tom read voraciously as a child, then lost that habit during depression and personal struggle in his early twenties. After his autism diagnosis, therapists encouraged him to think back to what he loved before masking and social pressure took over. The answer was obvious: books. “I always have a book in my hand now. And it cured a lot of the things.” This is where the episode opens into its wider love letter to libraries. Luxembourg City Library’s D’Stad liest, meaning “the city reads”, began in 2021 during the pandemic years, when open-air cultural life became a way to gather safely. This summer, the open-air library moves to the Grund district, at Place St Ulric, where readers can settle into books and magazines from Tuesday to Saturday, 11am to 6.30pm. Hendrik Dennemeyer and Maïté Ademes explain that the library’s children’s mascot, Tuffi the fox, represents their mission to foster a love of reading among children, while multilingual storytelling sessions, author readings and workshops make the library feel alive for families. “Most kids still love books,” Hendrik says, adding that comics, manga and graphic novels remain a powerful doorway into reading. Maïté highlights Saturday morning storytelling sessions, including inclusive events and a new collaboration with the Centre de Logopédie, where stories will also be translated into German sign language. Community is also at the heart of Between the Lines, the English-language book club founded by Mariana Mendes. What began four years ago as an Instagram page, shared with a few friends, has grown into monthly discussions of around 20 to 30 readers. You can follow the club at https://www.instagram.com/betweenthelines.lu/. Mariana speaks about the sensory pleasure of physical books: the touch, smell, colours, covers and bookshop browsing experience that no screen can fully replace. She also organises book swaps, where the exchange becomes personal. “People bring the books that they like and they really want someone else to read it. And maybe it’s not life changing, but I think it gives you a piece of someone else.” In a world often accused of being too digital, Mariana also points out that BookTok and Bookstagram have helped make reading feel social, visible and even trendy again. Tom’s summer reading list brings the episode its intellectual sweep. The Jakarta Method by Vincent Bevins takes listeners into the Indonesian massacres of 1965 and 1966 and the political shadows of the Cold War. What You Are Looking For Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama becomes, in Tom’s words, “like receiving a warm hug from a very dear friend”. In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado explores psychological abuse in a queer relationship through an inventive literary form. Salt Houses by Hala Alyan follows a displaced Palestinian family across generations, with prose Tom describes as lyrical and deeply moving. Finally, Rob Hopkins’ From What Is to What If closes the show on imagination and possibility. “If we want to create a better future for all of us, we need imagination,” That, perhaps, is the perfect ending to an episode that begins with illness and moves towards courage, community and creative life. Books do not remove pain. But they can give us language, companionship and a way to imagine what comes next. Links Between the Lines Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/betweenthelines.lu/ Luxembourg City Library website: https://citybiblio.lu/ Luxembourg City Library Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LetzebuergCityBibliotheque/about/ Luxembourg City Library Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/letzebuerg_city_bibliotheque/ D’Stad liest events with Between the Lines: https://citybiblio.lu/event/between-the-lines--d-stad-liest-2 https://citybiblio.lu/event/between-the-lines--d-stad-liest-3 Polly Dunbar at D’Stad liest: https://citybiblio.lu/event/polly-dunbar--d-stad-liest Audrey Martin at D’Stad liest: https://citybiblio.lu/event/audrey-martin--d-stad-liest Ville de Luxembourg newsletter: https://newsletter.vdl.lu/
• Asteroid Day in Luxembourg: How Scientists Are Learning to Defend Earth, 30/06/2026 30.06.2026 1ч 59мин

  Four women, three missions, one artist and a comet parked in space. Inside the Asteroid Day Festival episode of The Lisa Burke Show. For the Asteroid Day Festival in Luxembourg, four remarkable women came into the RTL City studio, three scientists and one artist, each travelling through heat, early flights and long journeys because they care deeply about how we explore, understand and protect ourselves from objects in space. My guests were Dr Stefania Soldini, Associate Professor in Space Engineering at the University of Liverpool and Director of the new Zero-G AstroLab; Sabina Raducan, planetary scientist at Vrije Universiteit Brussel and the Royal Observatory of Belgium; Professor Kathrin Altwegg, Professor Emeritus in Space Research and Planetology at the University of Bern; and Aura Satz, a London based artist working with film, sound, performance and sculpture. What asteroids are, and why we chase something so small and so far away An asteroid, as Stefania Soldini explained, is a small rocky object that never became a planet. That is exactly why it matters. These bodies preserve information from the birth of the Solar System more than 4.5 billion years ago. They may carry clues about planets, water and perhaps even how the building blocks of life came to Earth. “We scientists are interested because they retain some clues of maybe how life has been brought to Earth.” Stefania worked at Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA, on the famous Hayabusa2 mission to asteroid Ryugu. Hayabusa2 is still working and will fly past a new asteroid on 5 July 2026. Sending a spacecraft to a body around one kilometre across, about 100 million kilometres away, with a communication delay of around 40 minutes, is engineering on a scale that is hard to hold in the human mind. Hayabusa2 collected material twice: once from the surface and once from below it after creating a crater. Those samples were then returned to Earth, giving scientists access to material from a world we could never touch with human hands. “When you see the object for the first time, you think, oh wow, it’s nothing like we thought it was.” That sentence captures the drama of asteroid exploration. The maths can take you there, the engineering can keep you alive, but the asteroid itself still has the power to surprise you. Hayabusa2 and DART: touching an asteroid, then deliberately hitting one From Hayabusa2, we moved to Sabina Raducan and NASA’s DART mission, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test. This was the world’s first real attempt to deflect an asteroid by deliberately crashing a spacecraft into it. The target was Dimorphos, a tiny moon around 160 metres across, orbiting the larger asteroid Didymos. The spacecraft was moving at more than six kilometres per second and had to find its target autonomously. The main asteroid became visible only about an hour before impact. The actual target appeared only minutes before the spacecraft hit it. “It was a complete success. So we can all feel safe. So far.” It is an extraordinary thing to hear. Humanity has tested a way to move an asteroid. It was real planetary defence, built on decades of maths, modelling, engineering and international collaboration. “The actual target became visible only a few minutes before the impact.” Hera: the European mission going to inspect the aftermath Because DART was destroyed on impact, we still do not know exactly what happened to Dimorphos. Did it leave a crater? Did it reshape the asteroid? How much material was thrown out? How did that ejecta change the momentum of the system? That is the job of Hera, the European Space Agency mission now on its way to the Didymos system. Both Sabina and Stefania work on Hera, which will inspect the result of DART and help turn a successful test into knowledge we can use if Earth ever needs protecting. “We know the asteroid was not completely destroyed. But we don’t know what the crater looks like. If there even is a crater.” Whatever happens in geopolitics, science continues to show what collaboration can look like at its best. Rosetta and the comets: an archaeologist in space Professor Kathrin Altwegg then took us from asteroids to comets. A comet, she said with characteristic humour, is cooler than an asteroid in every sense. It is much colder, around minus 240 degrees, and it contains ices preserved from the early Solar System and beyond. As Principal Investigator for the ROSINA instrument on ESA’s Rosetta mission to comet 67P, Kathrin helped analyse some of the most pristine material we have ever encountered. Rosetta found water, gases, organic molecules and amino acids, the building blocks of life. She was very clear: this is prebiotic material, not life itself. But the implication is enormous. “It’s archaeology, but with a lot of zeros in the years.” For Kathrin, cometary science reaches into the great questions: where do we come from, where are we going, and are we alone? She explained that some of the material found in comets is older than our Solar System. If it is universal, then what happened here on Earth could have happened elsewhere. Her answer on life beyond Earth was characteristically direct: almost certainly yes, but probably microbes rather than life as we are. “A comet is just a more cool asteroid.” Rosetta was also a lesson in human commitment. This was a mission measured in decades: 10 years of planning, 10 years of building, 10 years of cruise through space, two years of measurements, then many more years of data analysis. When I asked how anyone stays committed for that long, her answer was unforgettable. “You get high on comets.” Apophis in 2029, and an honest answer about the risk In 2029, an asteroid called Apophis, around 300 metres across, will pass extremely close to Earth, at roughly the distance of geostationary satellites. Once considered a possible risk, it has now been ruled out as an impact threat. It will not hit Earth. Still, the conversation gave us an honest and useful way to think about risk. Dinosaur scale impacts are extraordinarily rare. Smaller objects, around 30 metres and under, are usually dealt with by Earth’s atmosphere. The objects that deserve real attention are around 100 metres across: big enough to cause serious local damage, but small enough that we may be able to act. “These are the ones that we can do something about.” Kathrin would not offer false comfort for the truly enormous asteroid scenario. Planetary defence is therefore not about panic. It is about seeing early, understanding properly and acting in time, if we can. The artist in the room: how we listen to warnings Aura Satz came into the conversation from a different direction. She is not an asteroid scientist, but her work on sirens, sound and emergency listening felt unexpectedly central to Asteroid Day. Her film Preemptive Listening explores how we hear warnings, how we respond to alarm and whether emergency signals can do more than frighten us. Her work asks a question that belongs in planetary defence too: how do we listen to danger before it is too late? “Does an alarm have to be alarming?” Aura described a siren as a call to attention, something that gives an instruction and points to a possible future. In that sense, an asteroid warning system is also a kind of siren, one aimed not at panic, but at survival. “It points to the possibility of survival.” Her film installation is currently on display as part of the exhibition état bruit at Konschthal Esch in Luxembourg. This is exactly the kind of outreach the scientists said they need. The science is extraordinary, but it has to be heard, understood and felt by the public. Advice for anyone who loves space but fears the maths One of the most encouraging parts of the conversation came when I asked whether there is room in space science for people who are not brilliant mathematicians or engineers. The answer was yes. There is room for communicators, artists, outreach specialists, technicians, geologists, chemists, programmers, observers and people who can help translate difficult science into public understanding. “You don’t have to be very good at mathematics. There are ways around it.” From Stefania and Sabina came advice that applies far beyond space: follow your passion, take opportunities when they come and keep going. In missions that last years or decades, perseverance matters as much as brilliance. One last image: a spacecraft parked in space, waiting My favourite image came from Kathrin. The next comet mission, Comet Interceptor, is planned for launch in 2028 or 2029. But it will not fly to a known target. It will park in space and wait, sometimes for years, for a brand new comet entering the inner Solar System for the first time. A spacecraft, waiting patiently in space for a comet that has not yet arrived. A target that does not yet have a name. “It depends on the patience you have. I told you it’s a fun mission.” So we will keep watching that little parked spacecraft. We will think of these four women, and of everything they have given to science, space engineering, art and public understanding. Asteroid Day is about rocks in space, yes. But it is also about us: how we listen, how we collaborate, how we imagine the future, and how we learn to defend the only planet we currently call home. Links and further reading Stefania Soldini, Zero-G AstroLab at the University of Liverpool: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/research/space/space-robotics/ Stefania Soldini on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-stefania-soldini-42524651 Sabina Raducan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabina-raducan-bb511a71/ ESA Hera mission overview: https://www.esa.int/Space_Safety/Hera/Hera_mission_overview Kathrin Altwegg and ESA’s Rosetta mission: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Rosetta Aura Satz: https://aurasatz.com Instagram: @aurasatz Konschthal Esch, Luxembourg: https://www.konschthal.lu
• Luxembourg's Video Game Industry Levels Up, 27/06/2026 27.06.2026 57мин

