Zita Gurmai (S&D HU) was the co-rapporteur of the legislative resolution on the European Citizens' Initiative. She will be present at the conference "Women & Europe and the Citizens' Initiative" that the Robert Schuman Foundation, in partnership with the European Commission's DG Education and Culture, the Karamanlis Institute for Democracy and the Polish Robert Schuman Foundation are organising on 21st September at the European Parliament. This conference will endeavour to show how the European Citizens' Initiative can be used to enhance equality and parity in Europe. Women take the floor! Enrol on-line now. The number of places is limited.

Economic issues, notably the recovery of growth, increasing the number of jobs, protecting the Welfare State; this is the focus of the Danish general election campaign. The election will take place on 15th September next. The present economic crisis has relegated immigration to the bottom of the list; this was the central theme of the previous elections in 2001, 2005 and 2007, years in which the Danish economy was flourishing. According to the polls the so-called "red" coalition that rallies the opposition parties (Social Democratic Party, People's Socialist Party (SF), the Social Liberal Party (RV) and the Unity List (E)), is due to win the general elections on 15th September. In a poll published in the daily Jyllands-Posten, Ramboell credits the "red" coalition with 53.8% of the vote (95 MPs in parliament) against 46% for the so-called "blue" coalition (80 seats) which rallies the Liberal Party, the Conservative Party and the Danish People's Party.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)has published its Interim Economic Outlook for the G7 countries and reviews its growth forecasts downwards for the end of the year. The OECD is now forecasting growth of 1.1% and then 0.4% over one year in the third and fourth quarters for the US and 0.9% and then 0.4% for France; as for Germany its growth in the third quarter will be +2.6% and then -1.4% in the fourth, whilst Italy may experience at least one quarter of GDP contraction like Germany. Japan is still rebuilding six months after the earthquake, the tsunami and the nuclear accident that affected it.

In a speech at the London School of Economics on 7th September the President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy recalled the seriousness of the present economic and financial crisis. He stressed the need for national governments to stand by one another in spite of the difficulties they faced. He also insisted on the need for States to be more responsible by limiting unnecessary debt.

On 7th September the European Commission presented a communication on "the security of energy supplies and international cooperation" that defines a strategy for the EU's external relations with regard to energy as requested by the European Council. One of the 43 proposals suggests that energy agreements with third countries might be negotiated by the Commission when it comes to achieving the Union's goals as in the case of the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline. The communication includes a proposal to extend the information exchange mechanism to all intergovernmental energy agreements that have been adopted or that are being negotiated between Member States and third countries. This will enable the Commission to participate as an observer in the negotiations and to ensure the latter are in line with internal energy market rules before they are signed. The President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek, who is promoting a European Energy Community, welcomed these proposals.

On 12th September Ministers adopted the "Eurovignette" directive that is applicable to HGV vehicles with the aim of reducing pollution emanating from freight transport companies' vehicles; it also aim to fluidify traffic and establish diversified tarifications; the taxation rate will be proportional to the vehicles' emissions, the distance travelled, the place and time of road use. The new European framework law is fostering the transfer over to modes of transport that are more respectful of the environment. The directive that will have to be transposed by Member States into their national legislation within the next two years, allows dispensation from the tax for certain categories of vehicles and proposes that the revenues from this be used by Member States for projects in the transport sector and notably for the improvement of the trans-European transport network.

Ten years after the attacks of 11th September Gilles de Kerchove, coordinator of the EU's campaign to counter terrorism reviewed the results of a decade work during a press conference on 5th September. He recalled that the origins of terrorism in Europe were diverse: political, religious, anarchist, and secessionist. Although al-Qaeda is clearly in decline its operations in Islamic Maghreb (AQMI) and in the Arab Peninsula (AQPA) are on the rise. Another threat is the enrolment into the jihad of European citizens who are not well known or unknown to the security services. However over the last few years the EU has established some effective tools: the arrest warrant, agencies (Europol, Eurojust, Frontex), the sharing of information. Gilles de Kerchove insisted on the importance of greater cooperation with all third countries, the USA and Pakistan.

On 8th September the EU's Court of Justice delivered a decision with regard to the residual presence of GMO's in foodstuffs. In another decision delivered on 8th September the Court also detailed the conditions of the emergency ban on GMO crops. It targets more particularly the moratorium implemented by France.

German Jürgen Stark, member of the ECB's Executive Board, resigned from office on 9th September, officially for personal reasons. His opposition to the purchase of bonds by the ECB from indebted countries in the Euro Area seems however to have been a key element in this decision. The German government indicated on 10th September that Jörg Asmussen would replace Jürgen Stark as chief economist at the ECB.

