In an editorial on his site Jean-Dominique Giuliani draws conclusions from the Irish "yes" to the Lisbon Treaty and calls on the EU to show political will to assert its position in the world.

The Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) led by George Papandreou won the general elections in Greece on 4th October with 43.94% of the vote, 160 seats of the 300 in the Vouli (Parliament) (+58). It therefore won the absolute majority. Outgoing Prime Minister Costas Caramanlis lost his wager. His party, New Democracy, won 33.48% of the vote and 91 seats (-61). The Communist Party (KKE) came third with 7.53% (21 seats -1), followed by the People's Orthodox Alarm (LAOS) with 5.62% of the vote and 15 seats (+5) and the Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) 4.59% (13 seats, -1). With 2.52% of the vote the Greens did not manage to rise above the 3% threshold required to be represented in the Vouli. Turnout rose to 70.92% ie -3.22 points in comparison with the rate recorded in the general elections in 2007. It is obligatory to vote in Greece.

On 30th September the IMF published its report on the world's finanicial stability. Systemic dangers have diminished significantly notably due to the government intervention. However the danger of negative interactions between finance and the real economy remain because governments have taken on financial risks. The IMF advises therefore for a progressive withdrawal on the part of the public authorities without however precipating matters so as not to comprise economic recovery. These thoughts were taken up again in terms of the World Economy Perspectives in which the IMF forecasts a rise in its forecasts for world growth that is due to reach 3.1% in 2010 in comparison with the 2.5% planned in July. However the IMF is still forecasting negative growth in 2009 (-1.1%) the worst figures recorded since the Second World War.

The European Parliament's Women's Rights and Gender Equality Committee together with the director of the UN's Women's Development Fund Bureau, Osnat Lubrani debated the differences in the impact the financial crisis has had on men and women. Ms Lubrani stressed that mainly immigrant and the poorest women had been affected more than men. She pleaded in favour of a strong partnership between the European Parliament and the UN on this issue to achieve more effective measures, notably to enable the improvement of women's knowledge with regard to financial issues.

According to data published on 29th September by the National Statistics Institute of Portugal economic climate indicators and consumer confidence figures rose in September. This positive development that involves all sectors except for the construction and public works sectors is linked to an improvement in perspectives with regard to the economic situation and unemployment in Portugal.

According to figures published on 30th September by the INSEE France's public debt increased by 86.5 billion euro in the first quarter of 2009 to reach a total of 1428 billion euros. On the occasion of the presentation of the draft finance law 2010 Economy Minister Christine Lagarde said that the public deficit would rise to 8.2% of the GDP in 2009 and to 8.5% in 2010. These figures reflect the effect of budgetary measures and the weakness of tax revenues due to the crisis. It is reckoning on better growth than originally forecast to a total of +0.75% in 2010, after a recession of -2.25% in 2009.

In spite of the recession unprecedented since 1949 Germany seems to be distancing itself from the darkest days of the crisis. According to data published on 30th September by DIW, the German GDP may grow by 0.7% in the third quarter after recording an unexpected rise of 0.3% in the second. Although industry in the main is recovering, the construction industry is still hesitant and public investments are still not covering private investment. Household consumption however has become the economy's mainstay. The GfK barometer of consumer morale revealed its sixth consecutive rise in October. The expected decline in the employment market has remained limited: unemployment now affects 3.346 million people ie 8% of the working population, in comparison with 7.4% a year ago.

The 27 European Finance Ministers met on 1st and 2nd October to speak of crisis exit strategies and public finances. They believe that measures taken are still valid until recovery can be guaranteed. They agreed on the need to return to budgetary discipline as soon as possible to reduce deficits and debts that have beaten all records - however they did not establish a date. It might be in 2011. They also demanded for the USA not to allow the continued decline of the dollar.

According to final figures released on 30th September by the Austrian Statistics Office the public deficit in Austria decreased in 2008 totalling 1.46 billion euros, whilst public debt rose to 62.26% of the GDP. According to provisional figures published for the first quarter of 2009 in June the debt represented 68.6% of the GDP (189.3 billion euros). Year on year on, from June 2008 to June 2009 the debt increased by 7.8%.

Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen announced on 1st October the establishmet of an annual forum on regulation that would be held every year in the first quarter. It will allow political leaders to discuss with the main economic regulators on public policy and regulatory priorities with regard to the economy, competitiveness and competition. This measure is part of the government's declaration on economic regulation.