  Fred Neuen, Annabel Schoellen, Daniel Klautsch and Monica Serban on the LVGA, indie hits, cosy science games and why everyone is secretly a gamer. Video games are now the biggest entertainment economy on the planet, bigger than music and film combined, and Luxembourg is quietly building its corner of it. I welcomed four guests who each see it differently: Fred Neuen, president of the Luxembourg Video Game Association (LVGA) and the Luxembourg Film Academy; Annabel Schoellen, Secretary of videogames.lu; indie developer Daniel Klautsch of Team Iota; and game developer and environmental economist Monica Serban. I began this interview a reluctant gamer and left convinced I had simply never noticed I was one (in a very tiny capacity). Fred founded the LVGA in 2024 on three pillars: developers, education and the events and e-sports scene. Expecting a handful of local names, he found a thriving ecosystem. Some Luxembourg studios already succeed abroad: Rooftops and Alleys has sold hundreds of thousands of units across PC, PS5 and Switch, while retro specialist Sebastien Kotzka sees his work in Japanese arcades. If Fred is the structure, Annabel is the heartbeat. Through videogames.lu she runs the GamingCafé, a free, near monthly event built around the motto "spill mat," Luxembourgish for "play with us." She was candid about the abuse women still face online, recalling comments like "go back to the kitchen" while leading raids in Guild Wars 2. Yet the room she describes is the opposite of the stereotype: wide ranging in age, increasingly female, and visibly welcoming to its queer crowd. Daniel offered the founder's view. With BTS Game graduates Julie Fies and Steven Van Dorp, he formed Team Iota and released Sacrifice For Sale on Steam, then Switch, PS5 and Xbox. His hardest lesson was that making the game is the easy part, and that zero budget marketing is the steepest climb. The breakthrough came from collaboration, not cash. On AI in coding, he offered a framing worth keeping: "Treat it as a very enthusiastic intern. They will make progress fast, but the accuracy of it will not always be there." Daniel Klautsch Monica made the case for games as a force for change. A screenwriter and lifelong gamer, she uses the cozy live sim format, in the spirit of Stardew Valley, for real scientific communication. In Scarletto Beetle and the Unseen World, built with the Museum of Natural History, the player is a ladybug learning how pollination and ecosystems work. After a Climate Futures game jam, she is now in a French German accelerator and heading to Gamescom in August. What united all four was a sense of standing at a frontier, from gamified education, with professors already using Assassin's Creed to teach history, to the harder questions of addiction and manipulative design. Fred's boldest dream is a curated, Cannes style festival for games, hosted in Luxembourg, possibly next year. "We are all pioneers right now. It's like the Wild West, something to explore." Fred Neuen His definition of a gamer is wide enough to include his own mother, who plays daily Sudoku on her phone. On paper, he admitted, she games more than he does, and I suspect the same is quietly true of many of us. Links and where to follow the guests LVGA (Luxembourg Video Game Association) https://www.lvga.lu Fred Neuen, president of LVGA and the Luxembourg Film Academy Radar: https://thisisradar.com FDI Group: https://www.fdi-group.eu Luxembourg Film Academy: https://filmakademie.lu Annabel Schoellen, Secretary of videogames.lu https://videogames.lu/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/videogameslu Daniel Klautsch, indie game developer, Team Iota Team Iota on X: https://x.com/TeamIotaGames Team Iota on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/teamiota.bsky.social Press kit: https://team-iota.klautsch.lu/press/ Sacrifice For Sale on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2809090/Sacrifice_For_Sale/ Monica Serban, game developer and environmental economist LinkedIn post on the Science Center event: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/maria-monicaserban-2a085419_climatechange-euclimatepact-biodiversityactivity-7435435012902039552-QABg
• Miami University in Luxembourg: MUDEC director Raymond Manes retires, 20/06/2026 20.06.2026 56мин

