The fourth edition of the "State of the Union, Schuman Report on Europe 2010" is being published by Editions Lignes de Repères. This reference work on Europe will be presented to the press on 2nd March together with the French Secretary of State for Ecology, Chantal Jouanno and Secretary of State for European Affairs, Pierre Lellouche, who like 24 other authors wrote an article for this edition.

On 25th February the Commission published a report on the EU and euro area's growth forecasts. The EU's economy is progressively emerging from crisis but it is still facing difficulties. In the third quarter of 2009 the real GDP started to grow again thereby putting an end to the longest and deepest period of recession in the EU's history. The exceptional crisis measures set in place in the EU played a major role in the economy's recovery. However in line with the forecasts made in autumn 2009 growth slowed in the fourth quarter when the effects of certain temporary factors started to wane. According to the most recent data the EU's economic prospects remain practically unchanged. GDP growth in 2010 is estimated at 0.7% for the EU likewise the euro area. Inflation forecasts also stay the same at 1.4% in the EU and 1.1% in the euro area.

On 24th February the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy spoke to MEPs about the economic situation and notably the difficulties experienced by Greece. The European People's Party called for better budgetary coordination of the euro area - the social democrats asked for a more huamn exit to the crisis and the liberals condemned the monetary union for not having any real economic union. In his introductory speech Herman Van Rompuy reviewed his role within the European Union's institutions asking at the same time for this to be established. He guaranteed MEPs of his commitment and promised to act as a "bridge between the national authorities and the European institutions."

On 22nd February the European Commission proposed that the EU pushes for a ban on international trade of Atlantic bluefin tuna and for it to enter into force next year. It is asking that the 27 support the ranking of the bluefin tuna amongst species threatended with extinction. The three most affected countries France,Italy and Spain have already said yes. The proposal will be looked into by the Member States to reach a common position in time for the next Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) that will take place in Doha, Qatar from 13th to 25th March 2010.

The minimum maternity leave in the EU should be increased from 14 to 20 weeks and be paid in full believe MEPs of the Women's Rights Committee. The right to a minimum two weeks paid paternity leave was also approved by the parliamentary committee. The changes brought to the draft regulation on the health and security of pregnant workers prepared by rapporteur Edite Estrela (S&D, PT) were adopted by 19 votes, 13 against and 1 abstention.

The 27 Foreign Ministers under the chairmanship of High Representative Catherine Ashton expressed their support to the Portuguese people and government on 22nd February after the floods that affected Madeira. They looked into the situation in Haiti and the coordinated response the EU is continuing to provide. They looked into ongoing diplomatic efforts deployed to settle the dispute between Libya and Switzerland which has led to Libya suspending the issue of visas to the Schengen area. They also looked into the murder of Mahmoud al Mabhouh in Dubai. Finally they adopted conclusions with regard to the situation in Zimbabwe and more sanctions imposed by the EU because of inadequate progress achieved by the country in its domestic reform.

Merchandise that comes from the Israeli colonies on the West Bank cannot benefit from the preferential customs regime granted by the EU to Israel said the European Court of Justice in a decision published on 25th February. In this affair which will probably establish jurisprudence the German company Brita is challeging the refusal of the German customs authorities to apply the preferential regime granted to Israeli merchandise because it has been produced in occupied territory. "Products from the West Bank are not included in the field of application of this agreement" between the EU and Israel "and could not therefore benefit from the preferential regime thereby established," said the European Court.

German MPs approved on 26th February 429 votes in favour out of a possible 586 the dispatch of 850 additional soldiers to Afghanistan bringing their maximum number up to 5,350; they extended their deployment by one year.

Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen undertook a major reshuffle of his government on 23rd February "to promote growth" and to inject "new optimism". For the first time two women have made their debut to the positions of Defence Minister, Gitte Lillelund Bech and Foreign Affairs, Lene Espersen. This government comprises ten men including the Prime Minister and nine women. Finance Minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen is one of the rare ministers to have retained his post just like Refugee, Immigrants and Integration Minister, Birthe Roenn Hornbech. Justice Minister Brian Mikkelsen has moved to become Economy, Industry and Trade Minister and leaves his post to Lars Barfoed who held the Transport portfolio. In all 7 ministers have left the government.

On 23rd February French MPs adopted 462 votes in favour 7 against a draft resolution, the so-called "the most advantaged European woman clause" that aims to improve and harmonise women's rights in Europe. More than 100 MPs did not take part in the vote. The clause aims to make an inventory of the best legislation in Europe and to retain the best and then to encourage the government to draw up a draft law in this sense.