The Belgian Finance Minister Didier Reynders presented his budgetary guidelines for 2010 and 2011 to his European counterparts on 1st October. The budget features austerity measures since Belgium will start to rebalance its public finances next year but it will also see the extension of recovery measures notably reduced VAT in construction and hotel/restaurant industries, the extension of economic unemployment as well as exoneration from tax with regard to agricultural aid.

The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) gave its opinion on the "Larosière Report" on financial supervision in the EU. Whilst it agreed with the main conclusions in this report the Committee has requested that its scope be extended taking on board all sectors of the economy and not just the financial sector. Committee Members are also requesting that the supervision authorities, whose creation is recommended in the report, should include consumers, unions, civil society and the EESC itself and not just bankers. Finally the Committee spoke in favour of greater transparency in terms of operations, better risk assessment and a capping of bonuses which must be linked to the achievement of real results.

MEPs from the Civil Liberties Committee amended a Council proposal on 30th September relative to preventing double prosecution for the same crime in two different Member States. They hope to strengthen defence rights by ensuring that people arrested for cross-border criminal acts have the right to appeal, enjoy the services of a lawyer and translation aid. They also inserted a ban on information exchange which was racial or ethnic in nature, together with any data related to religion, beliefs or sexual orientation. They finally pleaded in favour of greater involvement on the part of Eurojust with regard to this.

On 30th September the European Parliament held a public hearing on the theme of deteriorating human rights in Russia with the participation of Russian militants. MEPs debated on the best way to reach balance in terms of dialogue and pressure in relations with the Russian authorities. Russian witnesses revealed their dispair with regard to the human rights situation and democracy in their country. Some MEPs believe that the Union should raise these issues in the future during its political discussions with Russia whilst others are more sceptical about this.

On 28th September the European Commission adopted a decision with regard to consumer protection. It looked into the dangers caused by the use of high volume personal music players. This decision includes new default settings that will allow their use at harmless noise exposure levels together with clear warnings. The CENELEC (the EU standardisation body) has been asked to draw up new technical safety standards with regard to this.

European Commission President José Manuel Barroso together with Healthcare Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou, officially launched the European Partnership for Action against Cancer on 29th September. The aim is to reduce the number of new cases of cancer in the Union by 15% by 2020 thanks to a better coordination of resources and competences across Europe. The president and the commissioner insisted on the extremely serious effects of cancer on patients' lives and they also said they wanted to reduce the feeling of shame often felt by the sick thanks to this partnership.

The European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Marianne Fischer-Boel launched a new Europe wide campaign on 28th September. The aim of this is to promote healthier eating amongst schoolchildren. This campaign will comprise three roadshows that will target children proposing educational activities and games. An internet site has also been created together with a competition focused on one goal: to help children adopt better eating habits.

As part of its counter discrimination measures the European Commission has set up a forum of experts to study the means to improve access on the part of the Rom communities to quality education, a prerequisite for their integration into society. The European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, Vladimir Spidla, insisted on the fact that integration of the Roms is in both the economic and social interests of the Union and its Member States.

On 1st October the European Commission announced the official start of operations by EGNOS, the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service, with its Open Service now available for free to businesses and citizens. EGNOS is Europe's first contribution to satellite navigation and a precursor of Galileo, the global satellite navigation system that the European Union is developing. EGNOS improves the precision of the satellite navigation signals in Europe. The precision of GPS signals can vary from 10 to 2 metres.

On 30th September the European Commission welcomed news that ICANN, the body primarily responsible for managing internet domain names, will become more open and accountable to billions of internet users worldwide. As of 30th September, ICANN, the US-based Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, will no longer be subject to the unilateral review by the US Department of Commerce, but by independent review panels appointed by ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) and ICANN itself with the involvement of governments around the world. Since 2005, the European Commission has repeatedly called for reform of the governance of the internet's key global resources. This is necessary to ensure important public policy objectives such as freedom of expression and facilitating stable business transactions online. The European Commission is strongly committed to accompany and support the implementation of the reforms announced today, in close cooperation with the EU's 27 Member States.

