The Robert Schuman Foundation together with the European Commission, the Konstantinos Karamanlis Institute for Democracy and the Polish Robert Schuman Foundation, is organising a conference on 21st September 2011 at the European Parliament - it is entitled "Women for Europe and the Citizens' Initiative". It aims to associate the citizens' initiative with parity. Enrol now. There is a limited number of places.

Just as the extraordinary summit of the 17 Heads of State and government of the euro area to overcome the debt crisis is to take place on 21st July to finalise the second aid plan for Greece, the Robert Schuman Foundation is offering its readers a special page to gain a better understanding of the stakes of the economic and financial crisis. In an open letter published on 13th July the Chair of the Robert Schuman Foundation, Jean-Dominique Giuliani, says he believes that "Europe is dancing on the edge of the abyss" because of its undecisiveness. In his opinion "the show given by the Europeans in the face of the Greek crisis is real disaster."

On 11th July the IMF Executive Board published its conclusions on Germany. The German economy grew by 3.5% in 2010 and the IMF is forecasting 3% growth in 2011.

On 12th July the Luxembourg statistics institute, Statec, published an economic paper in which it announced the latest growth forecasts for Luxembourg in 2011, which are due to rise to 4%. However, according to the paper, progress in growth is due to slow slightly in 2012 to around 3.8%.

The National Statistics Office of Malta published the public accounts results of the first quarter of 2011 on 13th July which revealed a deficit of 43 million euros.

On 13th July the French Parliament adopted, at third reading, the draft constitutional law relative to the balance of public finance. This draft law will only enter force if French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, convenes both chambers of Parliament to Congress or if there is a 3/5 majority.

Swedish growth is due to continue, rising to a level close to 4% this year and the next said the IMF on 13th July which did however warn of "significant risks" in terms of a real estate crisis. After record growth of 5.5% last year the the GDP is due to increase by 4.4% this year and by 3.8% in 2012 thereby wiping out most of the recession effects of 2009 (-5.3%) according to IMF forecasts.

On 13th July the European Commission published the latest quarterly report on the euro area. Analysing the stability programmes of the 17 euro-area member states provided as part of the European Semester, the Commission advises on additional measures to achieve the goals to balance public budgets in 2012 and to make the debt sustainable in the fae of an ageing population. It also criticises the weak fiscal governance of some Member States. Focusing on the three euro area states that are receiving European aid (Greece, Ireland, Portugal), the Commission believes that the Irish programme is moving forwards well, the Portuguese programme is in its beginnings and it states that the Greek programme should be enhanced, in spite of the progress achieved so far. Finally the Commission stresses that there is a risk of slow growth at the end of 2011 due to the fact that there will be a rise in oil prices in the wake of the Arab revolutions.

On 12th July the British national statistics office (ONS) noted a 0.1% decline in consumer prices in June, a first since 2003. "The factors that contributed most to this are the 0.9% declines in leisure and culture prices as well as on clothing (-1.9%)" said the ONS. On 13th July the instititon noted that there were 1.52 million unemployed in the UK in June 2011 ie 24,500 more than in May, totalling an unprecedented level since March 2010. However when measured according to the ILO's standards, the unemployment rate had decreased by 0.1% to lie at 7.7%.

Italian President of the Council Silvio Berlusconi, and Economy and Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti, announced that they were determined to step up the austerity plan. The Italian Senate adopted an austerity plan of nearly 48 billion euros on 14th July, the main themes of which were taxation, administration, healthcare, retirement pensions, the standard of living of MPs and privatisations. On 15th July the Chamber of Deputies gave the greenlight on the austerity plan 316 votes in support, 284 against and 2 abstentions. The Bank of Italy warned on 15th July against the continued rise of statutory taxes in Italy if the debt crisis lasted because costs would be "significant" for the country's public finances and would affect the real economy. Finally according to the IMF, Italy experienced a weak recovery in 2010 with a 1.3% growth rate. In 2011 the IMF is forecasting even more modest growth of 1%, with a public debt that would remain high.

On 14th July a mission for Ireland from the IMF, the European Central Bank and the European Commission said that the recovery programme was on the right track and was "well financed". Progress in terms of "reform designed to restore the health of the banking sector" is helping the government to keep its promises, but experts from the mission did say that "continuation of a policy like this will be important in order to limit any possible effects of contagion," in the euro area.

