The Chairman of the Robert Schuman Foundation Jean-Dominique Giuliani, as guest of the Minister President of the Land of North Rhine Westphalia will be taking part on 26th and 27th October in a conference entitled "How do we want to live? The social market economy in Europe - a model of society for globalisation?" This conference will mark the end of the season "France-North Rhine Westphalia 2008/2009.

The Bernardin College together with the Robert Schuman Foundation, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and Confrontations Europe are organising a seminar on 30th and 31st October entitled "The Franco-German Relationship from 1945 to today". Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall the seminar will address the issue of Europe's identity and its future highlighting the relationship between the two founding countries. Jean-Dominique Giuliani, Chairman of the Robert Schuman Foundation will be taking part. The conference will end with a debate with René Girard of the French Academy.

The Robert Schuman Foundation together with the FAES, the Karamanlis Institute, Ano Pro Evropu, Ithaka Foundation and with the support of the programme "Europe for Citizens" is organising a conference in Brussels on 19th November next entitled "Women's Europe. For true Parity". Also taking part in this conference will be José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, Vaira Vike-Freiberga, former President of Latvia, Margot Wallström, Vice-President of the European Commission and Vladimir Spidla, Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities. Enrol on-line.

The first round of the Romanian Presidential election will take place on 22nd November and the second on 6th December. The President of the Republic is elected for five years. Candidates must be aged 35 at least and deliver a list of at least 200,000 voters' signatures. To be elected in the first round a candidate has to win the votes of more than half of those registered. Twelve candidates are running including Traian Basescu (PDL), outgoing President; Mircea Geoana, PSD leader; Sorin Oprescu, Mayor of Bucharest, former PSD member; Crin Antonescu, PNL leader; Hunor Keleman (UDMR); Vadim Tudor Corneliu, candidate of the Party of Greater Romania (PRM); George Becali, businessman and owner of the football club Steaua Bucharest, candidate of the New Generation Party (PNG). The fact that two of the main candidates - Traian Basescu and Mircea Geoana - are from parties that have governed in coalition for nearly one year makes the electoral campaign an atypical one. The official campaign started on 22nd October.

In an editorial published on his site, Jean-Dominique Giuliani analyses the agreement of the CDU/FDP government in Germany and pinpoints the new choices made by the Germans.

The Central Bank of Hungary announced on 19th October that it would be lowering its main rate by 0.5 points down to 7%, its lowest rate since June 2006. It reached a ceiling of 11.5% in October 2008. The Monetary Council of the Bank of Hungary also revealed its economic forecasts for 2010,and said it was pleased with the wage moderation policy and encouraged the government to continue on the path of fiscal discipline.

According to data published on 20th October by the National Statistics Institute of Portgual economic climate and consumer confidence indicators confirm that recovery has startd in Portugal as seen over the last few months across the entire euro area and the EU. The economic climate index has risen significantly since April 2009 and the economic activity index started recovery in August ending the downward trend that was observed at the beginning of 2008.

According to external trade statistics published on 22nd October by the Spanish government the trade deficit has dropped by 52.4% over the last eight months. In addition to this a survey published on 23rd October shows a slight decline in unemployment, 0.39% in the third quarter. The Spanish government also approved a decision on 23rd October devoting 5 billion additional euros to the funding of public works to counterbalance the disastrous situation of the building industry in Spain.

The court in Amsterdam declared the bankruptcy of the Dutch bank DSB on 19th October; it had been placed under its protection on 12th October on the request of the Dutch Central Bank in the wake of massive withdrawals by its clients. "The court concludes that everything has been done for DSB to continue work and that there is no longer any possibility for this to happen. For these reasons the court has declared the bankruptcy of the DSB bank," indicated the court in a press release. Everything it has left has been frozen and two independent administrators have been appointed.

The British economy remained firmly set in recession in the third quarter and even suffered its longest phase of decline in half a century. The first estimate released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published on 23rd October reveals a 0.4% decline in the GDP in comparison with the previous quarter and a fall of 5.2% over one year. This is barely better than in the second quarter when the GDP declined by 0.6%; in all the British economy has declined by 5.9% since the recession started.

