Michel Foucher, geographer and diplomat, member of the Foundation's scientific board took part in the 3rd visio-conference on 27th May entitled "Dialogues d'avenir". You can watch this conference "La scène frontalière contemporaine."

The Portuguese are being called to ballot on 5th June to renew the 230 members of the Assembly of the Republic, the only chamber in Parliament. The polls say that the two main parties are running neck and neck a week before the election. According to a poll by the Catholic University for the daily Diario de Noticias, the TV channel RTP and radio Atenna 1, the Social Democratic Party and the Socialist Party are running neck and neck just one week before the elections on 5th June. Each of these two parties is due to win 36% of the vote. However a poll by Eurosondagem for the weekly Expresso and the TV channel SIC Noticias places the social democrats ahead with 33.1% and 32.6% for the socialists. Finally a third poll by Intercampus for the newspaper Publico and TV channel accredits the PSD with 39.6% and the PS with 33.2%.

On the occasion of a seminar on "the freedom of the press and the regulation of the media in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe" organised on 30th and 31st May 2011 by the Organisation de la Francophonie (OIF) together with the Council of Europe and the Robert Schuman Foundation, the Foundation has published a study on the developments in the freedom of the press in these countries since the end of the Soviet era. Author, Horia-Victor Lefter, offers an real overview of the situation analysing progress and regression in comparison with western standards.

On 23rd May the ratings agency Fitch downgraded Belgium from stable to negative. It explained this by the political crisis which it says is an obstacle to reducing the country's public debt. Moreover the Belgian National Bank published an economic barometer on 24th may indicating a decline in business confidence for the second successive month in all areas of activity. This decline is however more acute in the manufacturing industry.

On 24th May the Commission adopted a global strategy that aims to reorganise the legal framework applicable to intellectual property rights. The aim is to enable inventors, creators, users and consumers to adapt to new opportunities offered notably by the digitial era and to open new trade opportunities. The new rules will establish a balance between promoting creation and innovation on the one hand, notably by guaranteeing fair remuneration and by encouraging investment by creators, and on the other promoting as wide an access as possible to goods and services that are protected by IPR's.

On 25th May MEPs of the Parliamentary Committee "Women's Rights and Gender Equality" adopted a report by Rodi Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou (EPP, EL) calling on the Committee to put forward "legislation including quotas by 2012 to increase women's representation in company boardrooms, to reach 30% in 2015 and 40% by 2020." The report recalls that women only represent 10% of executives in the biggest companies on the EU stock exchange and only 3% of CEO's of these companies are women. MEPs approved a second report by Marina Yannakoudakis (ECR, UK) in support of the promotion of entrepreneurship amongst women, since only one woman in ten is an entrepreneur in the EU. Do these figures mean something to you? Say what you think and answer the survey by the Robert Schuman Foundation on female/male parity in Europe.

On 23rd and 24th May in Brussels the 27 Foreign Ministers spoke of the situation in the Middle-East. They condemned the repression in Syria and decided to suspend all bilateral cooperation; they extended sanctions adopted on 9th May to 10 other Syrian leaders including President Bashar al-Assad. They decided to impose additional sanctions on Belarus, Iran, Syria and Libya which were published in the Official Journal on 24th May. The 27 Defence Ministers adopted conclusions in support of the pooling and sharing of military capabilities. Finally the 27 Development Ministers adopted a report for the European Council on development aid goals and allocated 200 million euros to development cooperation with South-Sudan.

On 26th and 27th May High Representative Catherine Ashton travelled to Serbia and Kosovo. On this occasion she reminded these countries of their European future and that dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina was vital on this account. She met the Serb and Kosovar negotiators for talks. In Belgrade she met President Boris Tadic whom she congratulated on the arrest of Ratko Mladic. She also signed two agreements between the EU and Serbia with Interior Minister Ivica Dacic including an agreement for the exchange of confidential information. In Pristina she met Prime Minister Hasim Thaci with whom she discussed the liberalisation of visas, the role of EULEX and the Union's support to Kosovo. However she recalled that only the Member States could decided to acknowledge a state or not.

