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According to autumn forecasts by the German government published on 21st October Germany's growth is due to reach 3.4% this year then 1.8% in 2011. Unemployment is due to continue to decrease and fall below the symbolic 3 million mark. During the presentation of these forecasts German Economy Minister Rainer Brüder said that economic recovery depended on two mainstays: domestic demand and foreign trade. On 21st October the Finance Minister announced in his monthly report that there was a public deficit of 4% of the GDP this year against a previous estimate of 4.5% that dated back to the summer. Next year Berlin is planning to return to below the 3% mark, the upper limit set by the European Stability and Growth Pact.

During his regional tour of the Balkans the President of the European Council Herman van Rompuy was in Skopje (FYRM) on 20th October where he met Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, whose country hopes to open membership negotiations shortly with the European Union. He then travelled to Sarajevo where he said he wanted "a united Bosnia that was able to speak with one voice". He invited the countries' leaders to speed up reform to draw closer to the Union. In Montenegro Herman van Rompuy highlighted the close relations between this country and the EU. In Tirana the President of the European Council encouraged Albania to continue its work to reform and stressed the positive role played this country in the region adding that the Commission was soon going to present an opinion with regard to Albania's membership application to join the European Union.

On 20th October the European Commission presented real measures to improve the efficacy and effectiveness of the surveillance of European seas. In a roadmap the Commission reveals how to link competent Member States with each other in the various maritime sectors in view of exchanging data relative to maritime surveillance: coast-guards, authorities responsible for monitoring traffic, the environment, for preventing pollution, for watching over fisheries, the borders, the tax authorities, serivces responsible for the general application of the law and the naval forces.

On 20th October MEPs approved the 2011 budget. They called for greater investment in research, innovation, education, energy and support for Palestine, but for the upkeep of an overall restricted spending plan. MEPs also asked for negotiations on new funding sources for the EU and commitment to fund new work and priorities that resulted from the Lisbon Treatyadequately.

The 27 European Finance Ministers came to a unanimous agreement on 19th October with regard to the European draft directive on managing the activities of executives running hedge and other alternative funds. France and the UK - which seriously disagreed over this text for the last few months - each made a step in order to come to a compromise. Paris accepted the creation of a "European passport" system that will enable executives based outside of Europe to market their funds across all of Europe thanks to a single national supervisor. In exchange London agreed to guarantee enhanced powers to the ESMA, the future European financial markets authority which the Union is to launch by the end of 2011. Now MEPs have to be convinced.

"The application of the 'private copying levy' on reproduction media acquired by companies and professionals for purposes other than private copying is not compatible with European Union law" said the judges in Luxembourg on 21st October according to a press release. Some taxes on CD's, DVD's and on other electronic media that are supposed to compensate for the loss of copyright associated with "private copies" should not be applied when the purchase is made by a company for professional reasons said the European Court on 21st October. The European Court of Justice which was addressed by the Spanish court gave its decision on "levies on private copy" which were added in the 1960's to traditional copyrights to compensate for a loss of money due to "in-house recordings" at the time when audio cassettes were in use. They now affect a variety of media: CDs, DVD's, memory sticks, external hard drives, memory cards, MP3 players, photocopiers, multi-media mobile phones.

As part of his five day trip to Turkey German President Christian Wulff gave a speech to the Turkish Parliament in Ankara on 19th October. In his speech he said "A Turkey that is established in the West and which undertakes an active, stabilising neighbourhood policy in the East is like a bridge between the East and the West and an advantage for Europe." He also said, "Turkey can show that Islam and democracy, Islam and the rule of law and pluralism do not necessarily contradict one another. Your country allies a modern idea of the State with living Islam." In his opinion Germany has a particular interest in Turkey's attachment to the EU."

Ilse Aigner and Niki Berlakovich, the German and Austrian Agriculture Ministers confirmed on 19th October in Vienna their joint position on the future orientation of the EU's Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) as laid out by the Commission. They spoke in support of a "limited" re-balancing of European aid for countries in Eastern Europe. They also highlighted their attachment to two CAP mainstays (production aid and rural development).

The king of the Belgians Albert II appointed a new mediator on 21st October - Johan Vande Lanotte who will try to bring the country out of the political crisis in which it has been plunged for the past few months because of French and Dutch speakers' inability to form a government. The Flemish Senator will have to try and prepare the way for further negotiations. He was "asked to undertake a conciliation mission" between the seven parties involved in these discussions since the 13th June elections said a Palace press release. The text added that "the mission's main objective will be to find confidence again" based on the work already undertaken by these parties.

Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Zapatero announced the reshuffle of his government on 20th October. Six ministers have been replaced including the government's vice-President Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Véga, whose position will be taken by Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, who adds this new responsibility to his present portfolio of Home Minister; Foreign Minister and Cooperation Miguel Angel Moratinos, is replaced by Trinidad Jiminez who until now was Healthcare Minister. The other ministerial posts involved are the Environment, Presidency and Social Affairs portfolios. At the same time this reshuffle puts an end to male-female parity since there are now only 7 women left amongst the 16 government members.

During a press conference on 21st October in Berlin with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip the former indicated that both heads of government had discussed bilateral relations and joint work within the EU and NATO. With regard to the European Council she said "With regard to changes to the treaty we convene that what was agreed upon between France and Germany (in Deauville) must also be agreed on by the European Council. This means that we need a clear mandate for the implementation of changes to the treaty by the spring so that these can be ratified by the Member States by 2013." Mr Ansip said that Estonia would support the proposals put forward by Germany.

The Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb received Štefan Füle, European Enlargement Commissioner on 18th October. Mr Stubb congratulated the Commissioner on his work for the Union's enlargement policy believing that this was "the key to the EU's success". He pinpointed three pillars in this policy: the Western Balkans, on which the Commission would like to decide on 9th November, Turkey and finally Iceland which he qualified as "easier".

In a final declaration on 19th October French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and German Chancellor Angela Merkel confirmed their commitment to enhancing the EU/Russia Strategic Partnership. They expressed their support to on-going negotiations with regard to the new EU/Russia agreement, the implementation of the "Partnership for Modernisation" initiative as well as cooperation in areas such as security and foreign policy. They said they really hoped there would be progress in defining the outline of a regime for visa-less travel at the EU/Russia Summit in December.

On 22nd October in Greece around 15 countries that lie on the Mediterranean including Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Greece and Turkey overcame their differences to sign a joint declaration to counter climate change which threatens us all. Global warming is a particular threat to this region of the world and its way of life.

The 2010 Statistical Yearbook of Ireland was published on 20th October by the Irish Statistics Office. It presents an excact picture of the country's situation via tables, graphs and data covering a wide range of subjects: demography, education, healthcare, economy, services, housing, transport, tourism and environment.

Belarus President Aleksander Lukashenko was host to his Lithuanian counterpart Dalia Grybauskaite on 20th October in Minsk. The two heads of State intimated that there would be closer trade relations between their two countries notably in the area of energy supplies. Ms Grybauskaite said that Lithuania was prepared to support a rapprochement between Belarus and Europe during the Lithuanian presidency of the OSCE in 2011. She also pleaded in support of a free presidential election on 19th December next.

The Czech Social Democratic opposition (CSSD) became the majority in the Upper Chamber after a second round of Senatorial elections on 22nd and 23rd October. The CSSD won 12 of the 27 seats available and now holds 41 within the Upper Chamber that comprises 81 seats. The ODS led by Prime Minister Petr Necas only obtained 8 seats and TOP09 won 2 during an election that intended to renew one third of the seats in the Senate.

The British Prime Minister David Cameron announced on 19th October that the UK was going to delay modernising its nuclear defence system, reduce the number of soldiers that it could deploy in combat missions and abolish 17,000 posts in the army as part of a vast defence reform. Priority will be given to countering terrorism, cyberattacks, intervention in the event of natural catastrophes and the prevention of dangers associated with epidemics. The Prime Minister also announced the postponement until 2016 - after the elections planned in 2015 - of a £20 billion programme (22.8 billion euros) to replace four British nuclear submarines.

3000 representatives from 70 States involved in "Francophonie" - the French speaking communities - met on 22nd to 24th October in Montreux for the 13th Francophonie Summit on the theme of "Challenges and visions of the future for "Francophonie". Three main themes - Francophonie and its place in world governance, sustainable development, the French language and education - were the focus of in-depth debates. French speaking heads of State and government pleaded for more space to be granted to Africa in international bodies, notably witin the UN Security Council. The Secretary General of "Francophonie", Abdiou Diouf, was re-elected for a new mandate. The 14th summit will take place in Kinshasa in 2012.

The Council of Europe celebrated the 60th anniversary of the European Convention of Human Rights on 19th October together with Ban Ki-Moon, the UN Secretary General. Opened for signature on 4th November 1950 in Rome the European Convention of Human Rights protects the rights of 800 million people in the 47 Member States of the Council of Europe.

According to Eurostat's second estimate on current external trade published on 20th October the EU's current account with third countries recorded a deficit of 37.1 billion euros in the second quarter of 2010 in comparison with a deficit of 42.1 billion in the second quarter of 2009 and a deficit of 31.8 billion in the first quarter of 2010. In addition the EU's foreign direct investments rose to 50.1 billion euros in the second quarter of 2010 in comparison with 75 billion in the second quarter of 2009. A disinvestment of 12 billion euros was witnessed with regard to foreign direct investments in the EU in the second quarter of 2010 in comparison with an investment of 81.4 billion euros in the second quarter of 2009.

The Research Committee for Franco-German Relations, (CERFA) has published a paper entitled "Germany and the Parliamentary Control of the Intelligence Services", written by Thorsten Wetzling, a visiting researcher at the Rand Corporation (USA).

The publication "France and Germany in the face of European Crises" has just been released by Bordeaux University Press. Written under the management of Claire Demesmay and Andreas Marchetti as part of the Franco-German research project undertaken by the Research Committee for Franco-German Relations (Cerfa) and the Zentrum für Europaïsche Integrationsforschung 'ZEI', it analyses the positions of France and Germany with regard to European integration and their response to overcome the European crises.

In an exhibition, entitled "Rubens, Poussin and the Painters of the 17th century" that brings together around 60 pictures from major European private and State exhibitions, the Jacquemart-André Museum in Paris reveals the links between Flemish baroque painting of which Pierre-Paul Rubens (1577-1640) was the lead artist and classical French painting led by Nicolas Poussin( 1594-1665). This exhibition is on show until 24th January.