MEPs, members of the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee adopted a report by Elmar Brok (EPP, DE) on 19th October; the report asked that the EU's diplomatic service be an integral part of the European Commission's structure and that it be funded by the Union's budget thereby confirming their determination to exercise their full budgetary powers as part of the institutional innovations introduced by the Lisbon Treaty. The service is due to come under the democratic control of the European Parliament. MEPs are calling on the European Commission to employ its influence to the full to maintain the community model in terms of the Union's external relations.

MEPs voted on 21st October on the nine proposed resolutions with regard to the freedom of information in Italy and in other EU Member States after a debate on 8th October last. No majority emerged to enable the adoption of these resolutions: only the ALDE group's resolution managed to achieve "a draw" with 338 votes in favour, 338 against and 8 abstentions.

MEPs said they were concerned about further delays as well as additional costs caused by the modernisation of the "Schengen Information System", a government database which stores police information on people as well as stolen and lost goods. MEPs asked the Commission to justify the confidence it has in the present contractor responsible for the project.

The Sakharov Prize for the Freedom of Thought was given to the Memorial association on 22nd October the first leader of which was no other than Andrei Sakharov himself. The Russian association works for human rights in Russia and in other post-Soviet States. Three of its members received particular distinction: Oleg Orlov, Serguey Koalev, Ludmila Alexeyava. The official prize giving will take place in Strasbourg on 16th December.

MEPs looked into the 2010 budget on 20th October. They defended a budget totalling 127.5 billion euros, this is higher than the proposal put forward by the Council (120.5 billion euros) and by the Commission (122.3 billion euros). The parliamentary budgets committee notably asked to include specific funds (apart from the multi-annual financial framework) for economic recovery as well as an envelope of 1.5 billion euros for energy and 300 million euros for the milk sector. MEPs adopted this budget on 22nd October, 437 votes in favour, 182 against and 4 abstentions.

On the inauguration of the first session of questions to the President of the European Commission on 20th October MEPs addressed subjects ranging from the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty to supporting Tony Blair as President of the Council, and from employment recovery policies to the economy.

On 21st October the European Commission modified two directives relative to the European Common Asylum regime. These modifications aim to simplify standards with regard to this, make them more coherent and effective and also offer beneficiaries greater protection. According to Commission Vice-President responsible for Justice, Freedom and Security, Jacques Barrot, the Commission is thereby setting in the place the final phase of a single asylum procedure in the Union.

On 22nd October the European Commission published a paper on the difficulties set by the creation of the single European digital market with regard to creative on-line material such as books, music, films and video games. This single borderless market presents some financial advantages but raises some issues nevertheless. Above all there are obstacles of a regulatory and geographical nature which may impede freedom and innovation. In addition large-scale illegal downloading may be a factor that will disrupt the development of an economically viable single digital market. The document aims to highlight the issues raised by copyright holders, consumers and commercial users.

On 20th October the European Commission adopted a communication ensuring efficient, safe and sound derivatives markets. The Communication sets out future policy actions to increase transparency of the derivatives market, reduce counterparty and operational risk in trading and enhance market integrity and oversight. The Commission will come forward with legislative proposals in 2010. These proposals will be in line with the G20 Pittsburgh statement and will be accompanied by a thorough impact assessment. In order to avoid any risk of regulatory arbitrage and to ensure a global consistency of policy approaches, the Commission stands ready to work with authorities around the world when finalising the proposals.

On 19th October the European Commission adopted a communication relative to copyrights in the context of cultural and legal challenges raised by the digitisation of books. European digital libraries must be able to offer researchers and consumers the same access opportunities as their American counterparts and yet guarantee authors fair payment in return. The Commission focuses particularly on issues of orphan works ie those for whom the copyright holder is uncertain and the distribution of works amongst those suffering from a handicap, notably the blind.

On 21st Octrober the European Commission announced the first group of projects that will benefit from a total of €500 million worth of investment in vital transport infrastructure projects across the EU. The grants will be allocated under the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) programme, which helps to fund works to build missing transport links or remove bottlenecks in order to enable people and goods to circulate quickly and easily between Member States. A second group of projects benefiting from TEN-T funding will be announced later this year. In addition to this a new initiative called the Northern Dimension Partnership on Transport and Logistics was launched with the aim of improving major transport connections in northern Europe. Finally it hoped to enhance cooperation with Africa in the transport area.