  As MUDEC's first Luxembourgish Executive Director retires after 24 years, Raymond Manes shares the love story behind Miami University in Luxembourg. For almost six decades, a slice of American university life has been quietly thriving in the Grand Duchy. The Miami University John E. Dolibois European Center, known to most simply as MUDEC, has welcomed students from Ohio to Luxembourg since 1968. This month, its first Luxembourgish Executive Director, Raymond Manes, closes a 24 year chapter as he steps into retirement. He arrived at Miami in 2002, took the helm in 2020, and steered the centre through the pandemic when American students were able to continue their semester abroad while most universities on both sides of the Atlantic had gone fully online. "For me, it's a love story of 24 years. It has been really a wonderful time at Miami. But Miami is not in Florida." That last point is the one Raymond loves to correct. Miami University sits in Oxford, Ohio, roughly halfway between Cincinnati and Dayton, and its name traces back to the Myaamia tribe, whose people were later moved to Oklahoma. The connection runs deep today: tribe members study at Miami with free tuition, and of around 150 who have graduated, 45 have come through Luxembourg. The university's Myaamia Center leads the revitalisation of the tribe's language through dictionaries, educational platforms and storytelling. Luxembourg students are also allowed to study at Miami University in Ohio, with scholarship and tuition waivers. The D in MUDEC belongs to one extraordinary man. John E. Dolibois, a Luxembourger born in 1918, who emigrated to the United States aged thirteen without speaking English, became an American citizen in 1941, and graduated from Miami University. As a US soldier he returned to Europe near the end of the war and became one of the interviewers of Nazi war criminals, first at Mondorf and later at the Nuremberg Trials. The moment that changed everything came on holiday in Venice, when a waiter relayed a phone call from "the President." "He thought it was the president of the university, his boss. He picked up the phone: 'Yes, this is John Dolibois.' 'Yes, sir, this is Ronald Reagan.'" Reagan appointed Dolibois US Ambassador to Luxembourg in 1982, the seed that grew into the centre bearing his name in 1988. Raymond knew him and his wife Winnie right up until his death in 2014, visiting John at his retirement home near Cincinnati, where a glass of Luxembourgish wine would loosen the stories, including the time he interviewed Hermann Göring in his cell. That bond between America and Luxembourg sits at the heart of the programme's founding philosophy, captured in three words: Study, Engage, Travel. The host family tradition was born of gratitude, with Luxembourg families opening their homes to young Americans as a way of saying thank you after the war, and out-of-class learning, from the military cemeteries to the museums of Diekirch and Ettelbruck, remains central. If there is a tension running through American higher education, it is that high tuition turns students, and their families, into clients. Raymond is candid about the pressure that creates, where nearly everyone expects an A, and about the parents who can make an educator's autonomy a daily negotiation. "We call them the helicopter parents, always watching, hovering; and the mowing parents, who try to clear every obstacle from their child's path." Across 24 years, the student has changed too. The year-long students who once crossed by boat, taking classes onboard during the week-long voyage, have vanished, replaced by shorter, faster, more individualised semesters. Cell phones keep students tethered to home, the humanities are quietly retreating, and AI is reshaping the classroom faster than anyone can plan for, a worry Raymond shares with University of Luxembourg Rector Jens Kreisel: nobody knows how to design a classroom for the next five years. What endures is the 13,000-strong alumni network that funds, mentors and champions the centre, and a successor, Stephanie, ready to carry it forward. Retirement, Lisa suggested, need not mean stopping, and Raymond half-promised a draft course on school administration by this time next year. After 24 years of planting a quiet flag for MUDEC, few would bet against him. Watch and listen: The Lisa Burke Show is available on RTL Today, RTL Play, RTL Today Radio (now on FM), Apple Podcasts and Spotify. MUDEC and Miami University Miami in Luxembourg overview: https://miamioh.edu/global-initiatives/miami-in-luxembourg/ Myaamia Center: https://miamioh.edu/centersinstitutes/myaamia-center Follow MUDEC Instagram / Facebook: @mudec_luxembourg TikTok: @miamioh.luxembourg LinkedIn: Miami University John E. Dolibois European Center (MUDEC) in Luxembourg
• The €8.3 trillion question: Can Luxembourg build the talent to match its money?, 13/06/2026 13.06.2026 56мин

  ALFI's Serge Weyland and McGill's Patrick Augustin on funds, Europe's pension time bomb, and why financial literacy may be its most urgent lesson. Luxembourg is known to many as the heart of European finance, yet the story of how it earned that title is one we rarely hear told plainly. On this episode, I sat down with two guests perfectly placed to tell it: Serge Weyland, CEO of the Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry (ALFI), and Patrick Augustin, Associate Professor of Finance at McGill University and Director of the new McGill Luxembourg Centre for Finance. The conversation ranged from the founding milestones of the fund industry to the looming pension challenge facing the entire continent, and landed somewhere unexpectedly personal: how few of us were ever taught to handle our own money. The scale of what Luxembourg has built is genuinely difficult to picture. As Serge explained, the industry traces back nearly 40 years, to 1988, when Luxembourg became the first EU Member State to transpose a directive that let an investment fund created in one country be sold across all the others. That foresight attracted the world's major asset managers, and the result today is staggering. The fund industry now employs roughly two-thirds of the 50,000 people working in Luxembourg's financial services sector, an industry that accounts for a quarter of the country's GDP. "Luxembourg today is home to 8.3 trillion. So that's a lot of money." Serge Weyland, CEO of ALFI Serge described the European Passport as one of the great commercial successes of the bloc, and one of its quietest. Of the 25 trillion euros in funds domiciled in Europe, around 6 trillion belongs to investors outside the continent who trusted its regulatory safeguards. It is, in his words, a success story we simply do not hear often enough. For Patrick, the foundation under all of it is not capital or regulation but people. Luxembourg has long held the operational infrastructure, what some politely call the back office, but as markets shift toward private equity, tokenisation and digital assets, the bottleneck changes too. "Talent is the infrastructure of the financial industry. If you don't have good talent, you're at the risk of failing in the longer run." Patrick Augustin, McGill University That is the gap McGill has come to fill. The Centre is a joint initiative with the Ministry of Finance, the banking association ABBL and ALFI, and its flagship offering is a two-year, part-time Master of Management in Finance, taught on weekends by McGill faculty in Luxembourg. Its standout feature is that students manage a real, regulated fund through Desautels Capital Management, filing compliance, executing trades and defending their investment pitches to outside investors who can scrutinise them hard. Patrick put the case for learning by doing with a simple question: if you wanted to learn tennis or the piano, would you watch videos, or would you play? What both guests kept returning to was the ecosystem itself, the close dialogue between academia, industry and policymakers that Luxembourg's flat hierarchy makes uniquely possible. "The secret sauce is the closely knit community. When there is a need for the industry, we know we have a direct line into the legislator." Serge Weyland, CEO of ALFI The conversation then turned to the issue closest to both men's hearts: pensions, and the financial literacy that underpins them. A joint ALFI/McGill study examined how Europeans save, and the numbers are sobering. European households sit on roughly 14 trillion euros in cash and savings, around 41 to 42 percent of household savings, against just 14 percent in the United States. That cash quietly loses value to inflation year after year. The study's counterfactual was striking: if France and Germany alone reformed their pension systems along the lines of Sweden or Denmark, they could unlock an additional 10 trillion euros over time. Sweden, Serge noted, went from funded pensions worth around 12 percent of GDP twenty years ago to roughly 120 percent today, a tenfold rise. Yet none of this works without education, and education, both guests agreed, has to start far earlier than the lecture hall. "Personal finance essentials should be mandatory, bottom up, from an early age, of course in an age appropriate way." Patrick Augustin, McGill University Serge made the point personally. After 40 years in finance, he reckons that had he invested regularly from the start, he would have five or six times the money he has today, simply because no one ever taught him how. The encouraging note he ended on is that the barrier to entry has never been lower. Through tokenisation and fractional fund units, investing can now begin with 30, 40 or 50 euros a month, held in a digital wallet at a fraction of the traditional cost. The technology is still niche in Europe, though already mainstream among retail savers in parts of Asia. We agreed that crypto, stablecoins, the digital euro and tokenisation each deserve a show of their own. For now, the message from both guests was clear: Luxembourg has the capital and the regulation, and with the right talent and the right financial education, it has every chance of future-proofing both its industry and its citizens. Links and further reading McGill Master of Management in Finance, Luxembourg: https://www.mcgill.ca/desautels/programs/mmf/luxembourg McGill Luxembourg Centre for Finance on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/mcgillluxembourgcentreforfinance/ Contact the MMF Luxembourg programme: mmfluxembourg@mcgill.ca Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry (ALFI): https://www.alfi.lu ALFI's investment in higher education: https://www.alfi.lu/en-gb/pages/about-us/what-we-do/investment-in-higher-education ALFI/McGill study, Europe's productive capital gap (2025), and the ALFI Blueprint for Savings and Investments: available via https://www.alfi.lu
• Beauty entrepreneur puts Luxembourg on the business map, 06/06/2026 06.06.2026 49мин