On 13th July the IMF published a "Debt Viability Analysis" of Greece. It has delayed the time when Greece is due to be able to borrow on the long term debt markets again, to the second half of 2014. In view of the "deepest recession that has been longer than expected," the IMF hopes for additional support from the EU to a total of 71 billion euros, as well as that of private Greek creditors to a total of around 33 billion euros by June 2014. On 11th July the Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou sent a letter to Luxembourg Prime Minister and Eurogroup President, Jean-Claude Juncker, in which he recalled the financial market's doubts over Greece and the euro area's ability to overcome their problems. He insisted on the importance of European solidarity as well as on the need for a visionary, strong leadership. He finally said that there some innovative measures were going to be set in place such as the eurobonds, the extension on maturities etc ..;

On 11th July, as the Bank of Portugal published its forecasts, it said it was counting on a 2% recession of the GDP in 2011 and 1.8% in 2012, then on 14th July the Portuguese Finance Minister Vitor Gaspar announced that the Portuguese economy was due to contract by 2.3% this year and then by 1.7% in 2012. These forecasts are notably due to the austerity programme that the country has started to implement in exchange for international financial aid.

On 15th July the European Banking Authority (EBA) published a report on the results of tests undertaken on European banks. According to the report eight European banks (five Spanish, two Greeks and one Austrian) failed the resistance tests set on 91 banks that targeted their strength in the event of an economic shock. The EBA indicated in a press release that these banks needed a total of 2.5 billion euros to increase their strength.

Austria "has overcome the crisis well" thanks to its healthy exports and should take advantage of the situation to launch structural reform, stresses the OECD in a report published on 11th July. "The Austrian economy continues to show impressive economic results, whilst maintaining a high degree of social cohesion," lauds the OECD.

The Belgian government has reviewed its public deficit forecasts downwards for this year to 3.3% of the GNP, against 3.6% forecast to date, said Prime Minister Yves Leterme in a press conference on 12th July.

Spanish MPs approved the budget for 2012 on 12th July - it plans for a 3.8% reduction in spending in comparison with 2011 with the government hoping to continue its austerity policy to reduce its public deficit. The plan won 170 votes in favour, 145 against and 18 abstentions.

On 14th July, the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, met the President of the National Libyan Transition Council, Mahmoud Jibril. They discussed the development of the crisis in Libya, the role and the mission of the National Transition Council and the political solutions to implement. According to Herman van Rompuy, the EU's main goal is to protect the civilian population. The EU also played a major role in the implementation of the Security Council's resolution 1973. Moreover he recalled the opening of a European office in Benghazi the aim of which it will be to support civilian society.

On 13th July the European Commission adopted a communication concerning the main options planned for the creation of a financial monitoring system against terrorism specific to the EU. The communication responds to a request made by the European Parliament and the EU Council. The system to monitor the funding of terrorism aims to limit the amount of personal data transferred to the USA and to help work deployed to cut terrorists' access to funding.

On 13th July the European Commission suggested new reforms on the EU's Common Fisheries Policy. These proposals would enable the protection of haleutic resources as well as fishermen's incomes. This is a decentralised approach to the management of fisheries based on science per region and per maritime area. Hence haleutic stocks should reach sustainable levels by 2015, in line with international commitments taken by the EU. Moreover financial support will only be granted to initiatives that are respectful of the environment.

On 14th July the European Commission published a report on the EU's customs interventions that aimed to enforce intellectual property rights. According to the annual report the number of shipments intercepted by customs had nearly doubled in comparison with 2009. Indeed it rose from 43,500 in 2009 to nearly 80,000 in 2010. Statistics concering the type, origin and means of transport of products that infringed intellectual property rights were also published in the report. The latter states moreover the value of the merchandise intercepted. According to the report, China is still the main source of products that infringe intellectual property rights. Indeed 85% of the merchandise in question comes from this country.