Based on a Commission proposal from 2007 the European Union set itself an ambitious target of cutting administrative costs imposed by EU legislation by 25% by 2012. On 22nd October the Commission published an overview of progress to date. In total, the measures proposed by the Commission and under preparation would enable businesses to save around € 40.4 bn from € 123.8 bn on red-tape stemming from 72 EU texts and the measures that transpose and implement them in the Member States. Reduction measures put in place by the Commission or proposed by the Commission and already adopted could bring a reduction of EUR 7.6 billion. Preparatory work on further reduction could lead to the presentation of additional measures bringing further reduction of at least EUR 2.1 billion.

The 27 Environment Ministers took a step forwards in defining a common EU position in view of the Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change. The conclusions adopted on 21st October are counting on an ambitious goal of reducing CO2 emissions by 80%-95% by 2050. The Ministers stressed the importance of helping developing countries financially in their work to reduce emissions. This may however simply remaining a pious path since Finance Ministers did not come to agreement on 20th October. The countries of Central Europe believe that they are themselves "poor" as upheld by Polish Finance Minister Jan Vincent Rostowski whilst Germany and Italy refuse to commit as long as the other industrialised countries do not do the same. The issue of finance has now been sent to mediation on the part of the European Council.

The 27 Justice Ministers agreed on 23rd October on the main guidelines of a community regulation aiming to enhance the protection of procedural rights of people accused or under suspicion of any criminal act. Ministers also adopted two decisions with regard to the accreditation of legal medical laboratories and the creation of a European network for crime prevention; they looked into the means to fight against human trafficking. They exchanged points of view with the Commission with regard to questions of reciprocity in terms of visa regimes with third countries.

Romanian President Traian Basescu announced on 22nd October the organisation of a referendum on 22nd November, the day of the first round of the presidential election with regard to a reduction in the number of MPs to a maximum of 300 in a single chambered Parliament. This referendum is being heavily criticised by the opposition, which holds the majority in Parliament. The three main parties, PSD,PNL and UDMR - voted symbolically against the popular consultation. "Do you agree with a single chambered Parliament?" and "Do you agree to the reduction of the number of MPs to a maximum of 300?" will be the questions asked of the Romanians on 22nd November.

On 2nd October Eurostat published statistics with regard to the public deficit and public debt in the Member States. In the euro area the public deficit/GDP ratio has increased rising from 0.6% in 2007 to 2% in 2008. Over the same period the public debt/GDP ratio rose from 66% to 69.3%. In the Union the public deficit rose from 0.8% in 2007 to 2.3% in 2008, whilst the public debt rose from 58.7% to 61.5%.

On 23rd October Eurostat published statistics with regard to new industrial orders in August 2009. With regard to the euro area the index recorded an increase of 2% in comparison with the previous month but a fall of 23.1% in comparison with August 2008. In the EU the increase was 1.2% in August 2009 in comparison with July but new orders had decreased by 22.3% in comparison with August 2008.

On 22nd October the European Commission revealed the conclusions of a report devoted to cross border e-commerce in consumer goods. 60% of cross border deals do not succeed because of a refusal by the trader to guarantee the dispatch of the product towards the purchaser's country or because the site does not offer adequate cross-border means of payment. The communication presents a series of measures to reduce the complexity of legal rules which does not encourage companies to offer cross-border consumer services.

Less than one year after the almost total collapse of the financial system 6 billion £ in bonuses are to be distributed this year in the UK, since its banks have started making profits again said the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR). The British institute forecasts a 50% increase in bonuses in comparison with January last rising from 4 to 6 billion £ (10 billion $, 6.6 billion €).

The "Wild Thing" exhibition will be taking place until 24th January 2010 at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Often controversial work by British sculptors, Jacob Epstein, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska and Eric Gill is on show.

The famous mobiles of Alexander Calder (1898-1976) are the focus of an exhibition devoted to the American sculptor in Rome until 14th February. Apart from the mobiles this exhibition, undertaken with the Calder Foundation also reveals bronze, wood and wire sculptures, gouaches, oil paintings, drawings and jewellery.