  Henrietta Orosz reveals how beauty became her business, moving from service-provider to judge, author and inventor. It was a genuine pleasure to host Henrietta in the studio. Her story is a reminder that the most interesting careers are usually the ones that require courage, and that Luxembourg is slowly becoming a place for beauty businesses too. “Beauty is not just surface. It is psychology, communication, self-care and business.” Beauty entrepreneur Henrietta Orosz challenges the idea that beauty is superficial. For her, the beauty industry is not a simple story about lashes, make-up or appearance, but a world of hard business, psychology, precision, communication and self-worth. In Luxembourg, a country better known for finance than beauty, Henrietta is helping to prove that this fast-growing industry deserves to be taken seriously. Born in Hungary and now also Luxembourgish, Henrietta originally trained in economics and worked in marketing. But the traditional nine-to-five path never felt like the right fit. Her entry into beauty began with a personal desire to learn make-up for herself, which opened up an entirely new creative world. “The biggest shift in my career happened when I stopped seeing myself only as a service provider.” Henrietta’s journey has taken her far beyond the service provider model. She is now an international judge, educator, conference speaker, author, competition organiser, app founder and creator of her own CURLx technology. She recently won gold at a major beauty competition in Düsseldorf, representing Luxembourg on an international stage and helping place the country on the beauty map. Luxembourgish make-up artist Luca also won first prize in a different category at this event. Henrietta knows that beauty professionals must never forget the person behind the treatment. In lash artistry it is not enough to focus only on the millimetres in front of you, technique or trends. The work begins with understanding the client’s lifestyle, facial structure, personality and needs. In that sense, beauty becomes a highly personal form of care which can give people confidence and a rare moment away from the visual overload of modern life. Henrietta’s resilience is also deeply personal. Having lost her mother to cancer as a teenager, she speaks about turning pain into power and choosing to live with courage. That same courage shaped her move from employment to entrepreneurship, her decision to compete again after years as a judge, and her willingness to create new methods rather than simply follow old rules. “Creativity requires risk, but staying in the comfort zone can cost even more.” For anyone dreaming of building something of their own, Henrietta’s story is a reminder that niche expertise can become global influence. Beauty may still be underestimated, especially in finance-focussed Luxembourg, but Henrietta shows that with skill, originality and courage, a beauty professional can become an innovator, educator and international voice.
• How do we educate people for a future that no one can predict?, 30/05/2026 30.05.2026 57мин

  AI, Talent and the Future of Europe: Why Universities Matter More Than Ever As AI reshapes jobs, health and society, University of Luxembourg Rector Jens Kreisel explains why universities matter more than ever. The future belongs to people who can learn, adapt and think critically. That was the central message from University of Luxembourg Rector Jens Kreisel when he joined The Lisa Burke Show for a wide-ranging conversation on artificial intelligence, education and Europe's future. As AI transforms almost every aspect of life, Kreisel argues that universities have never been more important. Their role extends far beyond delivering degrees. They educate future generations, drive research and innovation, connect knowledge with society and increasingly provide lifelong learning for people whose careers will evolve multiple times throughout their lives. "The future challenge is not knowledge alone," he suggests, "but wisdom, ethics and contextualisation." One of the most striking revelations concerns Luxembourg itself. The University of Luxembourg attracts students from more than 100 nationalities and retains around 70% of its graduates after they finish their studies. In a country facing the same demographic challenges as much of Europe, the university has become a powerful engine for attracting and retaining global talent. "We bring them in, and Luxembourg makes them stay." The discussion also explored AI's extraordinary potential in medicine and biology. Kreisel points to breakthroughs such as Nobel Prize-winning AI systems that can predict protein structures at unprecedented speed, potentially accelerating drug discovery and transforming healthcare. Yet he warns that AI also raises profound questions around trust, manipulation, democracy and truth. As machines become more persuasive, the ability to question information may become humanity's most valuable skill. "Universities are not just educating students - they are shaping the future of a country." That is why Kreisel believes the humanities are becoming more important, not less. Historians, philosophers and social scientists are trained to analyse sources, understand context and challenge assumptions: skills that may prove essential in an age of synthetic media, misinformation and algorithmic influence. "Welcome to the club," one historian told university leaders when ChatGPT emerged. "We've been questioning sources for 400 years." "The ability to question information may become humanity's most valuable skill. Humanities may become more important, not less, in the age of AI." Ultimately, Kreisel believes the university of the future must combine deep expertise with intellectual curiosity across disciplines. In a world where careers are no longer linear and technologies evolve at digital speed, success will belong not simply to those who know the most, but to those who know how to learn, think and adapt. For Luxembourg, Europe and the next generation, that may be the most important lesson of all. "Success will belong not to those who know the most, but to those who know how to learn."
• Europe's quiet banker is now buying rocket launchers and bridges, 23/05/2026 23.05.2026 49мин

  The man who helps finance Europe's defence: Robert de Groot, vice president of the European Investment Bank There is a particular kind of power that comes with someone who decides, quietly, which ideas get funded and which don't. Robert de Groot, and his team, holds that power over an extraordinary range of things: military bridges in Poland, rocket launchers in Spain, satellite-to-smartphone startups in Luxembourg, drone intelligence software in Estonia. As Vice President of the world's largest multilateral lender, the EIB sitting on the Kirchberg plateau, his brief covers security, defence, space, and innovation. It is, as he puts it with characteristic understatement, "quite a new direction" for a bank that, not long ago, wouldn't touch defence at all. That has changed. Dramatically. Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the EIB has rewritten its mandate, opening five distinct financing pillars across the defence and security ecosystem, from large-scale infrastructure to venture equity for startups building things that didn't exist five years ago. De Groot has spent the last two years touring every European capital, sitting down with defence, finance, and interior ministers, and asking “What does Europe actually need, and can we finance it?” "The urgency I hear in private is far greater than what you see in public." What he found on the road was a continent with a perception gap. The Baltic states are operating in a different psychological reality from much of western Europe. For Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the threat from the east is not geopolitics but geography. However, de Groot is cautiously optimistic. Germany has made a near-complete reversal on defence spending in three years. The Nordics have joined NATO. Ministers of Interior are now showing up to defence finance meetings, because the boundary between military security and civil security has dissolved. Cyber attacks, compromised energy grids, sabotaged undersea cables are happening now. The physical problems, meanwhile, are startlingly concrete. Bridges that cannot carry battle tanks. Ports unable to defend against unmanned underwater vehicles. Roads along NATO transit routes from Antwerp through Germany deep into Poland that haven't been maintained to handle today's military hardware. "It sounds absurd," de Groot says, "until you realise it's a multi-billion euro problem." The financing exists. The fixes are underway. But getting three countries to agree on a shared corridor before one of them goes its own way remains the harder challenge. For innovators and entrepreneurs building the dual-use technologies that now sit at the heart of European defence strategy, de Groot offers a map through the financing ecosystem. Early stage? Venture capital funds backed by the European Investment Fund. Series A and B? Venture debt, a product barely known in Europe five years ago, now scaling fast, with Luxembourg companies OQ Technology and Artec 3D among its beneficiaries. Series C and beyond? The European Tech Champions Initiative, designed explicitly to stop European unicorns from decamping to California. And for defence tech specifically, a new Defence Equity Facility of up to one billion euros: real, patient, European capital, with no American relocation clause attached. "The companies I meet across Europe mostly want to stay. We need to make sure the financing is there when they do." On the day of interview, a loan was signed for the Luxembourg Fire Brigade's logistics infrastructure. Security exists at multiple scales simultaneously, from orbital launch capability to the speed at which a fire engine reaches a crisis. Both matter and both require investment. Both represent the same underlying bet: that Europe, if it chooses to move with enough conviction, is more than capable of defending and financing its own future. De Groot, for his part, seems to believe it. The question, as ever, is whether the institutions can move as fast as the moment requires. Robert de Groot is Vice President of the European Investment Bank, responsible for Security, Defence, Space and Innovation Finance.
• Stop Shouting. Start Whispering, 16/05/2026 16.05.2026 56мин