UN mediator Matthew Nimetz said he was confident on 26th February of Athen's commitment to helping find a solution to the problem of Macedonia's name which should lead to progress in Skopje's accession procedures to NATO. "The Greek government told me it is fully committed to settling the issue of Macedonia's name in a way that would meet the requirements of both countries and lead to progress in accession to the Euro-Atlantic Alliance on the part of Macedonia," indicated Matthew Nimetz.

On 25th February as part of the "Danube Strategy" the Prime Ministers, Foreign Ministers and European Affairs Ministers of 14 countries which lie on the banks of the river met in Budapest to define the projects they want to accomplish in the future for the development of the Danube basin. They adopted a declaration at the end of the conference. In June 2009 the European Council asked the Commission to set down a new strategy which is due to be adopted in March 2011 when Hungary will take over the rotating presidency of the EU.

The Irish trade surplus increased by 3% in December rising to 2.715 billion euros against 2.635 billion in November, since imports fell more than exports over one month said the Irish Central Statistics Office (CSO) on 24th February. According to seasonally adjusted data exports declined by 2% to 6.153 billion but imports decreased at the same time by 5% to 3.438 billion euros. Over the first 11 months in 2009 exports were down by 3% to 77.5 billion whilst imports collapsed by 23% to 41.1 billion said the CSO in its press release.

According to estimates issued by the National Statistics Institute (Istat) on 22nd February in January 2010 exports towards non-EU countries increased by 4.7% in comparison with January 2009 whilst imports decreased by 3.7% with a trade deficit of 3.195 million euros, slightly lower than that of the previous year. Excluding energy, the trade balance is positive however (482 million euros in comparison with -57 million euros in 2009). On a monthly basis exports decreased slightly (-0.3%) whilst imports grew by 5.4%. Exports especially grew towards Turkey (50.6%) and China (38.9%), whilst they decreased with Japan and Russia (-10%); the decrease in imports involved all trade partners except for Turkey (+30.8%) and India (+8%).

Having received the resignation of the government led by Jan-Peter Balkenende on 20th February Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands asked the resigning government to prepare for the dissolution of the lower chamber of the Dutch parliament and to organise early elections on 9th June next. Jan-Peter Balkenende's government resigned after the Labour Party announced it was withdrawing from the government coalition because of a disagreement over the Afghan issue. Labour Ministers were relieved of their office by the Queen and the posts were distributed to the two other parties in the coalition.

On 22nd February the Portuguese government decreed three days of national mourning in solidarity with the victims of the mud slides that ravaged the island of Madeira on 20th and 21st February. The government also announced that it had adopted a series of measures enabling the start of reconstruction as soon as possible; it also said that it has asked for aid from the EU's Solidarity Funds. During a press conference in Lisbon the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso said that the amount of aid given would be decided on according to the estimated damage.

British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband declared on 25th February to the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee that the situation in Afghanistan was still the government's N°1 priority. The main goal is to enable the Afghan authorities to take over their country's affairs. The Moshtarak operation undertaken with NATO and the Afghan forces to fight against rebels is one example of NATO's cooperation with the local authorities.

The Albanian opposition returned to Parliament on 25th February - it had been boycotting work for the last six months but it warned that it would walk out again if the majority did not accept its demands. It is notably demanding a parliamentary inquiry into the elections with a new count of the voting slips, a request the ruling Democratic Party has qualified as "illegitimate."

On 25th February the Armenian Parliament adopted amendments that may finally be used "as an exit" to the historical normalisation agreements signed in October with Turkey and which now seem to have reached stalemate. Adopted by a large majority these texts will give the Armenian President Serge Sarkissian the possiblity of suspending the ratification and to withdraw from the international agreements that have already been signed. "These amendments have obviously been made necessary by the present situation in the ratification procedure of the Armenian-Turkish protocols," explained the chair of the Parliamentary committee for Foreign Affairs, Armen Roustamian.

On March 1st Russia and Georgia re-opened their land border more than three years after it was closed - this is a sign of detente in their relations since the war in August 2008 said the Georgian Foreign Minister. An agreement in this sense was found between the two countries under Swiss mediation on 24th December.