On 24th May the European Court of Justice condemned seven Member States (Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Austria, Germany, Greece and Portugal) for discrimination based on natonality in terms of accessing the profession of notary. In its press release the Court states that "notarial activities, as defined at present by the Member States in question, are not inlcuded in the exercise of public authority in the sense of article 45 of the EC treaty. As a result the condition of nationality demanded by the regulations of these States to become a notary constitutes discrimination based on nationality which is prohibited by the EC treaty."

On 30th May Germany decided to close its last reactors in 2022. This decision was announced after a meeting between the coalition's main leaders. German Environment Minister, Norbert Röttgen indicated that the agreement means that the seven oldest plants as well as the Krümmel plant will not be reactivated.

On 20th May the council of the Spanish ministries officially declared its decision to release 1,324 million € for the university year 2011-2012 in order to offer more school grants and education aid. This sum, the biggest ever awarded in Spain's education history, is due to benefit 1.7 million students ie a rise of 3% in comparison with last year.

The Finnish Parliament approved the final aid plan to Portugal on 25th May. Finnish participation in this aid plan totalling 78 billion € granted to Portugal by the EU and the IMF was finally approved by a wide majority. Of the 200 MPs in the chamber 137 voted in favour 49 against. Finland was the only country in the euro area whose Parliament had to approve the rescue plan.

On 26th May before the start of the G8 Summit in Deauville the President of the French Republic Nicolas Sarkozy and his Russian counterpart Dimitri Medvedev announced that they had reached a final trade agreement on the provision of four French Mistral type warships to Russia. Discussions had been on-going since the signature of an initial political agreement for their construction in January 2011. The contract is due to be signed soon; "within the next 15 days", declared Mr Sarkozy.

Latvian President Valdis Zatlers announced on 28th May on state TV that he was requesting the dissolution of Parliament, a measure that will be the focus of a national referendum in line with the Latvian Constitution. "We have to put an end once and for all to action taken against our people and our country. This is why I wanted to tell you directly that I have signed the presidential decree requesting the dissolution of Parliament and I have submitted this to the Constitutional court. The Decree takes immediate effect," he declared.

The citizens of Malta voted by referendum in favour of legislation for divorce announced Maltese Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi. The head of government who campaigned fiercely against the introduction of divorce into legislation acknowledged the defeat of the "no" vote in the referendum on 28th May. "It is not the result I wanted but the will of the people has to be respected," he said. Malta was the last country in Europe where divorce was banned.

The Dutch government did not win the absolute majority in the Senate, whose 75 members were elected on 23rd May by 566 provincial MPs. The Liberal Party (VVD) of Prime Minister Mark Rutte, the Christian Democrats (CDA) and the Freedom Party (PVV) which made its entry into the Senate with 10 seats, only have 37 of the 75 senators' seats.

On 27th and 28th May the 17th meeting of the Presidents of the States of Central Europe took place. On the invitation of Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski, the leaders of the 20 countries in Central Europe met to discuss democracy and freedom. The way that Europe and the USA can help build truly democratic societies in Eastern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East was also the focus of debate. American President Barack Obaman on an official two-day visit to Poland also attended the summit.

On 24th and 25th Czech President Vaclav Klaus travelled to Brussels on an official visit during which he met Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme. He spoke with the regional governments as well as with union representatives and the Federal Parliament. His visit ended with an interview with King Albert II and a speech at the University of Anvers.