  From entrepreneurial burnout to authorship on realignment, Pascal Wiscour-Conter shares his learnings You know that feeling when someone speaks and every single word lands? Not because they're loud or made slick slides or rehearsed an elevator pitch to death, but because you sense they mean it? Pascal Wiscour-Conter calls this alignment and has spent three years building the science to prove it. Pascal is back in the studio: author, entrepreneur, strategist, and the kind of person who once convinced government ministers in a landlocked country to register mega-yachts. His new book, The Culture of Purpose: How to Communicate in the Age of Intelligence, is out now. "Shouting louder does not work anymore. The secret is learning how to whisper: clearly, meaningfully, and with impact." We are drowning in noise: more channels, content, AI-generated everything. And yet, nobody feels more heard. Pascal's counter-intuitive argument, backed by neuroscience, Havas research, and decades of entrepreneurial scar tissue, is that the answer is not volume but authenticity. Specifically: the alignment between what you believe, what you say, and what you do. It sounds simple. Of course it's not quite that simple. The Noble Cause Why do you do what you do? Before there's a pitch, a mission statement, or a marketing budget, there's a why. Pascal calls it the Noble Cause: the thing inside you that, when unfulfilled, leaves you hollow. Pair that with an Aspirational Goal: something that makes you want to get up every morning, and you have the roots of purpose. Here's the twist: you can't think your way to it. Your neocortex, the rational brain, is not where decisions are actually made. That happens in the limbic system, the emotional centre, the part that knows you love someone but can't explain why. "Ask 'why' seven times," Pascal advises. "Keep going deeper. Very often, the real answer takes you back to your adolescence - something that made you suffer, something you've been trying to solve ever since." "People think they rationally made a decision. What really happened is the brain decided emotionally and then rationalised afterwards." The Business Case Purpose isn't fluffy - it's financial. For the sceptics, and Pascal has met plenty, here are the numbers. Havas research shows that purpose-driven, meaningful brands are 100% more effective than their counterparts. On the stock exchange? A 133% premium. The Edelman Trust Barometer maps trust against competence and ethics. Deloitte can now measure it in five specific parameters. This is a competitive edge. Pascal's model, the Tree of Business Life™, maps it visually: roots (your vision), trunk (mission and value proposition), the prism of culture, and two ecosystems in the crown: outward communication to clients, inward communication to teams. When both ecosystems are aligned and self-sustaining, he calls it Comusynthesis™: converting the energy of ideas into the energy of communities. Just like photosynthesis. Just as essential. On AI & Being Human The beast is yours to harness. Pascal is not afraid of AI. He is, however, precise about what it cannot do. Curiosity? An LLM can't wonder. Transcendence? It cannot transpose one idea onto an entirely different domain the way Newton did when an apple fell on his head. Wisdom - the ability to use lived experience to make the right call in a new situation? Distinctly human. "Use AI as a tool," he says. "But harness it. Push the limits further. The questions just get harder, like the day you were allowed a calculator in a maths exam. The test didn't get easier. You just got to solve bigger problems." His term for this? Creative AI, as opposed to Lazy AI, where you prompt, copy-paste, and call it done. One of these will make you obsolete. The other will make you extraordinary. "The next ten years will compress an Industrial Revolution and a Renaissance into one decade. Step out of the comfort zone, or someone will do it for you." Physicians lack of self-compassion? Physicians in the USA have the lowest self-compassion of any workforce. That statistic, shared at a Stanford medical roundtable that Pascal sat on, is the kind of detail that stays with you. People who enter medicine to heal others, hollowed out by a system that forgot to ask why. It is, Pascal argues, the corporate culture problem in its starkest form: the gap between the values on the wall and the values in the room. Luxembourg, by the way, has one of the highest rates of active workplace disengagement in Europe. Numbers from the annual Gallup Quality of Work Life study don't lie, even when they're uncomfortable. The Culture of Purpose: How to Communicate in the Age of Intelligence Pascal Wiscour-Conter · Pascalogy · Published March 2026 · Available in ebook, audiobook, and paperback · https://pascalogy.me/
• Eurovision is never just a song contest, 11/05/2026 11.05.2026 58мин

  Boycotts, soft power, and sequined bodysuits - the definitive guide to Eurovision 2026 with two of Luxembourg's sharpest voices If you think Eurovision is nothing more than glitter, key changes, and strategic voting between neighbours, think again. Seventy years in, Europe's biggest song contest continues to be fun alongside the loaded messaging and controversy. Five countries are boycotting. The bookies are watching Finland. And Luxembourg's own Eva Marija is about to take a violin to the stage in Vienna and remind the world exactly why this small country has returned. This week, on The Lisa Burke Show, we sat down with two guests who between them know Eurovision inside out: Dr. Dean Vuletic, the world's leading academic authority on the history of the Eurovision Song Contest and author of the definitive book on its political and cultural significance; and Sarah Tapp, RTL Today presenter, graduate student in music business at Berklee College of Music, and the voice behind RTL's Eurovision commentary for the last two years. In this conversation we talk about contest and about what it tells us about the world we're living in right now.
• What’s the capital of Europe - where does Europe live?, 09/05/2026 09.05.2026 1ч 6мин

  A film about bureaucracy, jazz, and the story of how three cities:Strasbourg, Luxembourg & Brussels, became the unlikely home of a continent's big idea. It's the founding question nobody thought to ask. Six nations sat down after World War II, determined never to fight again, and forgot to decide where they'd actually meet. In the middle of the night on July 23rd, 1952, exhausted negotiators gave up trying to agree and said: let's just start in Luxembourg and see what happens. That glorious act of improvisation is the beating heart of Europe: Three Cities, One Roof, a new documentary by Luxembourgish director Donato Rotunno that lands just in time for Europe Day. And on this special Friday show, Lisa brings together three brilliant guests to dig into what Europe actually means right now, and what it should mean for the next generation. "We structured 70 years of European integration with a tone closer to a thriller and a crime drama than an institutional film." Donato Rotunno, director The film is extraordinary because it explains European institutions through the story of people who actually built them. Jean-Claude Juncker, Colette Flesch, Louis Michel, Catherine Trautmann: these are political titans, speaking freely now that the cameras of official duty have gone, mostly. What comes out is funny, candid, and unexpectedly moving. And the music? Pascal Schumacher locked himself and his musicians in a studio for three days before a single frame was shot. The jazz score came first: a deliberate choice, because jazz, like Europe, is built on improvisation, risk, and the hope that something beautiful emerges from the chaos. "For once, the music came before the images. Perhaps that is what creates this synergy - a process of trial and error, sometimes haphazard, spanning seventy years." Donato Rotunno On the show, Anne Calteux, Head of the Representation of the European Commission to Luxembourg, unpacks what the EU is actually doing right now, and why this year's Europe Day heads to Wiltz, in the rural north, as part of the campaign Hei & an Europa doheem! (Home here and in Europe). It's a bold, co-created initiative: five graffiti murals spread across the Grand Duchy, from Esch to Dudelange to Bissen, built on a simple truth: Europe isn't just a Brussels thing. It's everywhere, including in the places that rarely make the headlines. And Ellen Spencer brings a brilliant opportunity from the Rotary Club Luxembourg Hearts ( https://lu.linkedin.com/company/rcl-hearts). She coordinates Europe 4 Europe ( https://europe4europe.com): a remarkable EU Rotary youth initiative that brings 27 young people - one from every EU member state - on a shared journey through the founding EU countries. The programme fosters connection, intercultural awareness, and civic participation in ways that no policy document ever could. Rotary Club Luxembourg Hearts has been a quiet but powerful force behind this kind of grassroots European engagement for years, and Ellen's work is a perfect example of why. The friendships formed along the way, she says, are the most powerful outcome of all. "European identity isn't abstract, it's something young people experience very quickly when they meet, live, and travel together." Ellen Spencer, Europe 4 Europe coordinator, Rotary Club Luxembourg Hearts Meet the guests Donato Rotunno - Director & Producer, Tarantula Born in Luxembourg in 1966, Rotunno founded Tarantula Luxembourg ( https://www.tarantula.lu) in 1995 and has produced over 50 feature films. A politically engaged filmmaker, his work on immigration, identity and European politics has twice represented Luxembourg at the Oscars. Anne Calteux - Head of the Representation of the European Commission to Luxembourg One of Luxembourg's most authoritative voices on EU affairs, Anne leads the European Commission's Representation here in the Grand Duchy. This Europe Day she's taking the celebrations somewhere unexpected - to the countryside - to prove that Europe lives in every corner of the country, not just the capital. Ellen Spencer - Rotary Club Luxembourg Hearts · Europe 4 Europe A global citizen living in Luxembourg for nearly 20 years, Ellen coordinates Europe 4 Europe ( https://europe4europe.com) through the Rotary Club Luxembourg Hearts network — sending 27 young Europeans, one per member state, on a journey through the founding EU countries. Her mission: reach the young people who don't yet see themselves as part of the European conversation. This is Europe Day as it should be celebrated - a living question. What are we building? Who gets to be part of it? And why does it still matter? Tune in, follow along, and bring a friend who questions Europe. Listen & follow — The Lisa Burke Show RTL Play: https://www.rtlplay.lu RTL Today Website: https://today.rtl.lu Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/lu/podcast/the-lisa-burke-show/id1598518705 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/the-lisa-burke-show RTL Today Radio: https://today.rtl.lu/radio
• Stop hiding behind your slides, 07/05/2026 07.05.2026