The failure of Iceland's negotiations with the British and Dutch governments over the Icesave bank is increasing concern over the economic and political future of the island just one week before the referendum on the issue in which the "no" is running favourite. Surviving on the supply of international funds, ruined by the collapse of its banks that were once flourishing, Iceland is running the risk of increasing its isolation and of suffering another political crisis and also of creating an Anglo-Dutch obstacle to its accession to the EU. In a memo to investors on 26th February the financial ratings agency Moody's stresses that "the road to emerging from the crisis in Iceland is now more difficult". "The failure of the negotiations will probably lead to delays in the IMF's financial assistance programme, weaker economic recovery and possibly political instability," said Moody's which is planning to reduce its rating on Icelandic debt once again.

On 25th February Viktor Yanukovich was inaugurated as president of the Ukraine. In his speech he said he hoped that the Ukraine would be a "non-aligned European state" and he said he wanted "re-establish confidence in Ukraine and bring the country which as suffering 'a colossal debt, a collapsed economy and poverty' out of the crisis". His first visit abroad will be to Brussels on March 1st. He will then travel to Moscow on 5th March. Yulia Tymoshenko, leader of the outgoing coalition is still Prime Minister and continues to challenge the election of Mr Yanukovich, although she withdrew her complaints for fraud which she had lodged to obtain the invalidation of the presidential election. Mr Yanukovich now has to try and form a parliamentary coalition either with Ms Tymoshenko's party, the BYUT or with the former President's party, Our Ukraine-People's Self-Defence.

79 billion euros - this was the total amount granted in loans in 2009 by the European Investment Bank. Loans were granted as a priority to SMEs, struggling regions in the Union and to the energy sector in the fight against climate change. This figure represents a rise of 37% in comparison with 2008. In spite of a difficult context the EIB remains financially strong and succeeded in raising capital greater than the total of its loans on the market notably thanks to its excellent credit standing.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) which works in former countries of the USSR announced on 24th February that it wanted to increase its investments slightly in 2010 and to maintain these at their present levels until 2015 in spite of record losses in 2009. The bank said in a press release that it made a clear loss of 746 million euros last year, an increase of 24% in comparison with 2008, which is a new record for the international financial institution. This loss can be explained by provisions made for future potential losses, and depreciation associated with investments made by the banks some of which witnessed a drastic decline during the crisis. In spite of this the bank invested a record total of 7.9 billion euros in 2009 ie 55% more than in the previous year to help companies in its area of work (ie the States of the former USSR) to overcome the economic and financial crisis.

In December 2009 the industrial new orders index increased by 0.8% in the euro area and by 0.6% in the EU as a whole in comparison with the previous month according to data published by Eurostat on 24th February. The increase was 2.7% and 2.4% respectively in November.

According to a Eurobarometer survey on European citizens' dental health published on 25th February only 52% of the French consult their dentist at least once a year. The Dutch take greater care of their teeth (83% of them consulted their dentist over the last year), ahead of the Danish (78%), Luxembourgers (77%) and the Germans (77%). The bad boys are the Romanians (34%) and the Hungarians (35%). Only 31% of Europeans have false teeth. The British take the lead in this ranking with 38% of the population wearing false teeth ahead of the Poles, (37%), the Portuguese (37%) and the Belgians (37%). Finally the three reasons mentioned for not consulting the dentist over the last two years are negligible dental problems (33%), the fact that they did not have any teeth or had false teeth (16%) and the high cost of dental consultations and treatment (15%).

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) of Washington and the Hellenic Center for European Studies (EKEM) of Athens have published a survey entitled "Re-linking the Western Balkans: The Transportation Dimension" which analyses the challenges the Balkan countries are facing to build a modern,integrated environment friendly transport network. It makes recommendations short, mid and longterm and insists on the interaction between the modern transport network and economic development.

The Financial Economy Review has devoted its edition for the first quarter 2010 to the European currency under the title of "The Euro in 2019". Many key people have written articles in this edition: Jacques Delors, former European Commission President, Christian Noyer, Governor of the Bank of France, Jacques de Larosière, former governor of the Bank of France.

The Louvre Museum is devoting an exhibition to Russia from March 5th to 24th May. It aims to tell the history of this country from its origins to Peter the Great (ie from the 9th century to the 18th century). The initial eras, Byzantine, Mongol domination, Christian renaissance, the crowning of Ivan the Terrible, the first members of the Romanov family ...

108 medals of which 31 were gold is the total number of medals brought home by the 27 EU Member States from the Olympic Games in Vancouver. The EU would be classed first if the medals were counted from a European point of view.