On 14th July the European Commission published a Green Paper on the promotion and information programmes on EU agricultural products. It tries to define a more targeted, ambitious strategy for the future enabling consumers to have more information on the quality, traditions and value-added of European agricultural and food products. The Green Paper is divided into four parts which are relative to the European value-added of the information and promotion policy, of the goals and the measures involving the EU's internal market, the goals and measures linked to the world markets and wider issues on the content and management of this policy. The Commission is inviting all interested parties to make comments on this until 30th September. The Foundation has published a double European Issue on the Common Agricultural Policy.

On 12th July the European Commission denounced the under-representation of women in management posts in the EU's major companies and said that it was ready to pass a law in 2012 to facilitate their promotion to these posts. "It is unacceptable that in modern Europe women are under-represented in management posts - this has to change," said Viviane Reding, the Commissioner responsible for Justice. On this issue the Foundation offers you an opportunity to take the floor on a site devoted to the promotion of women in society.

The funding of agriculture has to be maintained at the 2013 level in real terms said MPs at the Agriculture Committee during a debate organised on 11th July with the European Commissioner for Agriculture Dacian Ciolos on the EU's multi-annual financial framework for 2014-2020.

On 12th July the "Industry, Research and Energy" committee at the European Parliament adopted unanimously the compromise negotiated with the Member States on the draft regulation for the integrity and transparency of the energy market (REMIT). This regulation aims to put an end to abusive practices on the wholesale energy market notably by banning the use of privileged information and by enhancing the role and independence of the European Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER). MEPs enhanced the measures that aim to protect end-users and said they wanted to enhance the European dimension, notably with an obligatory European register for all players and asking the European Commission to study the possibility of presenting proposals to harmonise minimum sanctions set by the Member States in the event of an infringement of the regulation. The report will be on the agenda of the plenary sesssion in September.

On 13th July the "Civil Liberties, Justice and Internal Affairs" Committee of the European Parliament approved a modification negotiated with the Member States on the mandate of Frontex, the European agency for the management of external border cooperation. MEPs succeeded in achieving the creation of European border guard teams who might, long term, participate in a European border control system. To improve the agency's effectiveness the latter will be able to rent or buy its own equipment and focus on the countries in the Union that face "specific or disproportionate" migratory pressure. MEPs also said they wanted to enhance the protection of fundamental rights and re-iterated the "non-refoulement" principle in all situations. Moreover democratic control will be enhanced. This report will be on the agenda of the first plenary session in September.

On 13th July MEPs of the "Civil liberties, justice and internal affairs" committee approved 29 votes in favour, 24 against - a report by Sophie in't Veld (ALDE, NL) on the anti-terrorist policy. MEPs are requesting an assessment of the measures taken in Europe since 11th September 2001. They are notably asking the European Commission for a detailed report on all of the European funds used for counter terrorism and a study of the costs and benefits of these measures to the private sector. They are asking the Commission for draft legislation on the protection of data used for anti-terrorist ends. MEPs are calling on the Union and its member states to establish their role in the extraordinary surrender programme undertaken by the CIA and to help the USA close the detention centre in Guantanamo. They are advising on policies to counter racism and discrimination to prevent the radicalisation of terrorist potential.

On 12th July, in a decision concerning the L'Oréal/eBay affair the European Court of Justice responded to the request of the UK's High Court and gave details on the liability of internet companies using the market place with regard to trade mark infringements committted by users. In this affair L'Oréal accused eBay of being involved in trade mark infringements committed by users on its site and for not having countered the sale of counterfeit products adequately.

According to provisional figures published by the federal statistics office (Destatis), on 12th July the number of inhabitants in Germay totalled 81,75 million at the end of 2010 ie 51,000 people less than at the end of 2009 (-0.1%).

On 13th July the shareholders of Deutsche Börse provided more than 80% of their shares for the merger with the NYSE Euronext. The rate is over the required threshold of 75% of the capital. At present the merger still has to be approved by the competition authorities to become effective.

On 12th July French President Nicolas Sarkozy travelled to Afghanistan to support the French troops deployed in Surobi. On 13th July France suffered the heavy loss of five French solidiers in Afghanistan in the Kapisa Valley and one soldier was lost in the Alasay Valley on 14th July. After a Security Council meeting Nicolas Sarkozy decided to step up the security of soldiers in Afghanistan without accelerating their withdrawal time, planned to have been completed by 2014.