On an official visit to Europe from 23rd to 28th May the President of the USA Barack Obama first travelled to Ireland, where he paid tribute to the Irish nation. In London, after making a State visit to Queen Elizabeth II, he gave a speech to British parliament recalling the two countries' common history. During his meeting with British Prime Minister David Cameron they announced closer work together in six specific areas (security, sciences, higher education, volunteer work and international development, cyberspace). Finally the American president visited Warsaw, Poland where he took part in a summit with all of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

Serb President Boris Tadic announced the arrest of former military chief of the Serbs of Bosnia, Ratko Mladic on 26th May - he is accused of genocide for his role in the Bosnian war (1992-1995) by the ICTY. He is due to be transferred to the Hague to appear before the ICTY. The EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton explained that the most natural answer would be to think of the future of Serbia in the EU. The President of the Commission, José Manuel Barroso congratulated Boris Tadic for his courageous work recalling the Union's firm support for Serbia's accession to the EU. The President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy said he hoped that this announcement heralded the start of regional reconciliation. "It is an historic day for international justice," declared UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen stressed that "NATO had been the guarantor of security in the Balkans for nearly two decades and this day was a major step towards achieving a commpletely, free, peaceful Europe."

On 25th May in an article in the Human Rights Comment, the Commissioner for Human Rights at the Council of Europe, Thomas Hammarberg denounced the growing persecution undertaken against the defenders of human rights in Belarus. As the country does not belong to the Council of Europe he recalled that Belarus citizens did not enjoy the advantages of the programmes and mechanisms set up by the Council in support of Human Rights, democracy and the rule of law. This is why Thomas Hammarberg asked "for the Belarus population not to be forgotten as well as for constructive support for the civil society of our European neighbour."

The French Economy, Finance and Industry Minister Christine Lagarde and the President of the Mexican Central Bank Agustin Carstens have said they are running for the post of Director General of the International Monetary Fund on 25th and 23rd May respectively. Bids for candidature are open until 10th June and the Director General will be appointed at the end of June.

G-20 governments have established more impediments to trade such as export restrictions, over the last six months than in any previous periods since the start of the financial crisis says a supervisory report published on 24th May by the WTO, the OECD and the UN Conference on Trade and Development. In spite of optimistic forecasts for 2011 the world trade outlook is dark because of a significant number of risk factors, in addition to the natural disaster that happened in Japan. Sovereign debt issues, food price rises, as well as social upheaval in the main oil exporting countries are the source of uncertainty for the near future.

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the OECD the Ministerial Forum and Meeting brought together world leaders, political representatives and other actors from the OECD countries and emerging countries on 24th to 26th May. The President of the European Commission Mr Barroso and the President of the European Council, Mr van Rompuy spoke in celebration of this anniversary. On 24th May the organisation presented an initiative that aims to measure the well-being of citizens in rich countries in view of improving their lives. To understand the living conditions of people in OECD countries the organisation launched an index called "Better Life" together with an internet site. The OECD index enables citizens in its Member States to compare their well-being against 11 criteria including housing, income, work and even education.

According to figures published by Eurostat on 24th May in the euro area the industrial new orders index declined by 1.8% in March 2011 in comparison with February 2011. In February the index rose by 0.5%. In the EU new orders declined by 1.9% in March 2011 after a rise of 1% in February. Excluding ships as well as railway and aerospace equipment, whose rates tend to be more volatile, industrial new orders declined by 1.1% in the euro area and by 1.2% in the EU.

The Finnish Institute of International Affairs published a study on 25th May entitled "Guardians of Subsidiarity: National Parliaments strive to control EU-Decision-Making." Author Kaisa Korhonen studies the European powers of national Parliaments which vary from one state to another and whose main task it is to check that the European Parliament is respecting the subsidiarity principle. She suggests political cooperation between national parliaments should be enhanced in order to improve the effectiveness of collective supervision of European legislative power.

The 57th Issue of the quarterly review "Géoéconomie" has just been published by Choiseul. It is devoted to the defence industries. Because of the emergence of new competitors and a drastic decrease in budgets the main actors in the sector have been obliged to re-think their strategy to face world competition.

The main works of German composer Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759) will be presented during the Händel festival that will take place from 2nd to 12th June in Halle (Germany), his native town.