The second Think Tank Forum will be taking place on 19th November. Bringing together 23 think tanks the event hopes to contribute to the major political stakes just five months before the presidential election. Pascale Joannin, Director General of the Robert Schuman Foundation, will be speaking at a round table devoted to the vital need to rise beyond the national framework. It is obligatory to enrol due to a limited number of seats. The conference will be broadcast live on the Foundation's site.

Around 34 million Spaniards are being called to ballot on 20th November to renew the members of the two chambers of Parliament in an early election. According to the latest poll by the Sociological Investigations Centre, published on 6th November, the People's Party is due to win 46.6% of the vote easily ahead of the Socialist Workers' Party, which is due to win 29.9%. The United Left (IU) is due to win 6.17% of the vote; the Catalan electoral alliance - Catalonia Convergence and Union (CiU), is due to win 3.31%; Union, Progress and Democracy (UpyD), 2.91% of the vote; the Catalonia Republican Left (ERC), 1.23%; the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) 1.17%. The entire campaign is focused on Spain's poor economic situation. The two main political leaders, Mariano Rajoy (PP) and Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba (PSOE) debated on television on 7th November to an audience of 12 million. Just one week before the election matters seem to have already been settled. It now remains to see the extent of the victory achieved by the rightwing.

On 7th November the 17 Finance Ministers of the euro zone debated the various options open to them in view of increasing the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) and to bring it up to 1000 billion euros by the end of the year. The final decision on this financial instrument will be taken on 29th November. Jean-Claude Juncker, the Eurogroup's chair announced that ministers were demanding that the Greek authorities commit in writing to implement the structural reforms necessary to re-balancing public finance - since this commitment is a pre-requisite for the payment of the next part of the loan to Athens - ie a sum of 8 billion euros.

On 11th November the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, gave a speech at the European University Institute of Florence on the challenges facing Europe. He declared that Europe is "facing the hour of truth" which will oblige it to go through and overcome the present crisis. He also mentioned the fact that right now the EU is no longer an indifferent player but that it is the centre of attention and the heart of all concern. The President of the European Council listed five main challenges: sustainability of the Greek debt, a wall against contagion, the restoration of confidence in the banking secotr, budgetary balance in the Member States and a policy in favour of growth and employment.

On 9th November the European Commission revealed its action plan in support of European citizens' health and consumer protection. These two programmes will be provided with 446 and 197 million euros respectively, covering the period 2014-2020. A restricted number of projects will be selected and should provide great value added. The health for growth programme is due notably to focus on the fight against cancer and rare diseases. As part of the consumer protection programme the Commission intends to implement the "Sweeps" operation together with Member States' authorities so that existing legislation is respected better. The two programmes will be based on initiatives that have already been launched previously. The European Parliament and the Council now have to look at these proposals and adopt them before the end of 2013.

The consultation procedure for the EU's annual budget 2012 started on 8th November. For the time being the Council and European Parliament's positions are still quite different. The Council wants to limit the budget's increase to only 2.02% (less than inflation), whilst the Parliament and the European Commission are demanding an increase of 4.9%. Parliament's President Jerzy Buzek hopes that a compromise can be found. Alain Lamassoure, the chair of the parliamentary budget committee is warning that if the budget is too low it will not be able to cover all spending and this would lead to the need for correction at a later date as in 2011. On the other hand budgetary restrictions in times of crisis are reducing the room Member States have to manoeuvre. The European Parliament's rapporteurs will meet the Polish Presidency of the Council and the representatives of the Commission for discussions on 14th and 18th November and the consultation procedure is due to end on 21st November.

On the occasion of the inauguration of the new EU representation in Libya, the High Representative, Catherine Ashton, met with some Libyan women. She gave a speech at the Forum on Women's Rights in Tripoli on 12th November. In this speech Catherine Ashton promised to help Libyan women, saying that she would pay attention to their concerns and that she was aware of the importance of their participation in the construction of a new democracy. She mentioned several priorities, such as the re-establishment of security, education, the rule of law, the holding of democratic elections, which require involvement and the support of women. Catherine Ashton encouraged them to continue their work and "not to stay at home".

The European Court of Auditors published its annual report on 10th November on spending in 2010. It notes the overall reliability of the EU's accounts; however some payments are still affected "by a significant level of errors". The Court believes that the error rate and non-conformity to the rules totals 3.7% of EU spending (out of a toal of 122,2 billion euros).

Nord Stream, the new gas pipeline linking Russia directly to Europe via the Baltic Sea, was inaugurated on 8th November in Germany. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, French and Dutch Prime Ministers, Mssrs Fillon and Rutte, as well as the European Commissioner for Energy, Günther Oettinger, symbolically opened to taps on the first pipe, during a ceremony in Lubmin, in north-east Germany. The gas pipeline that is 1200 km long, which by the end of 2012 will also comprise a second pipe, will provide enough gas for 26 million households. Behind the infrastructure which cost 7.4 billion euros there is a consortium dominated by the state-owned Russian gasgiant, Gazprom, with the Germans BASF and EON, the Dutch Gasunie and the French company GDP Suez.

The Central Bank of Austria (OeNB) signed an agreement with the People's Bank of China on 10th November in Beijing; the governors of the two central banks, Ewald Nowotny and Xiaochuan Zhoudevenant, were the signatories. "This is the first agreement signed by the People's Bank of China with a non-Asian bank," stresses the OeNB which has become the first non-Asian bank to undertake investments in renminbi, the Chinese currency. The yuan renminbi (people's money) was initially introduced in 1949 by the new communist regime as the country's national currency.