The High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), Javier Solana attended the informal European Defence Ministers' meeting on 28th and 29th September. The main issues addressed were notably maritime surveillance, the development of civilian and military capabilities as well as European missions in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Participants also spoke of the Union's mission in Somalia as well as the situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The Spanish Economy Minister, Elena Salgado presented the draft budget 2010 on 29th September. The three priorities which the Spanish government will be concentrating on will be: fighting against the economic crisis and starting the transition towards a more productive market; guaranteeing cohesion and social protection for all Spaniards; moving towards fiscal consolidation, within a reasonable time limit, in order to adhere to the Stability Pact criteria. Government head José Luis Zapatero then defended this project, notably the increase in taxes planned to reduce the country's fiscal deficit saying that his social policy was "one of the most generous in Spain's history".

The draft financial law 2010 was presented to the Council of Ministers on 30th September. It focuses on three priorities: encouraging competitiveness by supporting investment (suppression of company tax), using taxation in support of the environment (carbon tax), extending support to the economy to help recovery.

The Serious Fraud Office announced on 1st October that it has asked for permission to prosecute British arms group BAE Systems for acts of corruption abroad. In a short press release the SFO announces that it intends to request permission from the Attorney General to prosecute BAE Systems with regard to corruption abroad."

The Slovakian government adopted the 2010 budget on 29th September; it is counting on 1.9% growth and a deficit of 5.5% of the GDP, the highest level ever recorded. The government unanimously adopted the draft budget. Contrary to its neighbours the government decided not to reduce social spending this year, since general elections are planned for June 2010. Parliament has to look at the final draft at the end of October.

On 1st October Eurostat published data with regard to unemployment rates in Europe in August 2009. This stood at 9.6% in the euro area in comparison with 9.5% in July 2009 and 9.1% in the entire EU in comparison with 9% the previous month. These are the highest rates recorded in the euro area since March 1999 and in the whole Union since March 2004.

On 1st October Eurostat published the 2009 Regional Yearbook which provides a panorama of the most recent economic, social and demographic developments in the 271 regions in the 27 Member States of the EU, the four EFTA countries and the three candidate countries (Croatia, Macedonia and Turkey).

According to Eurostat data published on 2nd October the industrial production price index increased by 0.4% in the euro area and by 0.2% in the EU in August 2009 in comparison with July 2009. In July prices decreased respectively by 0.7% and 0.6%. Compared with the same month a year previously industrial production prices declined by 7.5% in the euro area and by 7.1% in the EU.

According to the report "Towards Universal Access: Scaling Up Priority HIV/AIDS Interventions in the Health Sector", published on 30th September by the WHO, UNICEF and UNAIDS, over four million people benefited from antiretroviral treatment at the end of 2008 in low to middle income countries. This shows that major progress has been made notably in terms of improving counselling and HIV detection and better access to preventive services. But at least five million others living with HIV still do not have access to treatment and care which may improve their lifespan.

According to the study Economics of Adaptation to Climate Change (EACC) published on 30th September by the World Bank, developing countries will need between 75 abd 100 billion dollars per year between 2010 and 2050 to adapt to the effects of climate change. They will have to invest in new infrastructures and face costs associated with drought, disease and the reduction in agricultural productivity. The World Bank is inviting these countries to implement adaptation strategies immediately in order to reduce future risks and spending.

According to the report by the Social Protection Committee published on 29th September the EU's strategy for growth and employment should focus more on social cohesion goals. The report observes that social protection systems have helped to protect Europeans from the most serious effects of the financial crisis. It concludes however that social protection alone is not enough to prevent poverty and exclusion and calls for greater focus on objectives such as the fight against child poverty and the promotion of active inclusion measures. Greater modernisation of social protection systems must lock in perfectly with strategies for growth and employment.

Until 31st January 2010 the Tate Britain of London is putting on an exhibition "Turner and the Masters"; it includes many of the work of this great British painter, which have been brought together in one place for the very first time.

On 19th September the National Gallery of Ireland launched an exhibition devoted to Edvard Munch. This exhibition will be open until 6th December and brings together around 40 prints made by the Norwegian painter who greatly influenced German expressionism. Visitors can see many of the themes which feature in his work, notably the exploration of the mind and the existential suffering of modern man.

The Albertina Museum is putting on an exhibition until January 10th 2010 entitled "Impressionism - Painting Light". Paintings as well as historical objects and tools are on show, to provide visitors with an idea of the artists' daily life and the way they prepared and painted their works.

The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid is devoting an exhibition to French painter Henri Fantin-Latour. Until January 10th 2010 more than 70 paintings as well as drawings and prints will be on show.