On 15th July Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk travelled to Prague to meet his Czech counterpart, Petr Necas, as well as the Czech President Vaclav Klaus. Since Poland is undertaking the Presidency of the Council of the European Union at present and the Czech Republic that of the Visegrad Group, various representatives of the governments spoke with each other on the side-lines of these meetings, notably focusing on areas such as Foreign Affairs; defence; the economy of regional infrastructures. Apart from the European agenda to counter the financial crisis, the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), energy security, the Polish and Czech leaders stressed the importance of their bilateral cooperation.

According to a Eurostat study on 14th July, the annual inflation rate in the euro area remained unchanged from May to June 2011 at 2.7%. A year ago it lay at 1.5%. Annual inflation in the EU lay at 3.1% in June 2011 against 3.2% in May. One year ago it lay at 1.9%. Hence in June 2011 the weakest annual rates were recorded in Sweden (1.5%), Slovenia (1.6%) and in the Czech Republic (1.9%). The highest annual rates were seen in Romania (8.0%), Estonia (4.9%) and in Lithuania (4.8%).

According to a Eurostat report on 14th July there were 32.5 million foreign citizens living in the EU in 2010. Amongst them 12.3 million were from another EU Member State. 20.2 million citizens came from third countries. Hence foreign citizens comprised 6.5% of the total EU population. Most foreign citizens werre to be found in Germany totalling 7.1 million people, ie 9% of the total population.

According to a Eurostat study on 15th July the euro areas external trade with the rest of the world in May 2011 was balanced in comparison with a deficit of 4.9 billion euros in May 2010. The balance recorded in April 2011 lay at -4.8 billion and at -0.8 billion in April 2010. In May 2011 in comparison with April, exports, adjusted to seasonal variations, increased by 1.5%, and imports by 0.2%.

The department for International Relations at the Collège d'Europe has published an analysis by Dieter Mahncke entitled "Post-Modern Diplomacy: Can EU Foreign Policy Make a Difference in World Politics?". The author calls on the Union to focus on results rather than on political processes, and to learn the lesssons of criticism of the High Representative and to define its foreign policy goals more precisely.

The SIEPS (Swedish institute for European policy studies), has published a report by Gergely Romsics entitled "An Interim Review of the 2011 Hungarian Presidency". The author looks into the real issues and challenges, both economic and political, that the Hungarian Presidency of the EU Council had to face, notably the economic and financial crisis, as well as the uprisings in the Arab world.

On 12th July the Center for European Policy Studies (CEPS) published a study by Daniel Gros entitled "A tale of two defaults" in which the author compares the present developments in Greece with that of Argentina in the years prior to its bankruptcy in 2001-2 and after its decision to peg its exchange rate to the US dollar.

The Bruegel Institute has published a study by André Sapir and Georg Zachmann entitled "Eastern European lessons for the Southern Mediterranean". The authors believe that the economies of the southern Mediterranean are similar to those of South Eastern Europe and the former Soviet republics before their economic transition in the 1990's. They plead in favour of similar support on the part of the EU to encourage the transition with a Euro-Mediterranean Economic Zone.

The exhibition "The Naumburg Master - sculptor and architect in the Europe of Cathedrals" which will take place until 2nd November is being organised by the town of Naumburg (Germany) and the Foundation for the Chapters of Cathedrals of Merseburg and Naumburg and the Collegiate Chapter of Zeitz. It brings together some 500 pieces of work that were created from the 13th century on in France and Germany. This exhibition is under the patronage of the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The National Gallery of London is holding an exhibition entitled "Devotion by Design: Italian Altarpieces before 1500" until 2nd October. It explores the development of Italian altarpieces from the Middle Ages to the start of the Renaissance, looking at changes in their shape and style.

From 22nd July to 21st August the 31st edition of the Roque d'Anthéron Festival is taking place in the park of the Florans castle. A major musical venue, this festival brings together young talent, as well as major international names and enables a mixture of all styles: classical, jazz, electronic ...

The Impressionist museum of Giverny together with the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, is hosting the works of Monet, Pissarro, Sisley, Morisot, Manet until 30th October along with over 20 paintings by Renoir. Moreover the exhibition presents the works of pre-Impressionist artists such as Corot and Millet.