After the resignation of Georges Papandreou, former Vice President of the European Central Bank, Lukas Papademos, was appointed Prime Minister on 11th November. His consensus government comprises the Socialist Party (PASOK), the main rightwing opposition party (New Democracy) and the far right "Laos". The key post of finance Minister will be retained by Evangelos Venizelos (PASOK). The former European Commissioner for the Environment, Stavros Dimas (New Democracy), is the new Foreign Minister. The only woman minister in the new cabinet is Anne Diamantopolou (PASOK), responsible for Education and Culture. The new Prime Minister Mr Papademos will deliver a general policy on 14th November. This will be followed by a parliamentary debate which will lead to a vote of confidence planned for 16th November.

The new Irish President, Labour Michael D Higgins, called for the rebuilding of his country's economy and committed to "encouraging investment and creating jobs" as he was sworn in on 11th November in Dublin. "I am the ninth president and assume this post with a feeling of humility and confidence in the ability of our people (...) not only to overcome the present difficulties but also to make the most of the fantastic possibilities that will come to us in the future," declared Mr Higgins, a 70 year old sociologist and poet, elected on 27th October. "I am aware of the challenges (...) that we face in order to close a chapter on our fragile economy but which has also damaged our society with unacceptable levels of unemployment, precarious loans and the collapse of the real estate market," he added in his speech that focused on the economy, whilst his country has to implement a painful rescue plan to a total of 85 billion euros.

On 12th November the President of the Italian Council Silvio Berlusconi handed in his resignation to the Italian President Giorgio Napolitano. The former European Commissioner, Mario Monti, was asked on 13th November to form a new government and said he was convinced that Italy "could overcome" the debt crisis "thanks to a collective effort" and that it would become "a force" in the European Union once more. According to the Italian Constitution, Mario Monti now has to form a government and win the confidence of the two chambers of parliament within the next ten days before officially taking office. For the time being Silvio Berlusconi is still responsible for taking care of current affairs.

On 8th November Donald Tusk, Polish Prime Minister since 2007 and winner of the general elections on 9th October last, was appointed head of the government of Poland. He now has to form a new cabinet. The re-election of the Tusk coalition has created a precedent in Poland's democratic history. To date no government had succeeded in acceding to a second consecutive term in office.

When the assessment mission in Romania came to an end on 7th November a team from the IMF and the European Commission adjusted the country's economic forecast. In spite of extremely prudent economic policies, the world's difficult economic situaiton will only allow for weak growth in 2011 and 2012. In 2011 the GDP increase will be 1.5%. According to domestic demand and the efficient use of the funds paid out by the EU - around 20 billion euros until 2013 - Romanian economic growth will reach between 1.75% to 2.25% in 2012, ie half of the rate forecast previously. Moreover Romania committed to continuing its work to reduce the budgetary deficit down from 4.4% of the GDP in 2011 to 1.9% of the GDP in 2012. IMF and Commission experts are encouraging the Romanian leaders to adopt the necessary reforms with regard to state companies to guarantee the positive effects of these on the Romanian economy.

A ministerial conference with the countries of the Western Balkans on the settlement of the refugee situation took place in Belgrade on 7th November. In a joint declaration, the Foreign Ministers of four countries (Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro) believe it vital to settle refugee issues to guarantee the stability of the region. A multi-annual regional work programme that aims to improve the refugee situation was annexed to this declaration. The European Commissioner for Enlargement and the Neighbourhood Policy, Stefan Füle, who attended the conference, announced that the EU intended to guarantee at least half of the funds necessary (580 million euros) for the implementation of the regional programme.

A major obstacle to Russia's accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has been removed. On 9th NOvember Russia and Georgia signed a compromise agreement at the WTO HQ in Geneva. The latter focuses notably on border controls between Georgia and the separatist territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, whose independence has been acknowledged by Russia. Following the signature of this compromise Georgia will no longer prevent Russia's accession to the WTO. The latter is due to be decided during a ministerial conference mid-December. A first step was taken on 10th November. The Working Group on Russia's Accession approved the texts defining membership conditions for Russia on the same day.

On 9th November the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe debated the expulsions of Roma by France in the summer of 2010. The committee based its discussion on a report by the European Social Rights Committee. The authors of the report concluded that the collective expulsion of Romanian and Bulgarian citizens is an infringement of the European Social Charter. France has been invited by the Committee of Ministers to review the measures taken in order to respond to these infringements of international law.

On 9th November Eurostat published the 2011 edition of the agricultural and fishery statistics which reviews agricultural production in the EU, notably that of cereals, milk, meat and fish. Hence half of the EU's cereal production comes from three countries: France (23%), Germany (16%), and Poland (10%). The main milk producers are the UK (22%), Germany (17%) and France (12%). With regard to cheese, Germany (23%)is ahead of Farnce (21%). Meat is primarily produced in Germany (25%), Spain (15%), France (9%), Poland and in Denmark (8%). Fish mainly comes from Spain (16%) and Denmark (13%) ahead of France and the UK (12% each).

The Finnish Institute for International Affairs has published a study on the European Parliament entitled "The Empowered European Parliament: accommodation to the new functions provided by the Lisbon Treaty." The author analyses the enhancement of the European Parliament's powers since the Lisbon Treaty entered into force. This is both marked by greater legislative powers and a more central role in the European decision making process.

The Army Museum in Paris is reviewing the construction of Italian Unity until 15th January on the occasion of its 150th anniversary, recalling the links between the two countries from 1848 to 1870 and the role that the emperor Napoleon III played in this major stage of European history. The exhibition is showing nearly 260 Italian and French works and objects.