  Dirk Daenen, the man who brought TEDx to Luxembourg, reveals the science and the secrets behind becoming a truly confident speaker. You'd think the man who coaches Luxembourg's most compelling public speakers would have been born fearless on stage. You'd be wrong. Professor Dirk Daenen, communication expert, TEDx Luxembourg organiser, and the person quietly responsible for some of the most-watched talks ever delivered on Luxembourgish soil started out as an introvert dreading the spotlight. In this candid conversation on The Lisa Burke Show, he opens up about fear, failure, the science of self-confidence, and why one talk filmed in front of 75 people in Wiltz went on to rack up 13 million views. If you have ever frozen in front of a room, gone blank at a podium, or quietly vowed to avoid public speaking for the rest of your life, this one is for you. TED vs TEDx: What's the Difference? Most people have heard of TED Talks. Far fewer know what the differential for TEDx is, or how accessible it really is. A standard TED conference ticket starts at around $20,000. You'll be sitting next to the world's most powerful minds, but the barrier is enormous. TEDx events, on the other hand, are independently organised under strict licence from TED, run entirely by volunteers, and designed to bring big ideas to local communities. Here in Luxembourg, that licence belongs to Dirk Daenen, and he has been running it for years. "I'm used to being the smartest person in the room as a teacher," Dirk says with a grin. "And then suddenly I'm surrounded by the most impressive people I've ever met: graffiti artists, photographers, scientists, a Belgian pop star. No money could pay for that.” "Luxembourg is a small country. But the ideas we spread are HUGE. Over 20 million views and counting." The Fear Is Real — and It Starts at School Up to 80% of people report some fear of public speaking. The academic figure sits closer to 40%. But according to Dirk, the number is almost beside the point, because wherever you land on that scale, the roots are almost always the same. "We are doing a quantitative survey right now," he explains, "asking people about their childhood experiences. And what we are finding is that most people who identify as having a fear of public speaking can point to a specific moment at school where it all started.” A teacher who snickered or a classroom that laughed at you. A presentation that went badly and was never properly supported. These are not trivial memories. Dirk calls them out for what they are: trauma. "If you do it badly, you end up with people carrying post-traumatic stress disorder because of something that happened in front of a classroom.” It is why his PhD research [yes, he is also completing a doctorate] focuses on finding the most effective way to teach public speaking to 16-year-olds, with the minimum possible trauma and the maximum boost to self-confidence. His dream: one full year of public speaking on the Luxembourg school curriculum. Not optional. A core subject, like French or German. "Europe's biggest social failure?" he asks. "We have an amazing education system. And yet we do not teach the one skill you need in every single job, every single day." The Science of Self-Confidence Dirk is a researcher as much as a coach, and he brings the science of psychology into every conversation about communication. The key framework he returns to is the work of psychologist Albert Bandura, whose four sources of self-efficacy - your belief in your own ability to do something - underpin everything Dirk teaches. The first and most powerful source is mastery: actually doing the thing and surviving it. The second is vicarious experience: watching someone just like you nail it, and thinking: if they can, so can I. The third is social encouragement: the right kind of feedback, delivered with care. And the fourth is physiological readiness: understanding that the butterflies you feel before speaking are not a warning signal. They are energy. "I still get the butterflies. But I have taught them to fly in formation.” Self-confidence, he explains, is not some vague quality you either have or don't. It is the sum of two measurable things: self-esteem (how much you value yourself) and self-efficacy (how capable you believe yourself to be). Public speaking, done well and in a safe environment, is one of the fastest ways to build both. What Actually Works on Stage So what does Dirk actually tell the people he coaches? Here are some of the most practical insights from the conversation. Your body will move whether you plan it or not. When you're nervous, adrenaline floods your system. Oxygenated blood pumps into your muscles. If you don't channel that energy intentionally, your body finds its own outlet: clicking pens, rotating wedding rings, crossing arms, hands shoved in pockets, the classic 'fig leaf.' The fix is not to stand rigid. It's to plan your gestures in advance. Identify your key words and decide how to show them physically. Do this for six months and those movements become automatic. Preparation is not the same as memorisation. One of the most striking stories in this interview involves Emma Bale, the Belgian pop star who had performed for 60,000 people at Dour Festival but was terrified of a TED Talk. She memorised her speech so perfectly it sounded robotic. The humanity disappeared. Dirk had to coach her to re-introduce vulnerability: a planned, spontaneous-sounding moment at the start. 'It takes a lot of preparation to be spontaneous,' he says. Tony Blair knew this. So did every great performer you have ever admired. The top 10 most-viewed TED Talks have no slides. Think about that the next time you spend three hours building a PowerPoint. Structure matters, yes. But the elements almost nobody teaches: voice, body language, audience engagement, are what people actually remember. The information-heavy slide culture in European education has produced presenters who hide behind their decks. Stop hiding. You are the presentation. Watch people who are like you. Bandura called this vicarious experience. You don't need to imitate a world-famous orator. You need to see a normal person, someone at your level, stand up and do it well. That is why TEDx Luxembourg matters. Local people, on a real stage, sharing real ideas. 13 million views from a room in Wiltz. Proof that it is possible. Just do it. There is no way around this one. Toastmasters. Improv classes. The TEDx stage. The school debate club your child has been avoiding. The skill builds only through exposure. 'I was a chef allergic to food,' Dirk says. 'I ate the food anyway. It wasn't poison. It was the best meal of my life.'
• Cycling Across Europe to Fuel Breast Cancer Research, 02/05/2026 02.05.2026 1ч 30мин

  Entrepreneur René Beltjens pedals 7,000km from Estonia to Gibraltar with 2Wheels4Purpose to raise €1 million for breast cancer research at Saint‑Luc. René Beltjens is a brilliant business man, co‑founder of Alter Domus amongst many more accolades, but as a young family man he had to endure the very hardest family situation. His young wife was diagnosed with breast cancer aged just 30 right after the birth of their third child. Due to a new treatment at that time, she was given another few years of life, priceless for their entire young family. René is now giving back to Saint-Luc, the place where she was treated, by undertaking a cross-section cycle of Europe with  teammates Sander van der Fluit and Marc Bijlsma to raise €1m towards specific breast cancer research. Two Wheels for Purpose began with a simple dinner between lifelong friends and grew into an ambitious cycling expedition from Tallinn to Gibraltar, 7,000km crossing 22 countries, matching physical endurance with the resilience of patients and families fighting cancer. Professor François Duhoux, Head of Medical Oncology at Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc in Brussels, will be leading the research project from the money raised. Breast cancer treatment has evolved from a one-size-fits-all model to increasingly personalised care, using tumour characteristics, mutations and 3D organoids, ‘avatars’ of the tumour, to test which drugs may work best before treatment begins. Prof Duhoux also stressed that cancer care is no longer only about treating the tumour. At Saint-Luc’s Institut Roi Albert II, patients are supported by doctors, nurses, psychologists, dieticians, physiotherapists, social workers and volunteers, with art therapy and other wellbeing tools helping patients better tolerate treatment and improve quality of life. “We don’t treat tumours, we treat patients with cancer.” That holistic approach was echoed by Tessa Schmidburg, Secretary General of Fondation Saint-Luc, who described the foundation as a bridge between generosity and progress. She said its role is to accelerate “the excellence and the humanity” of care, supporting medical research, innovation and patient wellbeing through donations from individuals, families and companies. “It’s not a Tour de France Andy, it’s much harder.” Andy Schleck, former Tour de France winner lost his mother quite recently to cancer and in her final year during visits, Andy would always try to transit positive ideas. That was until she told her son that enduring the treatments is much harder than a Tour de France. Andy does have a little cycling advice (and perhaps it’s not just for the road) for René and his fellow cyclists: “When the road is long you go kilometre by kilometre. When the road gets hard you focus on the next corner.” “Cancer is a family disease.” Cancer reshapes family life during the treatment, and also aftwards. René described commuting between Luxembourg and Brussels, protecting weekends as sacred time with his children, and navigating the fear and uncertainty that comes with a diagnosis in the family. He also explained why his daughters’ decisions about genetic screening raised difficult questions about health, privacy and insurance, even though medical guidance strongly supports testing where there is a family history. “The first thing is awareness.” Nimkee Gupta was diagnosed with aggressive ovarian cancer in 2023. She spoke candidly about treatment in both India and Luxembourg, the difficulty in recognising ovarian cancer, and the importance of language in changing how people respond to the disease. Nimkee also speaks about how ovarian cancer and other women’s cancers remain under-researched. Data, scale and gender bias all matter. “There should be no shame through cancer.” Nimkee is passionate about the healing power of music, art, movement and food became part of her recovery, and she described learning to use minimal mobilisation, swimming, and Ayurveda as part of a sustainable approach to wellbeing. The conversation offered a thoughtful reminder that treatment does not end when chemotherapy or similar ends; recovery continues in the body, mind and family circle. Prof Duhoux also highlighted a crucial public-health message: breast cancer screening rates remain too low, and early detection makes a major difference. Beltjens said the goal of Two Wheels for Purpose aims to also create a ripple effect - a community of ambassadors who speak openly about cancer and encourage others to act. Purpose grows when people turn private pain into public progress. https://www.2wheels4purpose.com/ https://www.fondationsaintluc.be/
• The Luxembourg Winemakers Putting the Moselle on the World Map, 25/04/2026 25.04.2026 58мин