On 7th September the German Constitutional Court of Karlsruhe authorised the principle of aid promised by Berlin to counter the crisis in the euro area. But the constitutional judges demand that the government should involve parliament more. The guardians of the German constitution believe that the Chancellor did not infringe the German Fundamental Law by granting tens of billions of euros in loans to countries in distress in the euro area. But they demand however that the government should ask for the Bundestag's greenlight (Budgets Committee) before granting any further loans to states in financial difficulty.

The Spanish Senate adopted the text on the "golden rule" on budgetary stability on 7th September, 233 votes in favour 3 against. Spain is therefore the second country after Germany to introduce this rule into its constitution in the hope of becoming the model of rigour in the eyes of the markets that have been unnerved by the debt. The reform will be included in the fundamental law within the next 15 days. This ratification took place to the backdrop of demonstrations on the part of the public.

On 8th September the Senate approved the revised draft finance law for 2011 that includes new aid to Greece and the austerity plan. This draft law was adopted the previous evening by the National Assembly. The plan is split into two: a rescue plan for Greece and the enhancement of the euro area and then a plan to reduce deficits," said French Budget Minister and the government's spokesperson, Valérie Pécresse. France thereby became the first European country to approve the rescue plan for Greece which includes an initial aid package of 159 billion euros.

On 7th September Italian Senators adopted the government's austerity plan that will total 54.2 billion euros by 2013. The next day Silvio Berlusconi's government adopted a draft constitutional law during a council meeting that plans for the introduction of the "golden rule" into the Constitution; this aims to bring public deficits under control. This plan should be finally approved by MPs during the vote on 12th September.

The former President of Latvia Vaira Vike-Freiberga was given the Truman-Reagan Freedom Medal on 8th September, delivered by the Foundation for the Memory of the Victims of Communism. The other recipient is Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a member of the American Congress.

On 11th and 12th September British Prime Minister David Cameron travelled to Moscow. It was the first visit by a British leader to Russia since the assassination of the former Russian agent Aleksandr Litvinenko in 2006 in London which led bilateral relations into a period of disruption. Hoping to rekindle relations between the two countries, David Cameron notably said he supported Russia's membership of the WTO in a speech at the University of Moscow on 12th September.

On 8th September the Montenegrin Parliament adopted an electoral law which was one of the main conditions set by Brussels to establish the date to launch EU accession negotiations. This law was unanimously approved by the 71 MPs present out of a total of 81. Montenegro obtained the status of candidate country to the EU in December last year.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin inaugurated the gas pipeline Nord Stream on 6th September; this is a strategic project that will supply Western Europe by passing via the Baltic Sea. During his trip to activate the compression station in Portovaïa, near Vyborg on the shores of the Baltic Sea he was accompanied by former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who chairs the Nord Stream consortium. The gas pipeline make it possible to transport most of Russian gas without it having to transit through countries neighbouring Russia on its route for Europe, a major task for Moscow, which is again in conflict with Ukraine over gas prices.

On 7th September the President of the Helvetic Confederation Micheline Calmy-Rey decided to leave the Collège at the end of this year. She told the Federal Council that she was not going to stand in the election of the government on 14th December next.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister, Audrionus Azubalis, the current president of the OSCE, chaired a bilateral meeting on 8th and 9th September between Moldovan Prime Minister Vlad Filat and the head of the region of Transnistria Igor Smirnov in Bad Reichenhall, Germany. Mr Azubalis believes that the "meeting will lead to progress towards resuming official negotations in a 5+2 format". The head of the OSCE mission in Moldova, Philip Remler, believes that "differences have to be depoliticized and settled by focusing specifically on the population." The 5+2 format is a negotiation plan including the interested parties, the OSCE, Russia, Ukraine, the US and the EU.

According to the first Eurostat estimate published on 9th September in the second quarter of 2011 the EU's current account recorded a deficit (goods and services of 43.2 billion euros, a deficit in the goods trade of 37.4 billion euros and a surplus in the trade of services of 22.9 billion euros.

The Bertelsmann Foundation has published a paper by Thomas Fischer and Sarah Hoffmann entitled "European Economic Governance. And what about the Social Dimension? The authors analyse the mechanisms that have been set up recently to improve economic governance across Europe and note that not enough attention has been paid to the social dimension. Given the dangers of a social crisis they suggest a "social investment pact" to complete the Euro Plus Pact and a simpler approach in terms of the attribution of structural funds to countries in distress.

The 11th Biennale in Lyon was designed by Argentinian curator Victoria Noothroom, who took her inspiration from the poem by W.B. Yeats "A Terrible Beauty is Born". This artistic festival brings together 78 artists from around the world from 15th September to 31st December (John Cage, Ulla Von Brandenburg, Marlène Dumas, Cildo Meireles) who are exhibiting their work over 14,000m2 spread across four venues.