  Consultant oenologist Jean Cao and organic winemakers Jeff Konsbrück and Mathieu Schmit reveal why Luxembourg wines deserve global recognition. The tiny stretch of vineyards along Luxembourg's Moselle River, just 42 kilometres of slopes producing some of Europe's most distinctive white wines and Crémants, remains remarkably unknown to the wider wine world. On The Lisa Burke Show this week, three experts who are changing that perception joined Lisa to demystify Luxembourg wine and invite you to come taste it yourself. Jean Cao, a Mexican-born consultant oenologist who has worked in Saint-Émilion, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, and the Languedoc, now advises Luxembourg's independent winemakers through the OPVI. His verdict after years of global experience? "In terms of quality, we are completely comparable to other regions. We don't have the historical name yet - we are working on that - but if we taste blind, we are really, really close." Some of us, who do not grow up with a wine 'education' might feel inadequate around such experts when tasting wine, but these three make it very easy to understand: "A good wine is just you open, you taste, and you have the time to talk with your friends. The wine will not be the centre of the conversation. If the wine is talking, it's not a good one." Jean Cao Jeff Konsbrück and Mathieu Schmit represent Luxembourg's new generation of organic winemakers. Jeff, whose family sold grapes for generations, took the entrepreneurial leap to produce his own wines on 14 hectares, all hand-harvested. His Crémant "Kinnekskummer" blends Champagne-style grapes with a touch of Riesling for acidity. Mathieu, seventh generation at Domaine Schmit-Fohl, studied in Champagne before returning to farm 16 organic hectares with his brother Nicolas. Their philosophy is terroir-driven, mineral wines, plus experiments like "Tout-Nü," a natural wine, and newly planted Merlot responding to climate change. "We are a region too small to be one against the other. We have to rise up together." Mathieu Schmit The three are united by a mission to make Luxembourg wine approachable. "You don't need anything special, just identify if you like it," Jean insists. Visitors can drop into Jeff's wine bar (Wednesday–Friday 4–9pm, Sundays 2pm onwards) or book a tasting at Schmit-Fohl. And on 8 May, the Privat Wënzer Uncorked event offers 100 wines from 20 independent producers aboard the Marie-Astrid boat in Ehnen, €15 entry, public transport encouraged. A walking dinner follows at 5pm with top cuvées and five gastronomic dishes. https://privatwenzer.lu/ https://www.instagram.com/privatwenzer https://www.winery-jeffkonsbruck.lu/ https://schmit-fohl.lu/en/
• Lithuania's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kęstutis Budrys, 24/04/2026 24.04.2026 51мин

  "I never felt that Lithuania is a soft target. I saw Brussels always as the softest target of all." Lithuania's Foreign Minister, Kęstutis Budrys, passionately lays out why Europe must wake up to the war already being waged against it in this interview. "If we are not doing this, there will be a huge price. And believe me, that price will be much higher than 5% of GDP." Drawing on more than 20 years in national security and intelligence, Budrys described a country witnessing sustained hybrid attack: drones crashing in Lithuanian territory, fighter jets violating airspace, undersea cables sabotaged, civil aviation disrupted by GPS jamming, and assassination plots targeting opposition figures. However, his sharpest message was aimed at Brussels. "I never felt that Lithuania is a soft target. I saw Brussels always as the softest target of all." Budrys recounted how Lithuania spent decades purging Russian influence from its energy, transport, and financial sectors; work he believes much of Europe has yet to begin. He pointed to ongoing purchases of Russian LNG and the continued presence of Rosatom in European nuclear projects as evidence of dangerous complacency. "When we criticise the United States, they point to our numbers and say: you are buying Russian gas that finances their war machine. And they are right." On Ukraine, the minister expressed cautious optimism. He noted that Ukrainian forces have halted Russian advances and are inflicting unsustainable losses: over 30,000 Russian soldiers killed per month by drones alone. A strategic turning point, he suggested, could come within the next year if Europe maintains political and financial pressure. But he refused to entertain territorial concessions. "We will never recognise the occupation of Ukrainian territory, neither de jure nor de facto." Looking ahead to Lithuania's EU Council presidency in January 2027, Budrys outlined a security-first agenda: accelerating EU enlargement for Ukraine and Moldova, building economic defences against hostile actors, and finally treating the bloc as a geopolitical force rather than a collection of national interests. His closing message was unambiguous: Europe's survival depends on shedding its illusions about Russia, about its own vulnerabilities, and about the cost of inaction.
• Conscious coalition of Ambassadors for Ukraine, 18/04/2026 18.04.2026 1ч 8мин

  Ambassadors unite to defend Ukraine & keep Europe's attention from drifting. How an Advocacy Coalition is turning solidarity into sustained action. In the studio this week: six female ambassadors plus a Ukrainian representative. Between them, decades of global diplomatic experience. We discuss how to keep a continent's consciousness alive when the news cycle is relentless and fatigue sets in. My guests: Ambassador Barbara Karpetová - Czech Republic Ambassador Carin Lobbezoo - Netherlands Ambassador Jean McDonald - Ireland Ambassador Nieves Blanco - Spain Ambassador Heike Peitsch - Germany Ambassador Joanne Oliver - UK Inna Yaremenko - Representative of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg/Vice President at LUkraine These ladies have frontline diplomatic experience spanning Russia, Kosovo, the Balkans, the Middle East, and beyond. Several have lived in Russia, speak Russian and studied Russian history. Heike met Vladimir Putin; Barbara was in Washington D.C. on the day Crimea was invaded; Carin was studying Soviet history when the wall came down. "When a diplomat stops talking, you end up in a war. The talking needs to restart — and the circumstances for that have to be right." AMBASSADOR CARIN LOBBEZOO — NETHERLANDS The creation of the ‘Advocacy Coalition’ was borne out of a desire to keep the support for Ukraine from eroding quietly in the background while other crises clamour for attention. Ambassador Joanne Oliver of the UK underlined the strength of a coalition in that one embassy putting is not putting its head above the parapet, but shows a unified front which is harder to ignore and harder to exhaust. "Ukraine is on the front line of Europe. We have to do it together.” The Advocacy Coalition - Defending Our Future Now launched in early 2026 by LUkraine asbl together with ten partner embassies and the support of the European Commission. It is a year-long programme of monthly public events, a digital advocacy platform of personal testimonies, and a photo exhibition: "How to Destroy a Country" co-hosted by the Czech Embassy. The founding embassies are Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, and the United Kingdom. Spain has since joined and the coalition is open both in Luxembourg and the idea is open to be replicated across more countries. "Each of us can do something. In Ukraine we say: if you do nothing, evil will prevail. This project is solidarity in action not just in slogans" INNA YAREMENKO — VICE PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE, LUXEMBOURG The path to peace is long and hard. Ambassador Peitsch, who served as Consul General in St. Petersburg and headed the German Embassy's Economic and Scientific Affairs Department in Moscow, described the slow architecture of mediation: how a trusted broker must talk to each side separately first, map the areas of potential compromise, set aside the intractable issues, and build a minimum of trust before parties can even share a room. Ambassador Lobbezoo, who studied Russian history at Leiden and Russian & Soviet Studies in London when the Berlin Wall still stood (then fell during her second masters), offered the historian's caveat: history doesn't repeat itself exactly, but long lines of behaviour do, and and many of those lines in Russia's current conduct trace back to patterns she began reading about in the 1980s. Ambassador Jean McDonald from Ireland spoke movingly about cultural diplomacy as public diplomacy: the harp on the Irish euro coin, the way a poem by Moya Cannon can open a space for dialogue that policy briefings cannot. Ambassador Karpetová, who grew up in Czechoslovakia during Soviet occupation and watched her country's invasion repeat its patterns in Ukraine, described how she asked herself what Pierre Werner, the Luxembourgish statesman whose family villa houses the Czech Embassy, would have done. The answer was action: look around, count the resources, multiply strength through communication. "Female diplomats tend to focus on getting things done. After 38 years in the German foreign service, that is my consistent experience." AMBASSADOR HEIKE PEITSCH — GERMANY The question of women in diplomacy ran through the conversation. All six ambassadors agreed, carefully, and without reducing it to a binary, that women's presence at peace tables is structural: as Jean McDonald noted, women are 50% of the population, and any peace settlement that excludes them is unlikely to be sustainable. Ambassador Lobbezoo watched women with excellent ideas locked out of the Kosovo-Serbia negotiations despite being ready and willing. Inna Yaremenko noted that there are currently no women at all in the Ukraine-Russia peace negotiation process, a gap flagged publicly by the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk, keynote speaker at the Coalition's opening event. The show ended with a clear call to listeners: exercise your consciousness like a muscle. Be curious. Seek to understand. And do not flinch. "Women need to be at the table, need to be part of the discussions, and need to be part of the solutions. That is a really fundamental point." AMBASSADOR JEAN MCDONALD — IRELAND Advocacy Coalition — Defending Our Future Now A year-long initiative by LUkraine asbl and partner embassies in Luxembourg, supported by the European Commission, featuring monthly public events, a live digital advocacy platform, and the "How to Destroy a Country" photo exhibition. The coalition is open to new members. To join, contribute a testimony, or attend upcoming events, contact inna.yaremenko@ukrainians.lu https://advocacy.lukraine.org/
• Nicolaj Coster-Waldau on Climate, Greenland and Cooperation, 21/03/2026 21.03.2026 11мин

  Actor and UNDP Goodwill Ambassador on climate action, inequality, education, and the power of optimism. Nicolaj Coster-Waldau, famed for his role in Game of Thrones as Jamie Lannister, takes his role as a UNDP Goodwill Ambassador very seriously. Nicolaj spoke with urgency and optimism about the need for cooperation, climate action, and stronger global institutions in an increasingly fragmented world. He reflected on his work with the United Nations Development Programme, explaining that one of the biggest challenges is helping people understand the scale and impact of what the agency does around the world. He also spoke about Greenland, dearly close to his heart as a Danish citizen married to a Greenlander. The vulnerability of small communities is something he has witnessed in his global travels with UNDP, who face enormous geopolitical and environmental pressures. For him, the message is one of developing united human dignity, respect, and collaboration of international action. The conversation also turned personal. Raised by a mother who was a librarian, and now the father of two daughters, Coster-Waldau spoke warmly about education, books, and the importance of supporting gender equality. He recalled writing a pledge to fathers in Kenya during International Women’s Day and said that empowering women and girls remains essential to building a fairer future. Despite all, one of the strongest themes was hope. Drawing on his documentary series An Optimist’s Guide to the Planet, Coster-Waldau described inspiring solutions he has seen in places like India, Africa, and South America: from mangrove replanting to innovative energy projects and nature-based solutions. His central belief is that there is no such thing as trash, only resources we have not yet learned to use wisely. The conversation was a reminder that optimism is a necessary tool for today’s woes. And Coster-Waldau made it clear that the future will depend on our ability to imagine something better and work together to create it.
• Defending Our Future: Why Ukraine’s Fight is the Frontline of European Security, 21/03/2026 21.03.2026

  Nobel laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk and Deputy Minister Alona Shkrum join Lisa Burke to discuss the Advocacy Coalition and the cost of silence for Europe My Guests: - Her Excellency Ambassador Barbara Karpetová, Ambassador of the Czech Republic to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg - Inna Yaramenko, the Representative of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, and Vice President at LUkraine - Oleksandra Matviichuk, Chairwoman of the Center for Civil Liberties, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022. - Alona Shkrum, First Deputy Minister for Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine. - Kristina Mikulova, Head of Regional Hub for Eastern Europe for the European Investment Bank In this powerful episode, the conversation shifts from the abstract concept of 'aid' to the urgent reality of strategic investment in European security. As Ukraine enters its fourth year of full-scale invasion, a new initiative has been developed by Ambassador Karpetová with the help of Inna Yaramenko. 'The Advocacy Coalition - Defending Our Future Now' has launched in Luxembourg to remind the continent that defending Ukraine is synonymous with defending the future of democracy itself. This year-long set of events will pass the baton between the founding embassies: Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, and the United Kingdom, to stand united in the conviction that defending Ukraine means defending Europe’s future. Beyond Charity: A Strategic Investment Supporting Ukraine in 2026 is now viewed as a strategic investment in the infrastructure of European security. Alona Shkrum, Ukraine’s First Deputy Minister for Reconstruction, explained that waiting for hostilities to cease before rebuilding is not an option. "If we do not reconstruct water, utilities, energy supply, schools, and hospitals, then people will leave," she noted, emphasising that keeping the economy functioning allows Ukraine to fund its own defence and protect the eastern borders of the European Union. The scale of destruction is staggering: the road damage alone is equivalent to the distance from Luxembourg to Iran, and the amount of housing destroyed, over 3 million units, exceeds the total housing stock of Denmark. Humanising the Numbers Whilst the statistics are overwhelming, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk focuses on "humanising the numbers". She shared the harrowing story of 10-year-old Ilya from Mariupol, whose mother died in his arms in a frozen apartment after they were caught in Russian shelling. Matviichuk also recounted the experience of Professor Irak Kyvslovski, a philosopher who spent 700 days in captivity and gave lectures on philosophy to rats in his solitary cell just to hear a human voice. "Dignity is action," Matviichuk told the audience, asserting that the "accountability gap" in international law must be closed by establishing a Special Tribunal for the crime of aggression. A Year of Intensive Advocacy The Advocacy Coalition, a partnership between LUkraine, the European Commission, and nine resident embassies in Luxembourg (but they're open for more partners), will host monthly events throughout 2026. These events will tackle critical themes such as countering disinformation, reconstruction, and the role of the Ukrainian diaspora. The first event will take place at the European Parliament in Luxembourg on March 23, featuring a keynote address by Matviichuk, focussing on the abducted children. Unity as the Strongest Weapon The message from my guests underlines that unity is the strongest weapon against authoritarianism. As Ambassador Barbara Karpetová noted, even a small nation like Luxembourg can provide "shared inspiration" by standing together, mirroring the visionary leadership of historical figures like Pierre Werner, former Prime Minister of Luxembourg, whose home she now resides in. The Power of Ordinary People Matviichuk emphasises that "ordinary people can do extraordinary things". Inna cites the 700 Luxembourgish families who offered to host refugees within just three days after the invasion began. Digital Engagement: The Coalition is launching an Advocacy Platform, a digital ecosystem featuring authentic testimonies from diplomats, volunteers, and citizens to humanise the impact of solidarity.